Nick BuchheitIn marketing, we often talk about the five Ps: Product, Price, Promotion, Place, and People. Together, these help us focus our overall marketing and video efforts on creating memorable content that resonates with viewers.
But when it comes to social media marketing and videography, there’s another set of letters to follow: the four Cs. By paying attention to these Cs while creating and publishing new video content, we can increase engagement and reach a much wider audience in the process, ultimately boosting sales and growing your business.
Jump to the section most important to you to get started:
What Are the 4 Cs of Social Media?
How to Incorporate the 4 Cs of Social Media Into Your Videos
Work With An Experienced Video Production Company
Related Reading: Why Keeping Up With Social Media Video Trends Matters to Your Brand
What Are the 4 Cs of Social Media?
The 4 Cs of social media change in definition depending on who you ask, but they generally focus on these four pillars:
1. Content
The first C is content, especially good content. This can include:
- The text you write.
- The images you share.
- The links you post.
- The videos you create.
Ultimately, though, “content” is anything you create and post to social media.
With today’s social media standards and such heightened competition between brands like TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube, good content often means high-quality video that holds attention while getting viewers excited to engage with and share with their friends or colleagues.
Related Reading: Striking Social Media Video Production That Stops the Scroll
2. Connection
“Connection” is all about putting the “social” back into social media by connecting with other individuals. It includes connecting with social media users through the content you create, the captions you write, the comments you leave, and the messages you send.
3. Communication
At the end of the day, social media is a communications tool. Do you use it for PR? Branding? Marketing?
Understanding how to leverage social media for your communications can help you spread your messaging far and wide at a lower price point than many paid media channels.
Related Reading: 7 Styles of Promotional Videos
4. Community
The last C: Community. By building relationships with your fans, you can build community. By joining the groups and conversations where your audience is, you can build community. By responding to reviews—both positive and negative—you can build community.
But you can also use social media to expand your digital and physical community. Facebook groups, for example, can expand your online reach at a low price point, but you can also use your social media channels to promote your live community events.
How to Incorporate the 4 Cs of Social Media Into Your Videos
Now that you know what the 4 Cs are, let’s explore strategies for tying them into the videos you create for your business.
1. Content: Create High-Value Content
Social media is a powerful tool in part because of its immediate feedback from users. Pay close attention to engagement signals from your audience and other social media users, including:
- Likes
- Comments
- Shares
- Saves
- Messages
- Plays
- Total Impressions
These are easy yardsticks for ensuring you’re producing content your audience loves. If you’re not getting the feedback or metrics you’re aiming for, use these data points to enhance your overall videos and messaging.
2. Connection: Connect In Your Script, Captions, Subtitles
Your video content should work to make a mental and emotional connection with your intended audience, but don’t stop with the visuals in your video and the words in your script.
Instead, pay extra close attention to the words you use in your captions, subtitles, text overlays, and comments for those videos. These words have just as much impact on the overall experience of your video as the video itself.
Two easy ways to increase connection:
- Talk directly to your target audience inside of your video.
- Record content that is immediately relevant and relatable to your target audience.
3. Communication: Be Clear In Your Messaging
What is your ultimate goal behind sharing your video on social media? Start thinking about that question as you develop your script, then carry that objective into your visuals, your social media caption, and any other promotional copy you produce.
Related Reading: Marketing Video Production – 10 Ways of Promoting Your Videos
4. Community: Create Content For Your Target Audience In Places Where Your Target Audience Already Is
Create content that resonates with your audience to join in the larger overall community—including the social media platform where your audience already is. For example, if your target audience is primarily on Instagram, don’t waste your time trying to build up your Facebook presence.
Remember: Not every piece of content needs to be promotional on social media. Instead, you should balance your marketing content with posts that contribute to the larger overall conversations your target audience is having.
You can even look to tap into the latest social media trends—provided doing so aligns with your overall branding. If you try the latest TikTok trend as an ultra-polished corporate brand, your video could potentially come across as inauthentic.
Another strategy for building community with your videos: Remember that videos can come from multiple sources! Sharing user-generated content—content your fans create that hype your products or services—can be an invaluably authentic method for spreading your brand without investing in video production (though it’s still important to develop your videos as part of a robust marketing and social media strategy).
Work With An Experienced Video Production Company to Leverage the 4 Cs of Social Media
To fully leverage the 4Cs of social media in your videos, contact us! We have years of experience in creating engaging video content that resonates on social media, especially across Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok.