I have been recording videos for use on social media, for years. For me, very little prep is needed to record a video. I write down a few bullet points that I know I want to incorporate into my video content, then setup my recording area, and hit the button.

My videos are usually 8-12 minutes long, and I find that I easily spend 5 times that completing all the video optimization and promotion work that comes after the recording of your video is complete.

It doesn’t matter if you go Live on your social media platform(s) of choice or prefer to pre-record the videos you plan to use for your small business marketing strategy…getting the most marketing value of each video requires far more time spent than the making of the video itself.

Let’s take a look at the steps that need to take place to optimize your marketing videos as well as properly promote them on your small business’ social media profiles.

Social Media Video Optimization and Promotion Steps

Each small business owners’ exact post-recording video optimization and promotion process is going to vary based on which and how many social media profiles you have for your business. My specific process includes Facebook, YouTube, my LinkedIn Profile, Pinterest, IGTV, and Google My Business because those are active social media profiles for Eli Rose that also accept video files.

To start, you need to record your video. Sometimes I go Live on my Facebook Business Page using Ecamm, and then export that video file to YouTube. And other times, I record videos offline using Ecamm, and export the video to YouTube. Either way, once I have recorded my video, I have the original video file that can be used for uploads to LinkedIn, Pinterest, IGTV, and Google My Business.

Both YouTube and Facebook have a variety of platform-specific optimization features that you want to make sure to take advantage of. Adding keyword-rich video titles, video descriptions, and tags to your videos help them to be found in platform search and help them to be suggested as related videos for similar content on each platform. YouTube and Facebook have video playlists, and the ability to add captions and choose or upload a custom thumbnail image for your videos.

Captions are important because most people watch videos on social media without the sound on. YouTube bots also “read” video captions to understand what the videos are about (and then, in turn, suggest your videos to people searching for related information). What I like to do is edit the auto-generated captions YouTube provides, and then download the captions.srt file from YouTube, to upload to Facebook and LinkedIn.

I also make sure to create a branded thumbnail image for all my videos. I create 1 landscape version and 1 Instagram Stories-sized image to be used for all these promotion purposes.

Note: One helpful part of this video optimization and promotion process is the fact that you can re-use the title and description on most of these social media platforms. You might have to shorten your description when copying and pasting it into a new pin on Pinterest. But having 1 caption that you can use on multiple social media platforms definitely saves time.

My Social Media Video Optimization and Promotion Process

My social media video optimization and promotion process looks like this:

1. Go Live on Facebook using Ecamm. Once the video comes to an end, I export my video file to my YouTube channel as Unpublished, then head over to my Facebook Business Page to optimize the video for Facebook.
2. I make the 2 sizes of my branded video thumbnail image, upload the landscape sized image as a custom thumbnail to my Facebook video and my unpublished YouTube video, and write my video title and description.
3. I finalize the auto-generated YouTube video captions, then export the .srt file.
4. I upload the .srt file to the Facebook video, add video tags, and schedule its publishing.
5. I add end cards and tags to my YouTube video, complete the rest of my YouTube video description, then schedule its publishing.
6. I upload the video file and .srt file to my LinkedIn profile. Then I copy and paste the video description into the LinkedIn post.
7. I upload the video file to Pinterest, add the video title and description plus a few hashtags (pending character limitations), and the landscape thumbnail. Don’t forget to include a link back to a related blog post or service page!
8. I upload the video file to my Creator Studio, add the video title and description, then upload the Instagram Stories-sized image. Then schedule the video to publish to IGTV.
9. I upload the video file to the Photos section of my Google My Business listing. You can also use your video in a Google Post.
10. Once my YouTube video is live, I schedule a repeating tweets with a link to the video over the following few weeks.

Once my process is complete, I’ve made 1 video that is fully-optimized for YouTube and Facebook, and that has also been uploaded on 4 additional channels plus tweeted on my small business’ Twitter account.

There are a lot of steps to take after finishing the recording of each marketing video, but it’s definitely worth it for the maximum exposure – and long-term “life span” – on social media and Google search.