How To Take The Best Short Videos For Social Media

Making Videos That Resonate And Are Poised To Go Viral
The best computer-generated imagery in the world isn’t compelling if it isn’t of anything interesting. If you have a CGI eyeball so perfect it’s impossible to tell whether or not the footage is real, that’s only interesting for a few seconds. Two hours of that eyeball is boring—who would watch it? The point is, even “A-list” production is useless with poor subject matter.

For your videos to resonate on social media, they don’t have to be of the best possible quality; they just have to be relevant to the audience watching. Remember the progenitor to “fail” videos, “America’s Funniest Home Videos”? The actual content didn’t have much production value, but it was candid, and hilarious.

With social media, funny videos go viral all the time, but so also do those which have a provocative quality to them; especially as regards physical beauty. Young ladies have been making a living with such videos for a few years now. The “Instagram Model” represents a true class of income generation.

If you are popular enough in videos, companies pay you to endorse their products in those videos. Essentially, they’re capitalizing on your following. But to make a following, you must produce content which properly resonates with target demographics. This can be complex, and making the best videos helps. Here are some tips to optimize such videos.

  1. Make The Videos About Content Users Want To See
    This was alluded to in the introduction: you’ve got to have videos about content that is sharable, and could potentially go viral. This means you have to cover subjects that may be relevant, or may be titillating. You want something that’s funny, something that’s salacious, something that’s frightening, something that’s astonishing; in a phrase, something of value.

If you know who you’re catering to, that can be a big help. Teenagers tend to love rudeness and non-sequiturs. Guys in their forties are going to drool over videos of construction best practices and hardware specs conforming to their preferences. Meanwhile, humor and sensuality have a universal element, but may restrict you from certain audiences.

  1. Use The Right Social Media Outlets For The Right Content
    Something else you’ll want to do is align the content you produce to the right sort of social media. Longer videos may do better on YouTube, Facebook, Vimeo, Rumble, or some outlet like that. Shorter videos may do better on TikTok or Instagram—though there is room for “long-form” videos on Instagram; they just don’t tend to be the norm.

Normally, you’re looking at a video length of about a minute. Three minutes tends to be an average “upper limit” on modern attention spans to aligned content. Five minutes is also a decent length if your content is engaging enough. For much longer than that, you’ll need to carefully cultivate a following who wants to see such content, and it’s still smart to divvy it up.

  1. Employ Known Best Practices For Selfie Shots, Video Or Still
    Something else that makes sense is learning from the most successful social media influencers out there. Certain poses and subject matter are more likely to approach “organic” virality. If you’re trying to make your selfies more visible and sharable, check out these selfie poses for girls. You’ll find similar best practices for a variety of content.
  2. Lighting And Sound: Control Them As You’re Able
    Bad lighting will “spike” good content, so will bad sound. As you can control either, do so. Shoot videos in locations that aren’t overrun with background noise that will be louder than the sound of material you intend to share. Try to be well lit. Ideally, lighting should come from above you and to your left and right.

Lighting that is head-on can be very helpful, but it can also make it hard for you to see. This is one reason circular lights are used for varying social media videos. What you want to avoid is lighting yourself from beneath; that makes you look like something out of a horror movie.

  1. With Some Content, Forget Sound, Put Music Over FootageWith some content, all you really need to do is put music to your video. Granted, you’ll want to be careful about monetization concerns on YouTube regarding copyright infringement, but that isn’t as much an issue on TikTok or Instagram—here are Instagram’s guidelines.

If you don’t need there to be sound, use music to cover unattractive noises. Try to match the music to the video in terms of aesthetic.

Developing A Strong Social Media Game
Music being used to accompany footage, proper lighting, using best practices for poses, calibrating content for the right sort of social media outlet, and assuring whatever videos you make include content that people want to see represent key tactics in maximizing visibility of social media videos.

Short videos on social media are a form of communication that is increasingly prevalent today, and has, for all intents and purposes, gone mainstream. It’s a strong tool that you can use to your advantage. Accordingly, you might as well make the most of it.

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Filed Under: Commentary Tagged With: media, short, social, videos

How to use Instagram hashtags correctly for effective social media marketing?

Instagram is the next big thing in 2020. The platform is a hot favourite among millennials and Gen Z kids. A recent report by Sprout Social reveals how 64% of Instagram’s user base is between 18-29yrs.

Business holdings are continually trying to capitalize on the traffic generated by Instagram. And hashtags can make or break your social media game.

Adding a hashtag or two to your pictures increases user interaction tenfold. The trick is to use them correctly. Brands which have successfully mastered the art of optimizing hashtags enjoy better visibility and customer engagement.

In fact, social media marketing is so relevant to modern times that most B-schools have also included it as part of their curriculum. Marketing students often get case studies and projects on Instagram marketing strategies.

Business graduates, swamped with deadlines, often each out to professional marketing assignment help services. Let’s find out some more tips and secrets about Instagram hashtags and how it boosts customer engagement.

Need for hashtags

Although Twitter birthed hashtags, it was Instagram that put them on the map. And since then, marketers are losing their sleep over this refreshingly new strategy. But before we get into all that, let me clear a few essential pointers.

What exactly are hashtags? And what purpose do they serve?

Well, hashtags comprise of a word or a phrase accompanied by a hash (#) sign. There are no spaces between the words, although you can capitalize some letters in-between.

These hashtags categorize your content and make it easier for viewers to identify your posts. Hashtags also create better brand engagement, SEO ranking and overall awareness about your product or service.

Hashtags now appear in multiple platforms. You can use them on blog posts, social media updates, Instagram captions, tweets etc. For instance, if you are a movie blogger, then adding cinema-relevant hashtags can give your website a big boost.

Instagram marketing tactics

Before we delve deeper into the multiple facets and perks of hashtags, let us first understand the relevance of Instagram. A basic SWOT analysis of the platform would highlight its key strengths and weaknesses.

For instance, Instagram has a user-friendly interface. It is intuitive, eye-catching and has an extensive database. However, brands need to be at the top of their game if they want people to find them.

As per a recent report by Forbes, Instagram has some great revenue-generation tools. About 80% of the accounts follow at least one business page. It contributes to a brand’s web presence, increases SEO ranking and helps people connect with influencers.

Relevancy and placement

Hashtags are useful only when they are used correctly. You cannot merely add random words with hashtags and expect to trend overnight. There are specific words, terms and phrases that are already trending on social media.

Also, these words and key phrases must be relevant to your line of business. For instance, if your brand belongs to the organic fashion sector, then hashtags like #OOTD, #natural, #organic etc. works well.

Conduct thorough market research. Know about your customers and their changing preferences. Also, keep an eye out on your peers. Analyze the kind of hashtags they’re putting up and the responses it generates.

Specificity and uniqueness

Hashtags double the scope of user engagement, putting you at the top of the game. But this is not an instantaneous process. New brands and business holdings need to find their voice, their niche, their USP in order to create unique content about your brand on social media. In order to grow your brand, it is important that you diversify your content across all social media platforms. Creating user generated content is also a very natural and yeilding method to create unique content for your brand.

Hashtags can be excellent marketing tools, and they set you apart from others. Develop hashtags that are catchy, chic and easy to remember.

A catchphrase, your brand name, an ad-line- anything can be a hashtag. Note that hashtags are not full-fledged sentences.

I would recommend readers to keep their hashtags small, compact and to the point. This is because hashtags don’t have spaces in-between. Long words and phrases become incomprehensible and difficult to decode.

Capitalize on existing hashtags

There are multiple hashtags on Instagram that already enjoy a large following. If your marketing team cannot come up with new hashtags, capitalize on the existing ones.

For this, you need insights on what your customers are searching for these days. These hashtags can crop up on a variety of topics.

Read up on current political, social, economic events, celebrity weddings, new releases, updates in the tech industry etc. And if you find a trending hashtag, try to incorporate it in your post as organically as possible.

Remember, there must always be a direct or visible connection between your post and the hashtag used. It makes it easier for Instagram to gauge your content and categorize it.

Research on the right set of hashtags

Hashtags add value to your brand, provided your content is readable and relevant enough. There is no point in adding great hashtags to your posts if they are of no expected value.

 Users tend to gravitate towards posts that enhance their experience and cater to their interests. The quality of your posts and the hashtags you use are interdependent to each other.

Merely having good content gets you nowhere unless you back it up with creative, trending hashtags. It also helps to learn how you can fund your instagram campaign while you are busy promoting it.

Similarly, a right hashtag is of no use unless added on to a great post. A smart combination of both these elements is what you need for a better SEO rank.

Don’t overdo it 

This is something I cannot stress upon enough. Too much of a good thing can turn bad for your business. And when it comes to social media marketing, balance is the key.

Don’t stuff your posts with multiple hashtags. It would only confuse the algorithm and irritate your viewers.

Instead, place a few unique, relevant, authentic and trending hashtags strategically for maximum impact. Learning from Hubspot blogs is a great way to learn more about social media marketing and this guide on instagram hashtags is why they are so highly spoken of in the marketing community. There are multiple platforms where you can find trending hashtags online. Check the SEO score of these tags before adding them to your content. On average I’d recommend you use 2-4 hashtags per post, not more.

The future of hashtag marketing

Hashtags are a crucial addition to any social media post. What’s more, you can add hashtags to pretty much every social media network.

