SML #003: Not every video is created equal!

Read time: 3 1/2 minutes

In the realm of social media marketing, video reigns supreme today.

But not every video is created equal.

Julio and I have developed a framework to analyze and plan video content that has served us pretty well.

We were inspired by the stock market to analogize the strategy and expected returns before creating a video.

We believe there are 4 main types of videos:

Long-form - comparable to bond (we usually define long-form as longer than 3-4 minutes, although many algorithms classify videos as long-form when they're longer than one minute)

Short form - comparable to a stock

Trend - comparable to day trading

News - comparable to insider trading

1. Long form videos are like bonds

A good long-video is reliable, gives steady returns over time, and is a long-term investment. Now if you’re thinking just YouTube, think again. YouTube is still the king of long-form, but we’ve had good success with videos around the 5-10 minutes mark with Facebook and even Tiktok.

Having said that, although the search function has improved on TikTok, YouTube (aka Google), it’s still a span above everyone else. We still get thousands of views and leads from videos published two years ago.

But remember that the preference for one platform over another is also generational. So the younger your target audience is, the more likely it is to be on TikTok and search for information there.

If you're just starting on social medial marketing, we don't recommend starting with long videos. They are much more laborious to set up and are much more likely to result in disappointment. 

And you won't know if it'll work until after you record it. So it's better to experiment and start with short videos, and if that topic generates a lot of interest, then make a long video about it.

2. Short videos are like stock

A short video may take off and expand your reach in a very similar way to how a stock can rise quickly in the stock market.

It may explode suddenly, or it may not take off. But contrary to a bad day on the stock market, an unsuccessful short video is unlikely to tank your channel.

Short videos are also great to diversify and experiment before investing heavily in that type of topic and, as explained above, before jumping into long videos.

So don’t record hundreds of videos of a topic you think will succeed before actually testing if it’ll succeed. You will feel depleted and disappointed.

We learned this lesson early on. Videos we thought were going to explode ended up failing miserably. Whereas videos we thought were just ok ended up exploding. 

Test. Then test again. And, for good measure, test once again. Basically, never stop testing.

3. Trend videos are like day-trading

Trends are usually very short-lived hyped-up videos driven by a song, dance, or social event.

Everybody does them, they can give you a big boost during that short time, but they’ll die out quickly, just like the seconds that a day trader takes to buy and sell a share.

So definitely hop on board, but don’t become just a trend follower. 

Whenever possible, try to be a trendsetter, or at the very least, diversify your video production.

4. News videos are like insider trading

News videos are by far the most underrated of all, particularly for lawyers. We strongly believe that they are actually the best type of videos for lawyers to get their feet wet in social media marketing.

It’s like insider trading because we, as lawyers, live in a bubble and have so much information, are usually on top of it, and can digest it quickly.

For news videos, primacy is extremely important. These are the videos that we post with minimal editing (whether short or long form) because you must act fast before the news dies down.

Just like if you have insider trading information, you must act before the event takes place. In this case, the event is making a video before everybody starts posting about it. 

When a piece of news comes out, people will search for information, and if you're amongst the first to talk about it, your video may explode.

A news video done too late is frequently practically useless because it won’t be promoted by the algorithm and will fail the search tests too.

You can do commentary on the news after a few days and fashion it as a short or long video, but that is much more unlikely to work.

So here's our general framework to analyze types of videos.

ACTION STEPS:

This week focus on how you can make news work for you.

There’s always news and changes in the law.

Try to share it in an easily digestible way, don't overthink it. Think you're explaining it to an 8-year-old. Make it easy to understand.

You’ll be amazed at how a well-delivered and explained news story can catapult you to social media success.