By Nafisa Nawal Khan

It cannot be denied that today’s audiences are visual. With the increase in use of screens, people now eagerly consume videos. Video has become one of the best ways to capture attention, culture engagement, entertain and inform audiences around the world. Almost everything is being converted to the video format for making consumption easy and engaging.

Social media, especially Twitter is playing a huge role behind this shift in preferences. Video is Twitter’s fastest growing advertising tool, and with those on the platform already adapting to use Twesocial and similar options to help with their outreach, the sheer amount of video content online also continues to grow.. There are over 2 billion video views on Twitter each day. It is seen that Tweets with videos attract 10x more engagement than those without videos, which becomes one of the main reasons why businesses tend to buy more Twitter followers. They are also seen to drive the highest recall and emotional connection on any digital platform.

TWITTER VIDEO TRENDS AFFECTING MARKETING AND DIGITAL ADVERTISEMENT

Given Twitter’s huge impact and success in this field, it is very pragmatic that trends will arise from these that brands will take advantage of.

Brands are now experimenting with videos to find innovative ways to capture the attention of their customers while at the same time promote their product or services. The most popular among all the trends are how-to videos, explainer shots, coverage of events and ultra-short shots.

HOW-TO VIDEOS

These can be quick tutorials or in-depth showcases of complex products. Such videos help address concerns consumers have before and after buying.

Brands like Fenty beauty use how-to videos to promote their product while showing how to achieve the latest fashion trends on make-up.

ANIMATED AND EXPLAINER VIDEOS

Brands are also seen to focus on communicating through animated or white-board explainer videos. These videos can be used to explain, celebrate or inform things in an attractive way. The explainer video is becoming popular in marketing, if you would like to know more, you can look online or visit somewhere like Explainly to learn more about how it could help market your business.

Airbnb uses animated videos with compelling storylines that pull the audience to the story presented in the narrative. Last year they celebrated their ‘600,000 Superhosts’ with a simple yet vibrant animated video.

BRINGING POP-UPS AND EVENTS TO LIFE

Many brands use pop-up retails, live events and other activities of customer appreciation to bring in a better customer experience.

Customer experience is a big trend in 2019 and brands are making the most of it. They are not only targeting the customers on the streets to give them a fantastic experience, but are also making sure the activity is recorded into a video format that they can present on their social media pages to reach more customers.

Sainsbury’s used this method last Christmas. They decorated one of their car tunnels with lights for a unique experience. While their customers thoroughly enjoyed and appreciated the spectacle, the brand made sure to record it and showcase it online.

ULTRA-SHORT VIDEOS

With the beginning of the era of 6-second ultra-short videos, more and more brands are opting to utilize this small yet powerful opportunity. Such videos are more seen as in-stream video ads where the ultra-short ad is paired with relevant videos. It is important to pair the ad with a relevant video or else brands will not reach their targeted customers.

Research shows that among short ads of 6-15 seconds, the 6 second ads drove brand recall and lifted brand awareness more.

Sephora used this opportunity to get their audiences excited about limited-time promotion to get a beauty blender sponge with the purchase of a certain foundation.

So, it can be seen clearly how these trends have taken Twitter by storm and how brands have taken advantage of it. Companies are gladly shifting their marketing efforts to video advertising on Twitter to get the most out of it. Opportunities are endless in this field.

Apart from the most popular trends, there are others that brands can take advantage of so that they can utilize their Twitter accounts to the fullest. There are emerging trends like boomerang videos (energetic one shot videos that repeat motion on a loop), stop motion videos (animation video where objects are moved in small increments between photographed planes to create the illusion of movement), tutorials (demonstration of products and creation of recipes), short-form or narrative videos (videos telling a story or conveying a message in 15 seconds or less), live videos, video trailers and videos sharing personal experiences of people.

All these Twitter video trends provide a gateway to excellent results for any company. More and more brands are improving their advertising practices through adopting these video trends. So, it is crucial for companies to discuss about these opportunities and make the most out of these trends.

TAKING ADVANTAGE OF THE TWITTER ALGORITHM

The Twitter timeline algorithm is constantly changing. Two of the main things that are known about Twitter’s algorithm – timing is critical and engagement is key.

If tweets are properly timed, it will get engagement soon after being shared. When tweets receive many interactions, they are ranked at the top of timelines of followers and even appear in the timelines of people who do not follow. If the brand’s followers are not online, tweets won’t receive as much interactions as it would; decreasing its chances of being seen. So, keeping this in mind, brands should research on when most of their followers are online and keep scheduled posts ready. The best way to find optimal posting times is to experiment with various times. Twitter tools like Followerwonk and Tweriod can help in this case.

Again, to increase engagement, brands should interact with their followers. Users see more from people they engage with; so, being consistent in this case helps a lot. New brands might find it hard to gain followers in the beginning and hence buy real Twitter followers to help foster user engagement. Twitter’s algorithm recognizes accounts that add value. If brands are posting and engaging with their followers online, the brand’s content is more likely to be prioritized and shown to more people.

ADDITIONAL TIPS FOR THE TRADE

Twitter is a massive platform with unending opportunities for marketing in the field of video advertising. Although video provides efficient yet lively communication of the core message, it should be kept in mind that the content needs to be as rich as possible.

Almost 93% of video views happens on mobile without the sound. So, the videos should focus on sharp visuals, clear branding and emphasize on motion and movement; including captions helps a lot in this case.

On the other hand, the brands also need to stop people from scrolling past their ads. To attract viewers, brands can feature people or tell stories with a good narrative. Featuring people in the videos significantly increases view rates and drives two times higher retention.

Furthermore, in the case of in-stream videos in Twitter, timing should be of 6-15 seconds; 6 seconds being the optimum. The message conveyed should be laser focused and targeted at the right category. The brand logo should be consistent throughout the video to increase ad-recall. For the website-card format in Twitter, it is important to grab viewer’s attention with an immersive auto-playing video showcasing the brand’s story.

From all these, it can be understood how big is the potentiality of Twitter video trends to impact on digital advertising. For brands to move forward in the digital era, it is vital for all of them to hop on this bandwagon to ensure a better future.