Recently, even Facebook and LinkedIn are accepting hashtags with their captions. Facebook, in particular has some creative marketing  gimmicks up its sleeve that completely changes the face of hashtag marketing

As a growing brand, it is essential to keep up with these trends. Evaluate and collaborate with influencers, learn more about your market and use tools to check the visibility of the hashtags you use.

Instagram recently launched a new feature where users can follow trending hashtags and view all the posts tagged under it. It is an excellent initiative for business accounts to boost their reach and engage more customers.

Although, ensure that your content meets the community guidelines laid down by the platform. Failing to do so might get your post deleted or worse reported for abuse.

The bottom line

Everyone wants to project a filtered, picture-perfect version of their life on social media. Social media networks are a medium of self-expression and advertisement.

These platforms give us the space to share our experiences with the world. It can be something as trivial as posting a selfie or a serious post discussing the political issues of your nation.

And with more and more people joining the social media bandwagon, it has become a thriving marketplace for brands.

Author’s Bio 

Author Bio: As a technology enthusiast, Bella contributes to open-source projects. She is the co-founder at Top My Grades and delivers online marketing sessions at online tutoring platforms like Expert Assignment Help & Assignment Essay Help helping students with writing essays and assignments. Beyond work, you can find her gardening in her backyard accompanied by her dogs – Birch & Bailey.

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Filed Under: Commentary Tagged With: correctly, effective, hashtags, instagram, marketing, media, ...

Social casino entertainment – a pleasure or profitability?

For the past few years, the number of casino fans has considerably increased. The diversity of the casino software and a large number of platforms cater for all the tastes of the game «addicts». It seems that handling some online casino websites can bring a good income and profitability. Moreover, it does not require any special technical skills to run a casino business online.

Nowadays, the casino players do not longer need to go to Las Vegas to feel the thrill of tempting the fate. They can do that in one click only. Modern poker client software offers different options, the client’s task is to try some of them out and decide which one is the most convenient. So to say, the client software is various enough to gamble even without turning on your PC. Apart from Desktop and Web Client, there are a lot of mobile applications that yield to no one in the respect of effective functional.

Sometimes we come across the applications developed specially for the mobile operating systems. Meanwhile, the notion of social poker is gaining more and more popularity and recognition as well.

Social casino vs real money expenses

The advantages of the social casinos are obvious. First of all, these games are being played more for pleasure than for money. Because of that, they are not considered to be the gambling games. No material wealth can be won by a client, accordingly, there are much fewer law restrictions and the owners of such client software became the gainers. As long as the casino lover is interested in getting past the levels, they get a huge profit out of such a business. Secondly, you do not need to install any software on your device that takes up a lot of space. And thirdly, last but not least, people can enjoy the games without betting real money. It seems to be a good opportunity for those who want to master casino art and do not want to squander money.

Do not put this out of your head

It is generally known that a lot of people consider casino – even an innocent money-free game – to be a dirty business. But if you have decided to take the chances and try – keep in mind that you’d better follow some basic instructions in order to succeed. First of all, a SEO- and SMM-specialist is a must here. As well as choosing the right contractor of a casino software for your website. And do not forget about the license, we are sure you do not want to spend your first incomes on paying a fine! Good luck!

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Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: casino, entertainment, pleasure, profitability, social

The Increasing Role Of Social Media In The World Of Online Casinos

Whether the business is big or small, social media networks can play a huge role in helping them develop. This is thanks to them being excellent for attracting new customers, keeping existing customers entertained and informed, marketing new products and services and providing the vital link between a business and its customer base. With billions of people regularly using platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat, it’s no surprise businesses such as online casino brands are taking advantage of what social media has to offer.

For a start, engaging with customers these days is huge, especially on platforms such as Facebook. People who visit online casino sites they want to feel appreciated and not only that but they want the services on offer to be kept updated with fresh content. Through social media, it’s remarkably easy to inform customers and potential customers of the latest games, services and promotions on offer. Social media also allows reactions to be gauged accurately too through the use of likes and comments; which is invaluable to any successful service. It’s the ideal link between customers, both new and existing, and the business.

So apart from social media being great for marketing purposes it’s also a great way to actually get to know the customers too. When an online casino operator knows what a large part of their fan base wants from a slot game for example, they can set about ensuring that it accurately reflects their tastes as much as possible. It reduces a lot of risk involved when bringing fresh content to the table. Knowing what somebody likes beforehand is a great advantage and social media can help make this possible.

Keeping customers happy and interested is vital in the success of any business, be it online or offline. Online casinos, Unibet being a perfect example, are renowned for having promotions on for both new and existing customers and what better way to get the message out there than through the use of Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? It won’t just be members who take note either as special offers such as a triple deposit bonus will spread like wildfire on social media from person to person remarkably quickly.

