The use of social video has become commonplace in brand promotion nowadays due to its proven ability to generate buzz, increase recall, and produce conversions.

For instance, the Old Spice commercials are one of the most successful media ad campaigns in recent years, fully utilizing the power of social media to create hype for the brand. In fact, its latest, uploaded three months ago, has already reached over 7.6 million hits on YouTube.   

The power of social videos is no secret, but the common question asked by businesses, whether large or small, is what type of social video platform should they use?

Answering that question in 2017 is a lot easier than it might have been in previous years. Today, the number of platforms available has whittled down to just a few, unlike before when there was an oversaturation of choices in the market. The remaining players have been able to survive mainly because they became more social.

With that being said, the most popular social video platforms currently being used are:

• YouTube: Nothing beats YouTube for its ability to make a video viral in record time. According to data, almost five billion videos are watched on this social media site every day. One negative aspect is that 80% of these views are made outside of the U.S., which might make it ineffective if you’re trying to promote a local business.
• Facebook: Mark Zuckerberg’s introduction of native videos that can be shared with friends has been a blessing to advertising firms. In terms of reach, these types of videos are unmatched. Users also tend to share video ads more as compared to photos (27% vs. 17%).  However, businesses do have to trust that their videos are being shared around the community, because there’s no search engine structure allowing people to specifically input the video title, unlike in YouTube.
• Instagram:  As of April 2017, there were already 700 million users on Instagram. The introduction of Instagram Stories also boosted traffic, with over 200 million unique users each day. In terms of engagement, this social media platform is unrivaled, with a post 58 times more likely to get engagement compared to Facebook. The downside is the limited length of the video, so brands looking to build communities will likely not benefit from this platform.

Here are some interesting numbers relating to social video marketing campaign:

• Almost a quarter of website traffic last year was generated from videos
• One in three people on the internet go online to watch YouTube
• 500 million people watch videos on Facebook each day
• Snapchat also hit a milestone by surpassing eight billion daily views last year

While reach is one thing, converting this engagement into an actual purchase is another. And this is where companies struggle. Whether for brand awareness, product promotion, consumer engagement, lead generation, or to offer value, the important thing is for companies to determine their main purpose before creating a video to be posted on social media.

Purpose is important since there’s a shift in the way social media marketing campaigns are being launched right now. Whereas in 2016, the need to put out a viral video took precedence over substantial content, this year would be a different story. 

The top three ad campaigns last year that went viral were Shell’s “Make the Future,” Samsung’s “Galaxy S7,” and the John Lewis Christmas advertisement, “Buster the Boxer.”

Analysts believe that companies should invest more in generating videos that actually add on to their brands, rather than focusing on gimmicks to get more shares.