In today’s fast-paced digital age, leveraging social media video marketing is essential for schools to reach their prospects and gain visibility. Over the past months, video content has become the preferred format for social media users, driving engagement like no other form of content. Making video marketing an essential part of the social media marketing strategy can help schools captivate their audience and tell prospective students what they are about using compelling narratives. Through storytelling, schools can show their unique offers, build emotional connections with their audiences, and establish themselves as leading institutions.
When it comes to creating video marketing content, schools shouldn’t be worried about having big budgets allocated to the production of videos. There are many simple yet effective approaches to video marketing. What matters the most is creating video content with the school’s followers and prospects in mind ensuring that videos are appealing and engaging. Here, you can find five production tips and strategies to help your school take its social media video marketing strategy to the next level.
1. Begin With a Social Media Video Marketing Strategy
Though most schools might already be aware of the importance of a solid marketing strategy, many might still be wondering: why use video in social media marketing? While it might not be evident that schools also need a video strategy, having one could make a whole difference when reaching prospective students. So, before thinking about production, schools should concentrate on creating a winning video strategy.
An excellent start is to write down why your school wants to create and share video content. This will help to identify your goals. For instance, if your social media pages are not very well known, one of your goals could be to improve visibility and brand awareness; or if you are trying to reach prospective students who are beginning their enrollment journey, you can orient your creative efforts towards creating top-of-funnel content.
Example: This LaSalle College TikTok video targets students in the decision-making stage of the funnel. By advertising an enrollment promotion, LaSalle College motivates hesitant students to send their applications.
Source: LaSalle College’s TikTok
Pro tip: To help you define clear goals, think about the enrollment funnel and ask yourself what type of content will help prospects go down the funnel.
While working on your social media video marketing strategy, you should also consider the platforms you want to use to share video content and the budget and human resources available for video production. As mentioned above, you don’t have to have a huge budget to create engaging content, but it is essential to outline the resources you already have and who will be in charge of what tasks.
Schools should also decide what type of video content they think would resonate with their prospective students: educational, testimonials, entertainment, promotional, or narrative. At HEM, our content specialists prefer always to have a good mix of content to keep students engaged.
Finally, schools should develop a pre and post-production timeline and a content calendar to ensure videos are shared on time. Remember that post-production takes time, so leaving enough time for the video to be edited and optimized is essential. Having a calendar that clearly outlines the due dates for each task, the publication date of the video, and the people in charge of each lesson will help you ensure that your videos are produced and published promptly and efficiently.
Would your school like to get some help with social media marketing content? Our social media marketing services for schools can help you reach your goals. Reach out today to get started!
2. Speed up the Production of Social Media Video Marketing With AI
Since producing quality videos can be time-consuming, schools should be happy to learn that many AI tools are available in the market that can speed up the digital marketing video production process. From language processing tools to song generators, schools can benefit from a plethora of AI tools available for education marketers. For instance, schools that struggle to come up with creative ideas can use ChatGPT to draft scripts for their videos. All you have to do is type in a question or a command, and OpenAI’s chatbot will deliver a list of ideas ready for you to work with. If you let ChatGPT write your script, you can also use Acrolix to ensure that video scripts align with your school’s brand. In addition, given that captions are just as important as videos, you can use Hootsuite’s free caption generator to create compelling copy.
Example: Hootsuite’s free caption generator lets you choose the language, style, and keywords you want to include in your copy. In addition, it provides you with some helpful hashtags to use to make your content more discoverable.
Once you have your script, it is time to think about music and sound! Schools with a small social media team will be glad to learn about Murf. This AI voice generator can turn text into great-quality voiceovers. When it comes to music, schools will realize that not all songs are royalty-free, so sometimes it can get hard to find the right song to accompany your video. Luckily, Riffusion can help you create the right beats for your music. All you have to do is tell the AI what kind of music you want, and in a matter of seconds, the program will create the appropriate soundtrack for your video.
Example: No song? No problem! Riffusion can create beats that go well with your school’s video.
Given that adding subtitles to videos for accessibility is now a must, schools can benefit from tools like Animaker to generate subtitles. Not only do subtitles help deaf and hard-of-hearing people access social media videos, but they also guarantee that your audience can watch your video even if the sound is off. Manually adding subtitles can take a long time, so using AI-powered technology to generate subtitles can help schools save plenty of time.
