Introduction

Since their beginnings, social media have constantly changed, introducing trends which some have already gone obsolete while others have remained longer or even infinitely. These trend changes, or if we may call them “experimentations,” have certainly taken place and surely will continue to do so in the future with an obvious goal of encouraging engagement. As more engagement a trend will enhance, the longer a trend will remain.

Social media companies aim to produce platforms which are worth people’s time, engagement, interaction, and money. These platforms are designed and developed with a highly sophisticated metrics which enable their producing companies to meticulously analyse people’s behaviour and accordingly match their needs and wants. This is how social media have become an incredible borderless demand-driven supply chain.

Such an epithet has pushed social media to be very proactive in innovating their services based on the endless real and daily data they receive about their customers and the effectiveness of the trends they launch.

This leads us to a highly important question “Why videos perform better on social media?”

The psychological effect of a video

An interesting fact to begin with is that in the last 30 days more video content has been uploaded to social media than what the main U.S. television networks have created in 30 years. Such a surprising fact shows us how Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, YouTube, and TikTok have taken the lead of media exposure.

Vision being our most predominant sense, our brain processes a video 60,000 times faster than a text post. This comes also because of the facts that 90% of information transmitted to the brain is visual and that 93% of all human communication is visual. According to a very interesting statistic, a 30-frame per second is equivalent of 30,000 words worth every second of a video. Thus, it is not surprising why people are far more engaged with videos than other mediums.

Moreover, videos do not intrigue only the vision sense, but also the auditory sense. As such, they evoke more feelings and attachment to the characters playing in the video, their behaviour, their preferences, or their actions; directly influencing a watcher’s behaviour. Hence, videos are an excellent tool for conveying more feelings, memories, thoughts, and most importantly connections.

The effects of videos on social media – A marketing perspective

Among many other benefits it provides, a video builds confidence in the brand, institution, or person. Especially, a user experience video for a product, enables the customer to know the product and understand the solution it provides or the need it fulfils, thus creating a bond and increasing the sense of trust. Video ads tend to create a more personal relationship with potential customers, linking their emotions to the brand and/or its products or services.

Furthermore, search engines prioritize videos. A higher priority is put on video content by the biggest search engine companies when making modifications to the algorithms that show certain websites higher on the rankings page. So, posting videos on social media or own websites will certainly increase the probability of being found by your audience when searched for related information.

Another key element that must be considered is how busy today’s life has become to read long descriptive information about a product or a service. Instead, consumers are highly preferring to see what the product does and obtain as much as possible information in the shortest time. This is true especially for the new generations who have grown up with YouTube as their primary source of information.

According to a YouTube survey, half of Generation Z and millennials replied that they could not live without video in their daily lives. Hence, we should not be surprised by the fact that YouTube is the primary source of education and entertainment for the new generations. Also, such facts make us understand why TikTok has 280 million users aged between 18 and 24.

Of course, the effect of the videos has not remained unnoticed from marketers. That’s why all their efforts have been focused on video marketing when introducing brands; selling products or services; encouraging engagement; promoting corporation, event, success stories; and so on. According to statistics, 81% of businesses use video in their marketing strategy, and this percentage is expected to increase by 63% next year, especially if we consider that 82% of all consumer internet traffic is expected to come from online videos by 2022. By 2022, the number of videos crossing the internet per second will be 1 million.

On the other hand, 72% of consumers prefer getting informed about a product or a service through a video, while 78% of people watch videos online every week. Most importantly, 54% of consumers are demanding more video content. What makes video content stay far beyond other trends is the fact that viewers recall 95% of a message when watched through a video.

Conclusion

The most important element of a video is its content. The psychological effect of videos is the main reason why people are attached to them. Through videos, people aim to create associations with what truly represents them, their values, and characteristics. These associations are mainly built through branding. Brand associations take time, and the best way to accelerate this process is through a comprehensive and up-to-date video marketing strategy which will replenish younger generations’ consuming behaviour.