Social media also allows for promotions, special offers and information to be presented to people in much more engaging ways through images and videos. Online casinos often utilize these methods well in order to communicate directly to people and as they will also attract more feedback than a generic Facebook post for example, they’re great tools to ascertain what customers like and dislike.

The role of social media has never been more important, especially for highly competitive businesses, as per seen in the online casino industry. It’s vital that customers are kept happy and are regularly engaged in the right ways and the likes of Facebook and Twitter make this a whole lot easier. With social media also being a hub for accurate feedback on the latest services and products, it’s a crucial tool when it comes to delivering the fresh content that people want and need.

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Filed Under: Commentary Tagged With: casinos, increasing, media, online, role, social, ...

Social Distortion’s Jonny Wickersham talks about debut solo release “Salvation Town”

“Salvation Town” is the debut solo release from Social Distortion guitarist Jonny “Two Bags” Wickersham. Produced by David Kalish the album is an interesting departure from Wickersham’s previous body of work as the album is packed full of acoustical performances. Media Mikes had the chance to talk with Jonny recently about the album and what it was like working with Jackson Browne.

Adam Lawton:Can you give us a little background on your new solo album?
Jonny Wickersham: I started recording the album awhile back and it’s probably been 3 years now since we first started working on it. At the time when I started Social Distortion was very busy promoting and touring behind the “Hard Times and Nursery Rhythms” album. I didn’t initially have a lot of time to work on things. When I went in to record the first track it ended up being more than just working on the song but it was a chance for me to work with one of my idols, Pete Thomas who was Elvis Costello’s guy on drums. Once we finally got started things moved along pretty well and the whole experience was just great. I was really inspired by all the people who were willing to work with me on this album.

AL: What do you think was the main reason you waited until now to release a solo album?
JW: My good friend David Kalish who produced the album was always on me about doing a solo record. I kept putting it off because I didn’t think it was something I could do. I had always written songs however I never had any other vehicle to do them other than with the bands that I was in. I would write material and whether it was Mike Ness or the Cadillac Tramps or Duane Peters they would take what they liked from what I had brought in and then add their own parts especially, when it came to lyrics. I had never really learned to sell one of my songs or perform it. There’s a big difference between being in the recording studio and singing a song and being up in front of a crowd and playing. Then those two things are completely different from me sitting in my living room with an acoustic guitar performing for my cat. (Laughs)

AL: Can you tell us about some of the guest performers that appear on the record?
JW: The guest performers were something I didn’t put a lot of thought in to beforehand. Things just sort of happened off the cuff. I was certainly a fan of everyone involved and really worked out on a song to song basis. We did this record differently than what I am used to. I am used to working up songs as a band, demoing them and then going down to the studio to record the tracks. The bass and drums lay down a foundation and then everything else is built on top of that. There is a process to the whole thing. With “Salvation Town” it was much different. We laid down some acoustic guitar to a click track and then usually just Dave and I would go back and add a simple drum beat and bass line. From there we would try and think ahead of what the song could be. We would just have these ideas of about who might be able to add something really cool to the tracks. We ended up getting David Hidalgo from Los Lobos and his two sons David Jr. and Vincent, Gaby Moreno who was just so great and of course Jackson Browne. The song Jackson appears on is one that I have had for quite some time. It started out as straight ahead punk sounding song but with this being a different record I wanted to give it a different style. As we were working on it I said to David that I thought it could be Jackson Browne song. I never thought Jackson would be a possibility but David called me the day after mentioning and said that Jackson was down for it. I couldn’t believe it when a few weeks later Jackson came in to do his parts. Everything happened very organically. Having Jackson Browne and David Lindley on my album is just gnarly! (Laughs)

AL: Was there any point during the three years of working on the album that you got discouraged?
JW: There were so many discouraging times that I can’t even count. I am a stickler and very detail oriented. I am also one of those guys that have to exhaust every possibility so I was driving David crazy with this thing however; I think we balanced each other out perfectly in the studio. I wanted to make a good record that shows where I am at in my life while reflecting my influences. I didn’t want things to be over produced but at the same time I didn’t want it to sound like a demo. There were times where I wasn’t sure what was going to happen. That’s when I would get sketchy. It was all new to me. Fortunately over the years I have learned that you have to let things take their course.

AL: Do you have any plans to tour behind the release?
JW: Yes! As much as possible. We just recently played at South by South West. With the exception of the aweful tragedy that happened outside of the venue where we were playing the show was really great. It was trip being out there front and center. Every night I am always worried about how I am going to sound. (Laughs)

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Filed Under: Interviews, Music Interviews Tagged With: debut, distortions, jonny, release, salvation, social, ...
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