3. Think About Lighting and Sound Quality
One production aspect that schools should pay attention to when creating social media video marketing is lighting. Even though you won’t need expensive lighting equipment to shoot high-quality videos, it is essential to ensure that the videos are recorded in a location with plenty of natural lighting. Good lighting can make your videos look more professional and get more views. Making sure the aesthetic qualities of your video are appealing can guarantee that you get the attention of your prospective students. Planning where and at what time the shooting will happen is a must. If the video contains different shots, it is crucial to ensure that the lighting is the same so there are no drastic changes in the video.
Example: In this Cumberland College TikTok video, you can see how even though parts of the video are recorded indoors, the videographer ensures the lighting is excellent and consistent.
Source: Cumberland College TikTok
Pro tip: The content production team should ensure that those filming the video know where it should be sent once it has been recorded. This is especially important for schools that collaborate with student ambassadors.
Sound is an essential element of social media video production. If schools plan to shoot videos in a busy location, getting a microphone or adding voice-overs might be an excellent way to ensure sound is clear and audible. If they don’t have a microphone, they can use tools like Adobe Podcast to edit the sound and eliminate as much noise as possible before posting the video.
Example: This Brown University Instagram Reel was filmed inside the university’s cafeteria. To ensure the sound quality is maintained, the interviewer uses a microphone connected to the recording device.
Source: Brown University’s Instagram Page
Pro tip: If you don’t have a whole social media video production team, getting a tripod can help you improve the quality of your videos.
To avoid copyright issues, schools must ensure that the music they use with their videos is licensed for businesses. Even if a song is trending, adding it without having the proper license to use it could be risky and end up in legal trouble. Luckily, Instagram and TikTok have royalty-free music libraries for business accounts to use.
4. Optimize Your Videos for Each Social Media Platform
Social media marketers know that each platform has its guidelines and specifications. An excellent tip to guarantee that your social media videos get as many views as possible is to ensure that you follow the correct specifications. For example, most social media platforms favour vertical videos, so decidinge where your video will be place is important before shooting a new videod. If you are thinking about posting the video on several platforms with different specifications, you should ensure the video can be cropped without losing any vital information. Another aspect you should keep in mind is video length. Ask yourself: What is the time limit per platform? What would the audience prefer?
Example: Although this Randolph-Macon Academy video was shot horizontally, good editing could ensure that the right shots are taken for a vertical video.
Source: Randolph-Macon Academy’s YouTube Channel
Pro tip: Social media platforms always change their specs, so make sure to check the specs of each platform before getting to work.
One of the most important social media video tips is to ensure your video is optimized for each platform you use. Instead of, for instance, taking the same TikTok video and sharing it on Instagram, you should bring the footage into Instagram and use its editing tools to add text and music to ensure the algorithm favours it. In addition to this, schools should not forget about social SEO. Although social media platforms are not search engines, using keywords and hashtags can make content more discoverable. Knowing how to leverage all these social media features will ensure you reach your enrolment goals.
Example: The University of Amsterdam uses a series of popular hashtags to make this reel video more discoverable.
Source: University of Amsterdam’s Instagram
If possible, schools should try showing real people and avoid using stock videos, as prospective students are more likely to connect with actual students and staff. When creating a social media video marketing strategy, schools should determine whether they want their employees to record the videos or if they are willing to collaborate with student ambassadors.
Lastly, another important optimization tip is to create custom thumbnails and tag any other brands or institutions that appear on the video. This is a critical step to guarantee that the video gets as many views as possible, as not only will your followers be able to see the video, but also the followers of the accounts you are tagging.
Example: Concordia University owns multiple pages (alumni, departments, etc.). To ensure the videos get as much exposure as possible, the university tags relevant accounts when possible.
Source: Concordia University’s Instagram Page
5. Review Your Metrics in Social Media Marketing
Once your video content has been shared, it is important to understand how your videos perform to keep creating successful videos. After all, metrics reveal how successful your strategy is. Reviewing social media video metrics can help schools determine what kind of content their followers are interacting the most with and what content motivates prospects to keep going through the enrolment journey. To get an idea of whether or not a video has been successful, you can look for view counts, watch times, reach, shares, likes, and comments. Each platform also offers reports or metrics about the content shared. Comparing results against the goals outlined in your social media video strategy will help you assess whether or not your campaign is going in the right direction.
When looking at comments, you should look for insights about the affective reaction of your followers. For example, if students leave heart emojis or tag each other, this could mean that the content is resonating with them. In addition, if prospective or current students leave answers, it is important that you take the time to reply. This shows that you are always reachable and willing to help your community.
