How to Make Your Law Firm Videos Social-Media Worthy
First, let me start by saying kudos! If you are a lawyer creating marketing videos or want to start creating them for your law firm because you know how powerful they are, then you deserve a high five.
In order to get the most out of the videos you are creating, it’s important to recognize how some of the major social media platforms treat videos. Understanding the context and mindset of how social media users want to consume videos on each of the platforms will increase your video’s appeal and engagement with a wider audience and more potential clients.
In this article, I’m focusing on 4 specific social media platforms and how you can maximize your videos’ effectiveness on each platform:
Let’s dive in with videos for Facebook. What are some of the pros and cons of using video on Facebook?
Pros:
- Supports long form videos
- Easy to share
- Great for engagement because of comments section
- Boosting capabilities (put some money behind your videos and get more eyeballs on them)
- Access to data/analytics to see how well your videos/posts perform
Cons:
- Unless someone follows you or likes your page, they won’t see your video
- Many say that organic reach on Facebook is dead, so that forces you to put some money behind getting your videos seen (either as an Ad or a Boost)
Length requirements: Up to 45 minutes
What type of videos are best to post on Facebook?:
- Educational videos (How-To’s)
- Interviews (with people in the industry, experts, other lawyers)
- Entertainment (any video that will entertain your viewers)
- Client testimonials
How does Instagram treat videos? Here are some of the features and drawbacks of posting on this platform:
Pros:
- Owned by Facebook so as a user, you have a lot of the same data and analytics available to you as you do on Facebook
- Use the right hashtags and expand reach of video
- Attracts a younger crowd (if that’s your intended audience)
Cons:
- No links allowed in comments. You only have one link available and that is in your profile
Length Requirements: up to 60 seconds
What type of videos to post here:
- Behind-the-scenes and day-to-day at your law firm
- Quick legal tips
- Inspirational videos
Just a few months ago, LinkedIn began allowing for native uploading of videos to their platform. Considering LinkedIn is the largest professional social media platform, this is a great opportunity for lawyers to engage in video creation and brand building. So, what makes LinkedIn so great and not so great when it comes to video?
Pros:
- Largest professional platform
- Fairly new native video capabilities so it is not a crowded space…yet. Your videos have a chance of standing out
- Data/insight available
Cons:
- Only your connections can see your posts (unless shared by a connection, in which case, their connections see it too).
Length Requirements: Video must be at least 3 seconds and cannot exceed 10 mins
What type of videos to post here:
- Educational (How-To’s)
- Presentations you might have given
- Attorney profile videos
- Client testimonials
Last but not least, why use videos on Twitter?
Pros:
- Hashtags and tagging others in your posts work well on Twitter
- Can re-share several times in a week without appearing “spammy”
Cons:
- Very short shelf-life because Twitter feeds move so quickly
Length Requirements: limit up to 2 mins and 20 secs
What type of video to post here:
Newsjacking – Twitter loves breaking news videos so if you can create a quick video based on anything that’s happening in the news, that’s perfect
General good rules to keep in mind:
- If your original video is longer than the length requirement for each platform you plan on sharing it on: take the best snippet from the video. Search for the enticing segment of the longer video and create a shorter version that is within the time and length requirements for each platform. Don’t just post the video from the beginning because often, the beginning is not the most interesting part.
- Pay attention to captions: None of the platforms mentioned here play the audio automatically so if you can include captions in your videos, that will allow people to read what you’re saying before they decide to hit that play button.
- Call to Action: Use a call to action in your videos. Things like “Share if you agree,” “Share this with a friend,” “Be sure to follow/subscribe,” or “Press link for full video” work well.
- Intro/outro: If taking a segment of the full video to repurpose and share on social media, then you’ll want to fade out at the end of the snippet and include some sort of call to action to invite viewers to watch the entire video.
- Additional features for each platform: Pay attention to any additional features each platform offers. For example, Instagram has Instagram Stories and Live so think about how you can use those features to help promote your video.
- Make viewers feel something: Create content that will allow viewers to have an emotional reaction– happiness, laughter, anger, admiration, inspiration or some sort of urgency are all good emotions
Nicole Abboud is the Owner of Abboud Media – a video and podcast production company for lawyers. Find out how you can create videos that will brand you as an expert in your practice area over at www.abboudmedia.com. For daily video and podcasting tips, follow along on Instagram @abboudmedia.