The role of short social media video content in brand engagement

Abstract

Marketing has changed significantly with the introduction of and changing of social media trends. Brands no longer have to create elongated videos telling long stories about their services and products to reach and engage their target markets. Several brands are now implementing the use of short social media videos to advertise and engage with their consumers, an adoption praised by several businesses. This research mainly aims to determine the effectiveness of using short form videos in social media to increase consumer interactions, influence purchasing decisions and brand perception among the target market. The objective of the study is to develop a manual that could be used to guide companies towards the best ways they can make use of short video content to increase their brand awareness and consumer interaction with the brand. This study is informed by the behaviours of social media users, what is found to be interesting and how to keep their attention. The focus of the study is the visual narrative of the videos, their exposure through logarithms and the connection between the audience and the brand’s content. Some of the themes that are analysed in this study are the emotional connection the audience have with the content, authenticity and the degree towards which they create engagement. This study made use of qualitative and quantitative study method where surveys and interviews were used to gather data. The survey collected data from the consumers of short videos from platforms such as TikTok and Instagram while the interviews were used for collecting data from brand managers using short form videos to market their brands. The data was analysed using both thematic and statistical methods to extract key trends and insights. Findings show that at least 78% of the respondents spent daily on social media platforms viewing short video content at least 95.1% discover new brands as result of authentic emotional content yet doubts reduce the level of trust. The engagement of consumers with social media content improves best through transparent visuals of high quality together with platform-specific approaches that include trending sounds and hashtag challenges helping to enhance brand reach and build customer loyalty. Companies need a step by step guideline to create optimal short video content for their digital marketing needs.