Here’s a truism: Every video platform is unique, like a snowflake. That means you can’t just upload the exact same video on six different platforms and call it a day.
Thankfully, we’re here to illustrate the key differences between the YouTubes and Vimeos of the world for you. We aim to teach you how to conduct your company’s actions across these six key video platforms.
Cue the champagne!
Wistia
Wistia is a video hosting platform strictly for sharing, which means you’re more likely to find educational videos than viral cat videos. You can also share your videos easily across a variety of digital platforms, which delivers all SEO credit to your website. Did I mention it’s ad free?
Best for: Website video hosting
CRM integrations: Hubspot, Marketo, Pardot
Content ownership: Creator owns content
Customizable features: No Wistia branding, select your own player color
Analytics: In-house
Live stream capabilities: No
Potential uses: Embed videos on your site, link sharing
Most unique attributes: Credits SEO to your website (not Wistia’s), video heat mapping and viewing trends, no ads
Vimeo
Vimeo is somewhere between YouTube and Wistia in terms of style and capabilities. There are no ads and the player is customizable to your brand, which is a plus. You have the ability to search through videos, embed them within your website, and share them on your social accounts—drum roll, please—with no ads!
Best for: Higher quality content
CRM integrations: None
Content ownership: Creator owns content
Customizable features: Add your own logo, custom outro
Analytics: In-house
Live stream capabilities: No
Potential uses: Product videos
Most unique attributes: 4K quality, no ads
Instagram is a not just a video platform. It is also one of the largest social platforms, and should be utilized with that in mind.
Video content posted to Instagram is limited to 60 seconds, giving you little time to add value and captivate an audience. You’ll find many images and videos posted to IG redirecting users to the user’s bio pages to click a link posted to other forms of content. Live streaming technologies allow for Instagram users to engage with their audience in real-time. Whether that live stream is for content delivery or Q&A, high engagement is never a bad thing. Instagram’s addition of an in-app store allows businesses to add CTAs, as well.
Best for: Sharing company culture, product/service promotion, artsy content
CRM integrations: Sprout Social
Content ownership: Creator owns content
Customizable features: Image filters
Analytics: See CRM integrations
Live stream capabilities: Yes
Potential uses: Product promotion, company culture, and creativity
Most unique attributes: The Instagram Story, in-app store
Snapchat
The phenomenon that is Snapchat is unique in the sense that your content always disappears within a 24 hour period, and can last mere seconds if you’d prefer it to. As a result, the audience isn’t buttoned-up businesspeople, but those seeking raw content that reveals what’s going on behind the curtain at your company. This platforms allows you to develop an intimate relationship with your audience and makes your brand more relatable.
Best for: Behind the scenes content
CRM integrations: Snaplytics
Content ownership: Creator owns content
Customizable features: Filters, Bitmoji
Analytics: 3rd Party
Live stream capabilities: Live one-on-one video calling
Potential uses: Gated access to friendship
Most unique attributes: Deliberately raw content, the Snapchat Story
In an attempt to take over the internet, Facebook added a floating video player back in 2015. The result was millions of users endlessly scrolling through their video feeds, which means plenty of opportunities to have your videos seen.
Due to short attention spans and other distractions Facebook offers, it’s important to keep your content short and visually appealing. Utilizing moving pictures and text can increase your video watch times, and keep in mind that Facebook videos are typically not the 5-minute how-tos you find on YouTube, but tend to be short captivating bursts of film packed with value. The live option for Facebook offers a highly interactive experience. This can be used to entertain or hold Q&As with your audience, with an end goal of engaging (and even converting) them.
Best for: Short-form eye-catching content
CRM integrations: HubSpot and more
Content ownership: Creator owns content
Customizable features: None
Analytics: Facebook Analytics
Live stream capabilities: Yes
Potential uses: Short entertaining videos, short educational content
Most unique attributes: All-in-one social media platform
YouTube
As the world’s second largest search engine, I’m going to assume we’ve all experienced the wonderful world of YouTube. This is where we learn to change our own oil, tie our shoes, and waste countless hours watching cat videos.
Long-form videos tend to do the best in YouTube’s search, as watch-time plays a part YouTube’s algorithm. Live streaming is also available on YouTube with similar features to Facebook, but includes a donation button that allows users to donate directly to content creators.
Best for: Long-form content
CRM integrations: None
Content ownership: Creator owns content
Customizable features: Annotations, cards, video editor
Analytics: YouTube Analytics, Google Analytics
Live stream capabilities: Yes
Potential uses: Long-form entertainment, long-form educational
Most unique attributes: World’s second largest search engine, most populated video platform
Find your style
Don’t feel like you need an account on every single one of these platforms—because you don’t. Your goal should be to find out where your audience hangs out and have a presence there.
Is it your site? YouTube channel? Facebook page? It depends on what you’re marketing and who you’re marketing to. Take a good look at your buyer personas and start planning content for their platforms. We recommend you make use of your company’s style guide to find your own unique video production and content creation methods, and to land on the platforms that matter.
Now you have the gist of each platform, you can find the best video platform to suit your needs and get to creating content!
