Quickly approaching search engine-levels of both organic and paid content marketing campaigns, social media continues to allow brands and businesses unprecedented access to consumers and audiences. This valuable life-line for brands is largely facilitated by powerhouses such as Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, but there are dozens of networks that can assist brands.

Facebook in particular offers an unprecedented audience in terms of size for both organic and paid marketing campaigns. Through the use of video, you can make a great impression on audiences – assuming you can convince them to watch and engage. Let’s talk about some ways in which you can do just that.

Dress Up the Presentation

The biggest aesthetic factor that determines whether somebody will click on and watch one of your videos is the thumbnail and introductory elements. Brands that can successfully lure in viewers with a flashy thumbnail – and keep their attention for a few seconds with a solid introduction – see dramatic improvements in engagement compared to brands that do not. Ultimately, presentation matters and if you can make a good impression in those first few seconds, you’ll get more clicks and more meaningful views along with it.

Use Native Video

A wealth of data collected from Facebook ad campaigns shows us that pinging servers with videos uploaded directly to Facebook is a more effective strategy than sharing videos from other platforms. In fact, you can expect up to five times as many shares from a video uploaded directly to Facebook as you would from one uploaded to a site such as YouTube that is then posted on Facebook.

While there is temptation to upload a video to one platform and then share it across multiple social media accounts, this can definitively hurt your ability to increase engagement and views, so avoid this course of action.

Hold the Camera Properly

In instances where you are streaming live video or uploading content taken by a mobile device, optimizing the actual format of the video can make a huge difference. By recording videos vertically – or editing them to present as such – you’ll get better reception from the audience. Since this maximizes the amount of screen space you can use, it’ll also help people notice the little details in your video more easily.

Facebook has also recently announced that videos displayed vertically will get more organic reach than videos that display horizontally. As such, be sure to utilize this simple trick to give your videos a better chance of widespread engagement.

Use Excellent Copy

While most social media users scroll quickly, they are accustomed to reading updates from friends and family. The same is true for brands trying to reach these individuals: the right text can make all the difference.

In this case, using good copy can pull in a segment of people who might not be reached by an otherwise well-formatted video. You can use brief descriptions, calls to action and other proven marketing elements to ensure that as many people as possible who read your copy will actually watch the video and/or engage with it.

Promoting video content on Facebook is easy at first glance, but maximizing how many people engage with it is another story. It takes very little work to start pinging servers, but drawing in people and garnering attention requires that your videos be optimized. By using good ad copy, uploading each video directly to Facebook, holding the camera correctly and ensuring elements such as introductions and thumbnails are ideal, you’ll dramatically improve engagement overnight.