Organic Social Media Marketing: Video Intelligence Tips

by Morgan Bailey

May 19, 2020 · 4 min read

There’s never been a better time to invest in your organic marketing efforts on social media.

Organic was already a top priority for many marketers heading into 2020, but the unprecedented growth of the digital environment this past couple of months has really enhanced the opportunity. With much of what was normal life on pause, video consumption has surged across the board and most social media platforms have reported historic traffic peaks.

There are more eyes than ever before regularly consuming content on screens. Even now— a time when buying power has been reduced for many—consumers have indicated an openness to hearing from brands. History has shown that in economic downturns, consumers seek a sense of normalcy and reassurance; brands that maintain their marketing are rewarded in the longterm once the economy bounces back. Now is the time to focus on nurturing and growing your core audience, pivoting your strategy towards upper-funnel efforts to support awareness and retention.

The combination of general reductions in ad budgets across the board and a massive spike in digital traffic has made this an opportune time for brands to lean on organic marketing. QuickFrame leveraged our Video Intelligence technology to analyze branded organic video content on key social media platforms over the past two years. With limited budgets in mind, Video Intelligence maximizes production spend by identifying the variables that are most closely linked to KPIs, allowing you to create data-backed creative that performs. Here’s how it works:

Organic Social Media Marketing: Best Practices

Facebook

Marketers think that incorporating branding in all assets is a no brainer, but our analysis revealed that the inclusion of branding in organic social is only sometimes the right move—it’s dependent on the KPI you are optimizing for.

Branded videos drive views. There was a 105% higher average view rate for videos that had branding visible at some point than those that had no branding.
If engagement is your key metric, omit branding. Unbranded videos had an average engagement rate that was nearly 100% higher than branded videos.

Facebook has been a people-driven platform from its inception—the word “face” is in its name, after all—so it’s not too surprising that human talent drives organic performance. To drive both views and engagement, include on-screen talent in your videos.

In our analysis, videos with people received 105% more views on average than those without, and had an average engagement rate that was 58% higher.
The number of people also played a factor. Videos with 3 or more people had the highest rates of views and engagement, followed by videos with 2 people, and then videos with just 1 person. Adding visual variety through the use of various on-screen talent helps capture and sustain attention.

The concept of visual diversity was also key when it came to setting. Attention spans are short, and social media has a plethora of content to distract your audience. Employing a mix of settings in videos is effective at holding attention.

Videos that had both indoor and outdoor shots get the most views—106% more views, on average, than those that employ only a single type of setting.

Instagram

When it comes to branding, Instagram audiences seem more open across the board to branded experiences as compared to Facebook—likely because the large presence of influencers has accustomed users to seeing brand-supported content on the platform.

Branding drives both views and engagement. In our analysis, visible branding led to an increase of 11% in average engagement and a small but still sizable increase in average views—5%.

Even the casual Instagram user reacts differently to posts that feature people and those that don’t, despite how gorgeous some of those landscape grams might be.

Like on Facebook, videos with people were more effective at driving views (+32% more views, on average) than those without.
The number of people had an influence on metrics, too—just like on Facebook. Video content with 3 or more people drove the highest average views and engagement rates, followed by videos with 2 people, and then by videos with just one person featured. Use a variety of on-screen talent within a single video on Instagram to drive organic performance.

YouTube

When it comes to the presence of branding, the YouTube organic landscape is aligned with that of Facebook. To drive views, you’ll want to incorporate branding, but for engagement, omit branding.

Marketing videos on YouTube with visible branding had an average view count that was 76% higher than videos without.
The opposite was true for engagement. Unbranded videos had an average engagement rate that was 145% higher.

Like on Facebook and Instagram, using on-screen talent drove organic performance, leading to more views and engagement.

In a departure from both of those platforms, however, videos with just one person drove the highest engagement rate. The dominance of vloggers on YouTube has likely conditioned audiences on the platform to connect with a single on-screen talent.
To sustain attention, however, visual diversity still wins out. Videos with 3 or more people drove the most views in our analysis.

Organic Social Media Marketing Best Practices: The (Literal) Takeaway

To summarize, here are our findings in a handy infographic. Follow these data-backed best practices in your video production to drive your organic social media video marketing performance.