In conclusion, without a shadow of a doubt we can say that video marketing is an increasing trend, providing people a much higher engagement, feelings, and emotions than any other trend. And, as such, it seems to be a trend that will remain with us infinitely, and most probably in a much-sophisticated forms in the years to come.

Data about the most popular social networks for video

 

YouTube

  • YouTube is the second most visited website after Google and people watch over a billion hours of videos on this platform every day.
  • YouTube has 2.3 billion users worldwide.
  • 79 percent of Internet users have their own YouTube account.
  • YouTube viewers watch over a billion hours of video on the platform every day and generate billions of views. (YouTube, 2021)
  • YouTube is localized in more than 100 countries and is available in 80 languages. (YouTube, 2021)
  • Everyday people watch one billion hours of video on YouTube.
  • 90 percent of people say they discover new brands or products on YouTube.
  • 400 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute worldwide.
  • There are 38 million active channels on YouTube of which 15 million are content creators and 22,000 of them have crossed 1 million subscribers. (Tubics)
  • 70% of what people watch on YouTube is recommended by its algorithm (HootSuite)
  • 500 hours of content is uploaded every minute, as of 2019 (Statista)

Facebook

  • Facebook is the third most popular website in the world (after Google and YouTube) with 2.41 billion active visitors per month. (Digital Information World)
  • The optimal video length for engagement on Facebook is between 2 and 5 minutes. (Social Insider)
  • Accounts with over 100,000 Facebook followers post 71% of all video content. (Social Insider)
  • More than 4 billion video views take place on Facebook every day.
  • 500 million viewers watch 100 million hours of video content on Facebook daily.
  • Facebook videos get at least 59 percent more engagement than other post types.
  • Views of branded video content on Facebook increased by 258% between 2016 and 2017.
  • People in the 18-24 age group spend 75% of the attention on Facebook video ads compared to users above 65.

Twitter

  • There are 1.3+ BILLION accounts created on Twitter.
  • There are 353 million monthly active users on Twitter with an anticipated 4% growth in 2021.
  • There are 186 million daily active users on Twitter in 2021.
  • Tweets with video get 10x more engagement.
  • People watch 2 billion videos on Twitter each day.
  • The #3 reason people use Twitter is to watch video.
  • Twitter ads with video are 50% cheaper in cost per engagement.

Instagram

  • So much so that there’s been an 80% increase in time spent watching video on Instagram, year over year.
  • And on top of this already impressive Instagram video statistic, we also have that video also receives 21% more engagement than photos – that is, more likes, comments, and shares.
  • 58% of people say they have become more interested in a brand or product after seeing it in Stories. (Instagram)
  • 50% of people say they have visited a website to buy a product or service as a result of seeing it in Stories. (Instagram)
  • 77% of marketers have posted a video on IGTV. (Animoto)
  • 1 in 4 consumers made a purchase after seeing a story on Instagram. (Animoto)
  • Instagram video posts will generate 2x more comments than image posts.
  • Instagram is now the popular platform for following brands. This showcases not only the opportunities to sell products on Instagram, but also provide customer service and support.

Snapchat

  • Snapchat has 238 million daily active users as of 2020. According to Hootsuite, its biggest markets are the United States, India, France, and the United Kingdom, in that order. 84% of its users are 34 or younger and over 60% are female.
  • The number of Snapchat daily video views is 18 billion.
  • Average time spent per user each day on Snapchat: Over 30 minutes

TikTok

  • TikTok remains largely untapped, with only around 1 in 10 video marketers having given it a shot. Out of those who’ve tried it out, 66% report having seen success. (Wyzowl)
  • 63% of all videos with the highest click-through rate highlight the key message or product within the first three seconds. (TikTok)
  • TikTok has been downloaded over three billion times.
  • TikTok Users Spend More than 850 Minutes Per Month on the App
  • Tiktok now has 1 Billion Monthly Active users (27 September 2021)
  • Most Popular Overall App Downloaded Globally in 2020

Video Statistics for Other Channels

  • LinkedIn users are 20 times more likely to share a video over any other type of post on the platform.
  • Pinterest users are 2.6 times more likely to make a purchase after watching a brand’s video content on the platform.

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