The #1 Social Media Marketing Trend to Conquer Before the Competition Does

Social media is a constant state of flux – always evolving. And so our marketing strategy needs to keep up.

But this is one trend that isn't going anywhere.

If you've been paying attention, the answer probably won't surprise you. To put it simply, videos gets lots of eyeballs. And a certain type of video is even more popular.

Live video.

Your audience wants to be able to interact, and live videos offers an interactivity and feeling of connection that's difficult to find elsewhere. As you'll see, there are many reason to add video to your marketing repertoire. But live video specifically gives viewers an exclusive “behind-the-scenes” feeling that builds trust and turns curious prospects into engaged fans.

Thanks to our friends at NicheHacks for gathering all this data for us:

Get on the Live Video Bandwagon Before Your Competitors

Have you started creating videos for your niche?

If not, you might already be behind your competitors.

Video today is what blogging was 7-8 years ago. Those who start today will be far ahead of their competitors in just a few years.

Facebook is already predicting the end of the written word, and hinting at becoming a video-only platform in near future.

In my opinion (and according to other credible voices), the written word isn’t going anywhere soon, but it’s certainly conceding ground to visual content faster than ever before.

Facebook, YouTube, Snapchat and Periscope already have live video features and Instagram just recently joined them.

When asked about his best content marketing advice for 2017, serial entrepreneur Guy Kawsaki had this to say:

“Live Video, Live Video and Live Video”

Adding video to your content marketing strategy brings several immediate benefits.

Facebook users spend 3x more time watching live videos as compared to the recorded ones.

Adding a video to your web pages or blog posts increases the chance of making it to Google’s first page by 53x.

Including a video in your emails can increase the CTR by 300%

Product pages with videos drive 64% more sales

It’s no surprise that a major part of corporate content marketing budgets is now shifting towards video content as well.

So, how exactly can you make video a part of your niche marketing strategy in 2017?

I have discussed this in much greater detail in one of my previous posts, but here are a few quick tips

Start using Facebook Live videos to interact with your audience. There are many ways to use live videos for example, product reviews, Q&A sessions, sharing niche related tips, building anticipation for your content or just a casual hangout with your audience (like James does for his travel niche site).

Use webinars for lead generation and awareness campaigns.

Turn your best blog posts into videos and embed them in the original post.

Deliver your most popular content in live videos or a series of short video clips

Most people are camera-shy and feel awkward when creating their first video, so you’re not alone in this. But it gets easier when you take a leap of faith and keep doing it.

However, if you’re too shy to face the camera, start with screencast videos using text or image slides with your voice in the background.