Did you know that the average person in the UK watches 100 minutes of online videos daily? To reach those potential customers, tradespeople are filming social media videos and using them as a marketing tool.
Get started with social media videos in the right way by reading our top tips, below. Following that, you’ll find 7 useful topic ideas for your social media videos.
Why should tradespeople make social media videos?
The benefits of creating social media videos include:
- Getting your message across easier: Something that takes you two minutes to explain in a video might take you much longer to write. Plus, videos are quicker to consume, so potential customers are often more likely to choose watching a video over reading a lengthy social media post.
- Increasing awareness of your business: Brand recall (the likelihood of someone being able to recognise your brand from memory) from videos is 85% higher than written posts, according to Social Films.
- Winning new customers: London-based flooring specialist, IdealFlooring, has had new jobs come through from TikTok. Read more about tradespeople going viral on TikTok.
7 tips for creating social media videos
1. Know your dimensions
Your video will look its best when you make sure it fits your chosen social media platform’s requirements. If you don’t, then your video could be uploaded in a poor quality, which will reduce the number of views you’ll get. Social media video specs change often, so it’s important to keep up to date.
Guidelines for feed videos
| Social media platform | Video orientation available | Recommended size (width:height) | Max length |
| Landscape and portrait | 16:9 (landscape) or 9:16 (portrait) | 240 minutes | |
| Landscape, square and portrait | 16:9 (landscape), 1:1 (square) or 4:5 (portrait) | 2 minutes | |
| Landscape and portrait | 16:9 or 1:1 (square) | 2 minutes and 30 seconds | |
| YouTube | Landscape and portrait | 16:9 or 4:3 (YouTube will add a frame around the latter) | 12 hours |
| TikTok | Portrait and landscape | 9:16 | 60 seconds |
| Square and portrait | 1:1 (square) or 2:3 (portrait) | 15 minutes | |
| Snapchat | Square and portrait | 9:16 | 10 seconds |
Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat and YouTube: Sprout Social – correct as of February 2021.
TikTok: Influencer Marketing Hub – correct as of March 2021.
Pinterest: Pinterest – correct as of May 2021.
2. Engage with your viewers
The first few seconds are essential when it comes videos – most people lose their concentration after that! Grab your viewers’ attention within the first 10 seconds with:
- A short title that says what you’ll be talking about in the video. This’ll get people to click on your video.
- A clear intro that addresses a problem that homeowners can relate to. That could be something like a common issue that you’re often called out to fix, such as a plumbing problem or a nuisance weed in your customers’ gardens. That way, your viewers will know exactly what you’re going to talk about in the video and how it can help them.
You can also interact with your potential customers in real time during a livestream. Lots of people will feel more comfortable talking to you during a livestream as it’s less of a sales environment and they’re in the comfort of their own home.
3. Keep it short and sweet
With attention spans being so short, it’s important that your videos pack all the information that you want your viewer to know into a brief video. State the points you want to make without rambling, to make your videos easy to understand and digest. Then, include a call-to-action at the end telling the viewer where they can go for more information – whether that’s by calling you, visiting your website or emailing you.
Before you start filming, write down the points you want to cover in your video to keep yourself on track. If you find yourself getting off topic easily, try writing a short script to follow as you go.
Plus, shorter videos are quicker to film, so you should find you’ll have a quicker turnaround time when it comes to getting your video filmed and posted!
4. Tell your story
Social media videos can help you stand out from your competitors by bringing a face to your name and therefore humanising your business. Your videos will help potential customers get familiar with your business and show why they should hire you. So, show off your personality and you’ll become more relatable to the everyday homeowner!
5. Vary your video content
Whilst shorter videos are great for grabbing your viewers’ attention, there are some topics that need more time to be explored. There are plenty of different ways that you can use video on social media, including:
- Feed videos: Appear as people scroll through social media.
- Livestreams: Available on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and TikTok.
- Long-form videos: Instagram TV (IGTV) allows you to post videos of up to one hour long.
- Temporary content that expires after 24 hours: Available on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.
6. Plan your videos in advance
Consistency is essential to see results. Plan your video content to fit in around your day-to-day work by asking homeowners you’ve got booked in if you can film your work whilst you’re in their home. That way, you’ll build up a calendar of content.
7. Get the most use out of your videos
Once you’ve filmed and uploaded your video, make sure it reaches as many people as possible by posting it across all your social media platforms, where relevant. If you’re doing a livestream on one social media platform, you can share the link across your other platforms too. Remember to save your livestreams, so they’re available as permanent videos once you’re done.
If you have an email newsletter, include your videos in them to add some variety and increase your click-through rate.
Send your videos to us and we’ll share them with our followers! Simply tag us @RatedPeople on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and TikTok or email them to: [email protected].
7 social media video ideas for tradespeople
- Question and answer (Q&A) sessions. You can ask people to send you their questions in advance or to leave them in the comments if you’re livestreaming.
- A quick tutorial/demonstration on a new or interesting tool you’ve got. This shows homeowners that you use the best equipment to work efficiently in their homes.
- Interviews with team members. An apprentice could talk about their experience with you, or a more experienced team member could talk about their career journey and expertise, for example.
- Share your thoughts on a news story or trending topic in the trades industry. Hear about the latest industry news by signing up to Rated People’s email list and checking out our Trade Advice Centre.
- Behind the scenes videos. Show you working on the job so homeowners can see the skills you have.
- Talk about a particularly fun or interesting job you worked on. Just make sure to get permission from the homeowner first – don’t mention any of their personal information either.
- Videos from your customers. They could send in a short testimonial video explaining how you helped them or show themselves using and enjoying the new feature you’ve installed in their home, for example.
Want to boost your social media marketing even further? Find out:
