Video Marketing is King: 5 Steps to Adding Value in TikTok or Reels

Written for Emily Bezak Writes

By Kiara Desirai

Do you remember Vine on Twitter? Since then, video marketing has become more and more prominent in our social feeds and across all platforms. It's crazy to think all of this sparked from those five second videos and cause us all to crave more video content.

We have already seen video become increasingly important on social media and later implemented into live videos. Social media is very fond of a video, with almost every popular platform allowing individuals to get creative where you don’t really have to go live unless you want to.

It is a brilliant way to showcase the face behind companies and their brands and most importantly; a great way to connect with your audience.

Videos within social media, such as TikTok and Instagram Reels, have given everyone a platform to push more content. And remember: The more content, the more your ‘why’ will become visible to more and more people.

Why are they making a difference? How do they compliment your business?

Videos get the best reach, engagement, and results on social media. Many social media managers and content creators know how videos add value in today’s society. But people don’t know how hard it is to transition through different platforms such as TikTok and Instagram. Social content comes with change and no one can do anything about it especially if you're trying to stay relevant. With that being said, Video has been an influential step in today’s society with platforms such as TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook.

VIDEO ON SOCIAL IS KING IN COVID-19 ERA

Each reel or video tells a story about what your product or service can do for an individual (or business, if you’re a B2B brand). Videos are just one type of content that can educate, entertain, or inspire your audience, but the impression a video makes is what makes it so powerful.

Viewers retain 95 percent of a message when they watch it in a video, compared to just 10 percent when reading your carefully-crafted messages in text-only format.

The thing about posting videos, you never know when or what will ‘go viral’, so keep creating no matter what. Trust me; lots of people are watching. That being said, sometimes you may think you’ve created a likeable, shareable, or savable content piece but it could flop and the other way around, too. To be relatable, your content should be beneficial to help in creating awareness around your products or services.

One thing that is important to note: To see success in your video content, you have to consistently create. There’s no silver bullet. You never know when your content will be relatable to others.

By 2022, it is expected to see that online videos will make up more than 82% of all consumer internet traffic, that is 15 times higher than it was in 2017. So let’s talk about some of my favorite platforms for creating video content.

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22-year-old utilizing TikTok to teach Black American Sign Language

Nakia Smith who is 22-years-old who is a popular TikToker that went viral on social media for teaching users BASL (Black American Sign Language).

Smith is a self proclaimed independent deaf Black American that is the fourth deaf generation of five generations. She utilizes her own experience to educate people in the deaf community and sign language where she has gained almost 400,000 followers on TikTok in the process.

Smith originally went viral when her and her grandfather shared the difference between old school and new school sign language.

Now she is using her platform to preserve Black ASL in the Deaf community and encourage people to learn sign. Many of her videos feature her great-grandparents, grandparents and siblings, who are all deaf as well.

Smith’s videos have led to an interesting topic in society that many individuals do not talk about mainly in the Black community; Black American Sign Language.

Smith was featured in Netflix’s Strong Lead, explaining that Black ASL is a dialect of sign language Black individuals created during the 1800s because of the segregation of the Black and white deaf communities. Integration between deaf schools didn’t occur until the 1950s.

“The biggest difference between BASL and ASL is that BASL got seasoning. I felt like a lot of people didn’t know about BASL until my video went viral. They were really curious and wanted to learn more about BASL and history. I told my grandfather that the video went viral, and he said, ‘Keep it going,” says Nakia Smith.

Black individuals infuse their signing with style, typically placing their culture into signing. Some may say that signing Black ASL is louder and expressive basically like telling a story through different uses of hand motions. Black ASL contains unique signs for everyday use and alternate hand placements such as at the forehead versus under the chin.

Smith continues to make a movement and bring awareness to the BASL and ASL communities through Instagram and TikTok.