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It’s August 2020, and I started doing an experiment using animated square videos
The first video was on August 12th – National Vinyl Records Day
The goal was to re-engage with followers and provide something which required no effort from the viewer.
Posting these animated square videos on Facebook (and other Social Media sites) was quick and relatively simple to do.
I create the videos in Screenflow for Mac – and no other software was used.
Each video was used as a Template for later videos, which made the job really straightforward.
The video length is between 10 and 20 seconds, with The Beatles video being 2 minutes – it was too good to clip it shorter!
What I needed to create Square Videos
- a list or two of relevant international and national dates – I used two websites:
- Nationaldaycalendar.com/august and
- Mikekerr.com/fun-wacky-offbeat-theme-days-and-holidays-for-august-humor-at-work
- a couple of animated items e.g. animated backgrounds, a couple of sound waves and a rolling white line or two
- the backgrounds were created by me for earlier projects, and saved as .mp4 to be reused (they are also part of a Square Video Template Package about to be released)
- the sound waves were found on Pexels
- the animate white lines I created for an earlier project, and saved as .mp4 to be reused (they are also part of a Square Video Template Package about to be released)
- the animated green line used as a Progress Bar to indicate the length of the video (is also part of a Square Video Template Package about to be released)
- suitables images were sourced on Pixabay and Pexels, license-free, copyright-free and royalty-free
- I found suitable video clips with Creative Commons CC Licenses on Pixabay and Pexels, no attribution required, suitable for commercial videos (always read the rules before using, and make sure to add the site name in the video file name e.g. dancing-donkeys-pixa.mp4)
- music was sourced on YouTube in the Music Library, and filtered by “no attribution required”, so I wouldn’t need to add the maker’s name to each video.
What is the content of each video?
From the two websites celebrating special dates, I chose a combination of historical references, people to be clebrated, and interesting or funny dates e.g. The National Banana Split Day on August 25:
Q: What do The Beatles and Banana Splits have in common?
A: They are both on the lists for Celebratory Days! :-)
Let’s not forget the Beatles!
Examples of other dates celebrated with Square Videos
Are you left-handed? This one is for you!
August 24 Amelia Earhart is the First Female to Pilot a Transcontinental Non-Stop Flight
August 28 National Red Wine Day
Examples of other non-date-related square videos
Coffee & Cats:
Testimonial Videos:
Business Related Videos:
Quote Videos:
Product Videos:
Want to see the rest of the August experiment using animated square videos?
Pop over to the Facebook Page (new window) >>
Did Using Animated Square Videos on Social Media help to Engage with Followers?
Was the goal reached for this video experiment?
So far – yes! The increase in views on the videos on different social sites has been great, 100% increase in the first few days.
Is it worthwhile to continue making this daily effort?
Absolutely yes — but perhaps in a different way.
I can definitely keep doing the daily celebration videos.
Or I can think outside the box for MY website and business and come up with some other clever ideas for these VERY short videos. For example I can:
- review the transcripts of previous videos I’ve created and posted on my site (and on YouTube etc) and pick out a couple of relevant phrases or bullet points
- I can make quick square videos using the relevant phrase — or I could “clip” the audio from the video and add THAT to a short video — like a “teaser”, and add a link to either the YouTube video or my website, depending on which outcome I preferred
- I could make 3 x 5-10 second short square videos using 3 phrases from one of my videos, and add those to my marketing calendar, drip feeding one at a time a few days apart, which would keep the help those videos get new eyes over a much longer period of time
- I could make 3 x 5-10 second short square Teaser videos for a Podcast episode, drip feeding one at a time a few days apart, which would keep the help those videos get new eyes over a much longer period of time
- in fact, there are so many ways I could use these!
Join Us For the 3 Day Square Video Challenge
Ready to make one of these yourself? Fantastic! I will provide:
- one square background Template 800×800 px
- link to find free legal music clip of your choice
- link to find free and legal video clip (or use your own)
- instructions via step-by-step video tutorial
- Support via a Private Facebook Group.
If you’re happy with your new square video, let me know :-)
Sign up >>
So stay tuned for more experiments and more videos
Do please let me know which videos you like.
If you’d like to make your own videos and share them with me, please do send me the links and I’ll add them to this page to share with others who might be considering doing the same.
If you’d like me to create a Tutorial showing how I create my square videos, let me know:
Have fun with making new square videos!
Cheers
Teena Hughes