How can you use video to create a sense of continuity across different platforms?

A useful way to frame the brief is to think about what you want your audience to think, feel and do. This will focus your thinking around the content of the questions, the emotions you want to evoke in the viewer and what the call to action is.

build in branding elements if it's an organization. If it's your personal brand, you can use hashtags that tells your umbrella story.

A great way to create continuity across all platforms is to be consistent, while also remembering to keep it simple. Don't overthink your imagery and graphics. Stick to what you've developed. Focus on formatting, exporting, and uploading your content correctly according to what the platform asks for. Often we see folks uploading the same 16x9 video they paid a lot of money for across all platforms and it doesn't display correctly. Do a bit of research as to what sizes are best for each platform or make sure whoever you're hiring to produce content is confident in their different deliverables. Once you've nailed the basic display requirements across all of your platforms for your launch or campaign ad, then you can start experimenting.

Story boarding is one of the best ways to “feel” a video out before investing time and money into a production firm or your own video. Draw and write your video scene by scene that float it by a few people before moving forward. It will help and save lots of time.

Here's what has helped the different brands I've worked for over the years: 1. Brand Consistency: Keep your logo, color scheme, and style elements the same across all videos. 2. Tailor Content for Each Platform: Adapt your videos to suit each platform’s unique audience and format. 3. Cross-Platform Storytelling: Create a story that unfolds across different platforms, linking them together. 4. Optimize for Platform Specifications: Adjust videos to fit each platform’s aspect ratio and length requirements. 5. Leverage Platform-Specific Features: Use unique features of each platform, like Instagram Stories or YouTube’s longer format. 6. Analytics and Feedback: Use platform analytics and audience feedback to refine your video strategy.

The only thing I’d say about scripts is that they’re not always necessary. They’re hard to write and harder to deliver. It’s important to get your ideas and content structured in a script but unless you’re trained, focus on communicating the essence of your message rather than doing it word for word. If you’re a beginner with video, get into the habit of structuring your messaging in a natural way - aka write it as you’d say it. It’ll get easier with practice but there’s nothing worse than a flat, delivery without any personality.

You can write a script if you are good at it, or that might be written for you already by whoever commissioned the video. Some choose to do a shot list or a storyboard, which could be quiet effective. This can help identify any gaps and visualise it better for the video sponsor. Also, it is super helpful on the actual shoot days and post-production.

Or don't script it. I use the post it note strategy, a title, 3-5 bullet points about the topic then i'm away. Don't over think it just focus on what you want to share.

One thing to keep in mind, is always checking back in with your “why?”, to see if what you’ve done so far aligns with the reason you’ve set upon this particular campaign. As you build the storyboard/scripts/shot list, and move through into the shooting and editing, keeping the “why?” at the centre will help keep the core messaging strong and upfront, regardless of how you may have to edit the video for each platform.

In today’s world the first look at a thumbnail and the first 5 seconds are more important than the entire rest of the video. If nobody clicks, nobody watches.

Unless you are a huge company, make a video that comes naturally to you and your company. Use humans and give it personality. Different is better than perfect.

Every aspect of your video is telling something about you or the brand you are working with, if the camera moves or not, if the image is full of color or light, if you use music as background or design some special room tone, nothing is random when you are planning a campaign, each decision is leaving a message in your audience and contributes or not to achieve your goals. As a cinematographer I’ve learned that sometimes less is more and that everything should be aimed to accomplish the final objective, every layer of your project should support the message you want to spread, nothing should steal the staring role of the idea you are trying to communicate, each thing highlights certain points but never outstandingly over the message.

Companies often have brand guidelines and set 'tone of voice'. It is important to check that before deciding on style and format. Always refer back to the goal of the video and the target audience to define clearly the style. Where possible, you can do A/B testing as well.

I think the BIGGEST opportunity in social media for small brands is the ability to cross-post content with NO CHANGES across platforms. In the case of Tik Tok & Instagram Reels especially, I’ve found that there’s no need to change content for it to perform well on both platforms. This is highly efficient. AND INTERESTINGLY - it can also act as an insurance policy on your content, a video that performs poorly on one platform will often perform better on the other. In this way, your losses are smaller by reaching the maximum audience, and your wins are multiplied across platforms. As a caveat, whilst this applies to YouTube Shorts, my experience has been that this platform has a slightly different style to Reels and Tik Tok.

Understanding the preferred video dimensions across different platforms is a very simple thing but it makes all the difference. As the example suggests, some platforms are prescriptive on the formatting but for something like LinkedIn - test out vertical (9:16) and square (1:1) to see what works best. Not all video styles lend themselves to each dimension. Regardless of all that, to maximise your video output, you should plan how to chop up your video into different formats and post on different platforms. For example, if you make a 5 minute horizontal video (16:9) then you can look to create 2-3 30-60 second snippets from that video to post on Reels or Shorts.

This is where recording at a higher resolution than your intended post resolution can make or break you, if you try making a 16:9 video 9:16 you will lose a lot of quality if you don’t have a high enough resolution on the original video. Also understanding your target audience is equally important. While a Facebook Reel may be the ideal solution in reaching a younger generation (although Facebook shouldn’t be your target platform for that), if you’re trying to reach an older audience who has issues using their phone in general, you may still want to post your video horizontally and make sure it shows up in their feed where they are more used to seeing it.

This is non-negotiable nowadays. Instagram and TikTok don't need to be different in terms of content but, TikTok may upload or compress your video differently to Instagram. Make sure you're up to date on settings to export your videos in so they don't upload looking like they were filmed on a 7-megapixel camera. Experiment with bitrates and find a balance between file size and quality.

Determine Specific Platforms and Stick to them: Beginning with too many platforms may not be a wise decision. Inconsistency tends to occur due to heavy pressure of creating regular content. On the contrary, publishing videos in only 1 platform may not bring you the desired result. So, it is recommended to start with 2 or 3 platforms at the beginning. Decide the platforms based on your business requirements. For example, if you're an English teacher offering online tutoring, Facebook and YouTube are the best options for you. If you're running a real estate business, a blend of Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube might be the most suitable option for you. However, depending on other factors, this may change. So, expert advice is needed.

Try to be distinct not perfect! Is always a “Why” behind each story. Make sure to show what is your differentiator, what actually makes you different than others, than your competitors and put your story in images, exactly like it is! Naturalness, sincerity weigh more than any commercial story

iomedia.tv aims to create videos as audio visual assets to promote organizations and businesses vision and mission online on computer and on tv. Since many organizations host free public events to promote their causes and membership as part of social life, event videos give a viewer a preview of their annual events. Businesses too have events to promote their products and services to the public. They use video ad commercials as a quick information tool.

Here are some additional tips for using video to create a sense of continuity across different platforms: 1. Use cross-platform storytelling: Create a story that unfolds across different platforms, linking them together. 2. Use analytics and feedback: Use platform analytics and audience feedback to refine your video strategy.