Social media can be a strange beast. Constantly changing, ever evolving – sometimes it is incredibly hard to keep up with these seemingly endless edits. Ever evolving, the latest trends and facts seem to indicate a major shift in how content will be shared in the coming years. Enter video!

According to a report by Cisco, by 2019:
• Video will account for 80% of global internet traffic
• Nearly a million minutes of video will be shared every second
• It would take an individual 5 million years to watch the all the video that will be shared each month

5 million years eh….

These stats are staggering and very much a wake up call for the current direction of how Designing for digital (and designing in general) is going to have to “join or die” with this trend. Remember not so long ago when Facebook’s interface was simply post a bit of text, maybe add an image and don’t expect a like… mainly because the like button wasn’t conceived yet.

Things quickly changed

Now Facebook along with its peers connect you so intimately with your audience, that one on one dialogue with clients and potential clients is second away. What works with video through social media is that it is quick to digest and easy to flick through (to the best bits), a lot harder to do when reading a long piece.

It would take an individual 5 million years to watch the all the video that will be shared each month

Commercially this is revolutionary.

Just think about all the hassle a business would have had to go through to get your attention? Flyer drops, posters, direct mails… not that these are not made redundant and useless.

It is because they have become a secondary support material to the power of digital marketing. Where printed material would work very effectively for example is through targeted direct mailers to very specific clientele who could possibly be looking for your service.

According to data from Facebook:

• Video posts per person has increased 75% globally and 94% in the U.S.
• Overall the amount of video from people and brands in News Feed has increased 3.6 times year-over-year
• More than 50% of people who visit Facebook in the U.S. every day watch at least one video

Using Facebook on your mobile right now looks almost like looking at Snapchat story for example with the amount of videos you see showing up. Snapchats method of giving you a direct feed to your favourite brands and bloggers is slowly being adopted by the other SM giants.

Stats all point to a very content rich future of social media usage.

Will the paradigm shift lean fully towards an almost fully “Live” social sphere? Perhaps the Oculus Rift and the virtual social presence will make sure that the perquisite will have to be live, supported by content rich videos.

Will the paradigm shift lean fully towards an almost fully “Live” social sphere?

Within the last year we have begun to develop bespoke videos in house here at Márla Communications. These videos stemmed from the effective visual communication efforts seen through static infographics. We loved how static infographics got across a large message fast, and when they were animated, it really was effective. However, we also wanted something that half and half an advert and infographic.

In-house production

At Márla, we have developed numerous ‘motion adverts’ for clients that were roughly around thirty seconds long. The videos ranged from animations, to slow play image based descriptive pieces. Below are examples of some videos we have developed.

Ultimately, we are hoping we have started to at least get our finger on the pulse of this giants jugular. If you want to keep a razors edge on whats new and what will ‘win’ in social media, I recommend checking out Gary Vaynerchuck… that’s if you have the energy!