Where to Post? Comparing Platforms for Hosting Business Video Content
- 21 hours ago
- 3 min read
The Best Social Media Platforms to Host Your Corporate Videos
In last week's blog post, we explored tips and tricks for creating B2B marketing videos; this week, we'll dive into the best places to host those videos. While it’s not a platform, we always urge our clients to keep a copy of the original (uncompressed) video file on a physical hard drive. This is the best way to prevent losing the video forever. We’ve heard horror stories of people uploading files to Facebook for “safe keeping,” only for the site to find an issue with their videos and delete the account, permanently losing all of the content. To be really safe, we even recommend keeping your most important videos on two separate hard drives (in case one crashes). Once your videos are safe and sound on drives, it's time to get posting--but where? Keep reading for the inside scoop on the best social media platforms to host your videos.
1) Vimeo for a Professional Video Player
Imagine you're researching corporate brands to hire for a service. You narrow your choices down to two companies that you'd like to work with--one's About video is high-quality with no ads, and the other's video, while very professional in itself, is significantly lower quality and sandwiched between ads. Which brand would give you the better impression? If you're looking to nail your video marketing strategy and host your corporate videos on a polished, minimalist platform, Vimeo is just the thing. This social media platform sets itself apart from others by having a sleek design and no ads, facilitating better control over a viewer's experience and impression of your video. In fact, Vimeo's player is customizable, allowing you to adjust the colors and logos to fit your brand and block additional content from being shown on your video's page. The only downside to using Vimeo to host your corporate video marketing is the price. The free account is very limited, with only 1gb of total uploads and no setting to make videos private. While subscription tiers start at $144 per year, it can be worth the investment.
2) Wistia for a Marketing Platform
Like Vimeo, Wistia offers high-quality video hosting with a range of customizable options. The free account even starts with 25gb of storage and private sharing. Further, we love that this platform even provides extensive guides and resources for brands just breaking into video marketing. What really makes Wistia shine, however, is its marketing tools. With a paid account, it offers in-video CTA's, lead capture forms, email integration, and Google analytics. Wistia also offers a "Channels" feature, allowing users to host a group of related video marketing content in one professional showcase page. This is perfect for branded video playlists and keeping viewers engaged in the content relevant to them. The platform recommends making Channels for product updates, FAQ, customer service, meet the company/employee introductions, and testimonials and reviews. The downside, however, is the cost. Paid accounts are pricy, starting at $948 per year. Nevertheless, for its mass amounts of analytic and marketing features, a paid account is a worthwhile investment for mid-sized companies.
3) YouTube to Boost Video and Website SEOs
Even if this isn’t the main link you direct audiences to view your videos, YouTube is a must. Unlike Vimeo and Wistia, this social media platform is owned by Google. In turn, the search engine pulls SEOs and key phrases from YouTube to feed results, potentially guiding users to your videos and/or website. To make the most of this, your video titles and descriptions need to be detailed with key phrases. You'll also need to be sure that auto-captions are turned on, allowing search engines to scrub the content of your video. We love that YouTube offers free unlimited uploads, supporting videos up to 12 hours long for verified accounts. However, in general, the YouTube player is very unprofessional. Not only are there tons of ads, but the platform often defaults to autoplay, taking viewers to a different channel (and more ads). Additionally, YouTube compresses all videos you upload. This means that they automatically reduce the quality of the file, permanently breaking down the resolution of the hosted video. Regardless, as long as you're able to keep the original video file to preserve quality, YouTube is the perfect starting point for all businesses looking to host corporate video marketing content.
Angela Wolf Video offers corporate video production services near Philadelphia, PA.
Do you have a specific video question? Schedule a free video analysis call at bit.ly/callawv