Twitter Video Marketing: 7 Best Tips For 2021

Twitter is the 2nd-most popular social network in the United Kingdom, reaching 60% of the UK’s internet audience. And in a survey of Twitter users, 33% of respondents said that they primarily used Twitter to follow brands/companies.

With such a large audience to tap into, how can your business use video marketing to make the most of Twitter?

In this post, you’ll learn WHAT makes video marketing on Twitter different, WHY you should do video marketing on Twitter, and receive 7 actionable tips for video content on Twitter in 2021.

WHY DO VIDEO MARKETING ON TWITTER?

• 40% of Twitter users reported purchasing something after seeing it on Twitter.
• There are over 2 billion video views on Twitter each day.
• 82% of Twitter users watch video content on the platform.
• Tweets with video attract 10x more engagements than Tweets without video.

HOW TWITTER DIFFERS FROM OTHER PLATFORMS:

Twitter favours a more in-the-moment approach to social media. This means timely, shareable bitesize content tends to do best.

People on Twitter also talk about and interact more with brands. Research shows Twitter users are 38% more likely to post opinions about brands and products than other social media users.

Another fact to consider is that the majority of people use Twitter from a mobile device. This needs to be kept in mind for video content. After all, 90% of Twitter video views happen on mobile. Keeping all this in mind, here are 7 actionable tips for video marketing on Twitter.

TIPS FOR TWITTER VIDEO MARKETING:

1. NATIVE VIDEO CONTENT

Native video content refers to video content that you upload directly to Twitter, rather than uploading and hosting it elsewhere (e.g. on YouTube).

Should you use native video instead of linked video content? Well, native videos have the benefit of autoplay in people’s Twitter feeds — meaning users are more likely to stop and watch your video.

Plus, according to an analysis of internal data, native video drives more overall engagement than third-party video links shared on Twitter.

But when posting video natively on Twitter, you have to adhere to the following specs:

• Length: maximum of 2 minutes 20 seconds
• Resolution: minimum of 32 by 32 pixels, maximum of 1900 x 1200 pixels
• Aspect ratio: 1:2.39 to 2.39:1
• Frame rate: maximum of 40fps (frames per second)
• Bitrate: maximum of 25 Mbps

2. LINKED VIDEO CONTENT

On the other hand, linked video content saves you going to the trouble of uploading a video to Twitter that fits its specs.

Also consider the benefits of hosting your video on another platform; third-party video platforms like YouTube and Vimeo do offer more video analytics and statistics than Twitter.

Furthermore, for popular video platforms like YouTube and Vimeo, Twitter does allow users to preview and play the video within their Twitter feed. However, linked videos will not autoplay in people’s Twitter feeds. For that reason, they don’t always get the same levels of engagement as native videos.

Ultimately, whether you post natively or link to third-party video content depends on your own needs.

Learn more about posting video content on YouTube here.

3. WHAT TO FEATURE IN YOUR VIDEO

3.1 Product/service

Consider making your product the focus of the video. On Twitter, when a video starts on a product, there’s a 24% increase in positive interest and a 34% increase in click intent.

3.2 Branding

Showing your branding in the video is also important. Twitter suggests displaying a logo or branding element as early as possible. Also, displaying your brand for more than half of the video can result in a 25% increase in aided brand recall and a 21% increase in message recall.

3.3 Human interaction

Your video should also use the power of human connection. Twitter states that videos that show a positive human interaction or human desire for a product record a 40% increase in the overall response.

3.4 Captions/Subtitles

Given how much users consume Twitter content from mobile devices while on the go, it’s important to make your videos watchable with the sound off. When videos use captions, they drive a 28% longer view time.

4. LENGTH

As we mentioned, Twitter allows you to upload 2 minutes and 20 seconds of video. But if you can, try to make your video content shorter than this. In fact, Twitter suggests keeping videos to 6–15 seconds.

So how can you share longer video content with your Twitter audience? Our approach is to create short clips/teasers of our longer videos, which we post on Twitter along with a link and CTA to watch the full-length video.

5. TWEET COPY

As you probably already know, tweets have a 280 character limit (adding photos or video doesn’t affect this). Furthermore, any link you include adds 23 characters to your character count (regardless of how long the actual link is).

But there’s no need for you to make use of the entire character limit. Your video should be able to do the talking for you. So the tweet copy’s only purpose is to call attention to the video or provide a CTA.

And, of course, save space for hashtags, which we’ll get on to next.

6. TWITTER HASHTAGS

To get your video seen by the right people on Twitter, include hashtags in the copy when posting it.

But don’t go overboard. General advice is to keep to 1–2 hashtags per tweet. Several hashtags in one tweet can come across as spammy or desperate marketing.

Wondering which hashtags to use? Research what hashtags are already being used by your audience and by influencers around your brand, industry or product. Avoid overly complicated or niche hashtags, like #SmallBusinessAppsandTools.

You can also use hashtags related to the day of the week you’re posting — for instance: #MotivationMonday, #TransformationTuesday, #WednesdayWisdom, #ThrowbackThursday, #FridayFeeling, #Caturday, and #SundayFunday.

7. TWITTER IN-FEED VIDEO METRICS

As with other social media platforms like Facebook, alongside general post analytics, Twitter provides special insight into the performance of your video content.

To access this, go to analytics.twitter.com, then find the ‘More’ tab and select ‘Videos’.

On this screen, you can see the following metrics:

• Total number of video views.
• Total minutes viewed.
• Average minutes viewed per day.
• Viewer retention.
• Total engagements.
• Video completion rate

Want to download this data? You can export your data (by video or by day) in spreadsheet format by clicking the ‘Export data’ button in the top right-hand corner.

Stay tuned for more social media marketing tips. Remember to subscribe to our newsletter ✉️ to get our best content delivered straight to your inbox!

Enjoyed this article? 📚 Read our other social media guides:

Facebook Video Marketing: 13 Best Tips For 2021 [7 min read]

9 Tips To Improve Your Instagram For Business [6 min read]

8 Fast Ways To Boost Your Business On LinkedIn [5 min read]

Originally posted on the Blueprint Film Blog.