5 big trends for video in 2019

It has finally happened, video is now the most important thing in social media. It’s been coming for a while but now with the ever increasing ease, decreasing costs and changes in user expectations, if you’re not using video in your social marketing you’re going to be left behind.

If you’re a regular user of Facebook, Instagram and now even LinkedIn, you’ll have noticed that the quantity, and quite often quality, of video content is going through the roof these days. That’s not just because people are investing time and money, it’s also because people are less scared of the media and starting to realise it can be done cheaply and easily, and still be done well.

As popularity has grown, user behaviour has started influencing the content that brands are creating. Just take the rise of square video for example, which has met the need to fill the screen of a user feed so scrollers are more inclined to stop, or vertical video, which delivers against the audience tendency to watch video without rotating their phone. If you want to be seen, your content has to meet the format of the platform you are using.

Instagram stories are raw, spontaneous, short, and vertical… and a million miles away from what most brands have ever considered to be ‘brand quality’ videos before. But these quick-fire glimpses beneath the surface of the lives of individuals and the facades of brands, are adored by social media consumers. The medium is being adopted across other channels now, so satisfying this appetite is essential for marketers who want to connect on these platforms.

Live video is equally disruptive to the norm. It throws its subjects in front of their audience in an a way that is unprecedented, in terms of being:

  • spontaneous
  • authentic
  • personal
  • shot and delivered anytime and anywhere
  • and perhaps most notably, a 2-way conversation!

Brands now have no reason to be anything other than completely accessible to their audience, through live video, and those that choose to remain cooly aloof will surely struggle to maintain loyalty from today’s youngest consumers (who are tomorrow’s key demographics).

Think about the last time you attended a music festival, a concert, a conference… Are you starting to see other people’s videos from events, that were posted on social media? We love seeing the world through the lives of others, it gives us a glimpse from someone else’s perspective and makes us feel that we’re not missing out! Facilitating and contributing to this new channel of marketing is what the smart brands will be doing, leveraging opportunities to connect and pass on their messages where there were no opportunities before.

Cameras that allow 360 recordings of the world are now more affordable and brands are starting to use them as the norm, rather than buying them as toys for their Innovation teams. I first heard of 360 photos over a decade ago, and the cameras required to produce the media were inconceivably expensive, but I’ve recently heard that Samsung have released one to the market that costs €60! The things that we see as gimmicks find their way into the mainstream, and with 360 video it’s happening now. If you’re thinking no one’s ever going to be permanently strapped to a clunky headset while they barely manage to navigate their way past chairs that have been amusingly strewn in their path, you’re probably right. But there are plenty of implementations of 360 video that are controlled by a mousepad or a tipped phone screen, with a real and gimmick-free purpose.

So, with some really exciting new ways of expressing your brand and connecting with your audience through video, that are available now at reasonable prices for customers who are expecting it, what’s stopping you from getting started with social video right now!?

More on video marketing:
3 big myths about online video – to smash in 2019
5 big stats that say why video is more important than ever in 2019