9 Ways to Repurpose Event Footage into Your Social Media Video Marketing Plan

In today’s fast-paced world, social media is an ever-changing landscape but one thing remains constant- a strong digital footprint helps brands and organizations build awareness, increase visibility, engage customers, establish loyalty and reach potential clients directly through their mobile device or laptop.

One of the most effective ways to increase your ROI and leverage the power of your social media video marketing plan is to repurpose event coverage and put its content to work in a series of engaging ways. In the past, brands filmed live events solely as a means to preserve them for their archives without taking into consideration the multitude of other uses the content could be used for. Not anymore! Today the savviest of marketers understand that corporate events can serve as content hubs, affording us the opportunity to plan, produce and capture material onsite to be utilized far beyond the lifespan of the event itself.

When done correctly, video can play a key role in marketing your business. According to The Search Engine Journal, YouTube is the second most popular search engine after Google which confirms the stronghold that images have on people. In fact, social media platforms set their algorithms to prioritize video content over text-only posts so chances are by simply employing visuals, you’re likely to boost the amount of viewers that see your post.

Here are 9 ways you can repurpose your event footage into your social media video marketing plan today:

Highlight Reel

Create a reel of captured moments from award ceremonies to product reveals and launches to capture viewer interest and generate buzz. This could also be used as a vehicle to build excitement for a forthcoming product or service launch. A promotional tool like this is best used post-event when you have lots of great content and could be shared across all your social media platforms.

Red Carpet Moments Montage

Create a virtual Who’s Who montage featuring honorees, performers and industry executives from previous events that you can share throughout all your event stages. Post the montage on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube to initiate pre-event buzz and build hype for the latest event, play a video clip onsite at your event highlighting past supporters and to showcase your sphere of influence or share it in a post-event social media recap. Don’t forget to tag those included people in the video and provide them with a shareable asset to help build your audience.

Behind the Scenes Look

People love getting a sneak peek about what goes on behind the scenes so let them get a glimpse behind the curtain from some of your past events. Generate some excitement by showing footage of uncorking champagne bottles, setting up tablescapes, band rehearsals, honorees practicing their remarks, anything that gives viewers an insider’s look at the pre-event happenings. These videos can be shared at the event from happenings earlier in the week or that day itself to give attendees a look at all the moving parts that were put into play to pull off the event they’re at. Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Twitter are all good channels to post this type of content and by tagging performers, honorees, vendors and the venue itself you can boost the likelihood of your video being shared by the parties involved and gain more views organically.

Live Feed

While a live feed is a great way to build onsite excitement and boost public interest in real time, you can also repurpose that footage post-event across your social media channels, allowing those that missed the event to feel like a part of it.

Share Attendee-Generated Event Content

Create a universal hashtag for your event and be sure to include it in all your marketing materials as well as prominently at the event itself. This is a strategic way to get your attendees to share their own content during and after the event and help build your own content library.

Be sure to search social media for your hashtag during and after your event and share user-generated content on your platforms, crediting the original poster and engaging them in conversation.

Visual Testimonial

Customer testimonials are an effective medium allowing brands the opportunity to humanize their products and services. In a world of “Show Me versus Tell Me”, videos are able to convey your message visually. Whether it’s a moving story about how your product allowed someone to feel better and spend more time with their loved ones, to sharing how your service cut hours from someone’s workload to a feature on how your product makes it way to someone’s breakfast table, video brings your messaging to life so be sure to engage people at your events by asking them on-camera questions or doing brief on-site interviews to build up your content library. You’ll need to put a strategy in place before the event to ensure you capture everything you need to make this happen onsite. These testimonials can be promoted across all your social media channels and be sure to tag the people in your videos too so they can share your work.

Email Signature Line

Put your event coverage to work for you daily by adding a hyperlink to your email signature line with the event highlight video that aligns with your organization’s mission. This is a good way to pique interest and share information with everyone you correspond with via email throughout the year. You might even consider changing the link to feature different footage during the year depending on your calendar of events. For instance, if it’s time for your annual charity run, link your signature line to highlight footage from last year’s run.

Call to Action Directive

We’ve all seen the online directives to Buy now, Register here, Learn More or Make a Difference and Donate Today. What better way to encourage people to take the next step than by showing others who already have? Whether you are using video snippets of families participating in your charity walk, black-tie clad donors waving an auction paddle in the air to support your cause or corporate changemakers making progress, let your visual content from past events drive viewers to take future action. Just to be sure you capture this action at all your events you have it for future use.

Save the Date Teaser

Whether you’re getting ready to announce an upcoming conference, non-profit gala or product launch, a great way to spark initial interest and build excitement across your social media channels is to showcase past event coverage. Posting this type of content will allow you to effectively highlight your previous work while directing viewers to your website for more details about your upcoming event. Facebook,Instagram stories and Linked In are all excellent platforms for this type of promotion.

While these are all great ways to begin extending the life of your event footage, it is by no means an exhaustive list, in fact it is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of the myriad of things you can do to take your social media video marketing to the next level. Spending the time in advance of your event to determine the best ways to curate and capture onsite content to utilize for future use can save you both time and money down the line.

To get started, True Film Production would like to extend an invitation to you for a 15-minute complimentary discovery session to discuss how you can make the most of your event content and create more opportunities to utilize it as part of your brand’s social media video marketing strategy. During this interactive session, you will have the opportunity to share in detail what you’d like to achieve and learn how we can help you get the results you deserve.

To book your free session, email info@truefilmproduction.com