Jay LeonardWant to start sharing Facebook video posts, but cannot hire a video creation team? Let us show you just how you can improve your reach at little to no extra cost by learning to create videos via easy-to-use online video editing tools.
The age old saying goes that a picture says a thousand words and this is true. Even disregarding the artistic aspect of the metaphor, by checking out one’s social media feed, you’d be bombarded with photos and pictures that tell a story.
A photo might seem like a great way to boost engagement compared to a simple text-based post on Facebook. However, as the stats from our most recent Facebook report show, video posts still have the biggest reach and engagement.
Running a social marketing agency or simply being in control of the feed of a certain brand, you most likely aren’t happy with these statistics.
Going from sharing a status to sharing photos is relatively easy. All you need to do is hire a designer or take up the designing of the picture posts yourself. Not to mention, most gifs are free and shareable and there are a ton of free stock images that might serve the purpose.
Yet, to go from photos to videos things go astray. A proper video usually consists of a script, professional footage, editing and production. Anything else than that simply isn’t professional.
In fact, there is a huge list of drawbacks with regard to video creation, especially for smaller social media management teams. Just a portion of it consists of the amount of manpower and effort it takes to create a video, not to mention the knowledge of editing, script writing and producing.
At this point, for the purpose of a few short Facebook video posts, you’ve either expanded your operation to a full-fledged Hollywood production studio, or spent thousands hiring freelancers to deliver work that doesn’t even come close to your initial vision.
Even if you were to take up the task on your own, you’d have to own proper software, right? Anything short of Adobe Premier Pro, or using a free video editing tool, would be like ditching Adobe Photoshop for Paint. At least that’s what most people believe in.
Nevertheless, similarly to how Pixlr Editor is a free substitute of Adobe Photoshop, that is freely available online, there are a ton of free online video editing tools, that might just do the job.
Making a Professional Facebook Video at Little to No Cost
The way people interact with their Timeline on Facebook has changed ever since Facebook Video was introduced. From a consumer perspective, scrolling through your timeline, you often get engaged with a variety of videos. Remember watching the whole of that glass blowing video?
Whether shared through their friends or directly posted from pages a person has liked, people tend to engage with autoplay videos in a consistent manner.
To make a professional-looking video for Facebook, you’d have to take note of a few factors, even before going to create, edit and finalize your video.
1. What’s the idea? – Your video has to present a certain idea. Before making it, make sure to go through what you want your video to say or represent.
2. What’s the style? – Facebook videos are often quite different than videos on YouTube for example. In fact, NowThis learned this the hard way. Boasting huge success over on Facebook through an editing style that emphasises the visual representation of information in a short manner, the company didn’t perform that well when transitioning to YouTube.
The two most popular styles of videos include the aforementioned NowThis style and the work-snapshot style of videos that show the process of creating a certain item or the production process of a product.
With that in mind, consider that your video is much like a presentation and think of including as much on-screen information as possible in the smallest amount of words possible in the best visual way.
3. Write the script – Don’t forget to write your script. This process should be similar to writing an article and doesn’t require fancy script writing and editing, as long as you and your team understand how the script should transform into a video.
4. Shoot the video – If you need certain footage, do shoot the video. For Facebook, you won’t need a professional camera and usually using your smartphone should do, as long as you take note of lighting and have a vision for quality. Have access to a DSLR? That’s even better.
5. Gather any additional resources online – Make sure to gather the resources you need online and save them in a folder to keep track of your project. If needed, make sure that your designer creates the imagery needed for your video. If you are on a budget, you can also use free stock images, free stock video and more.
Once you have everything gathered, you can proceed with the editing process. Here are a few online video editing tools that will help you create the best Facebook video possible.
Are there any Free Online Video Editing Tools?
Let’s address the elephant in the room. There are no free online video editing tools. The only ones you will be able to find are somewhat sketchy and others are simply free versions that require you to pay a licence to download your video or remove the watermark. This is primarily due to the complicated nature of video editing. Nevertheless, we’ve included a list of some of the best tools.
Completely Free Online Video Editing Tools
Youtube Editor – For the purpose of cutting and combining a few videos together and putting music on top of them, YouTube editor is your best free choice. Nevertheless, it is extremely limited in features and most of the time it’s only good for adding finalizing touches to your already edited video.
Clipchamp – Clipchamp allows you to edit up to five videos per month for free. Nevertheless, it is not a full video editor. Instead, it offers you to trim, convert and adjust your videos. It doesn’t really allow you to create professional-looking Facebook videos, but nonetheless, it is a good tool to keep in mind in the process when needed. The app also has advanced plans that allow you to edit bigger files and more.
Stupeflix – Stupeflix is an amazing video solution for creating free videos online. The way it works is that it allows you to pick a style, upload your photos and videos, choose a soundtrack and your video is ready. While the styles are limiting and there are no exact editing options, it is a great tool to create snappy professional-looking Facebook videos. What’s more, it doesn’t have a watermark during the video and allows you to create, download and share an unlimited amount of videos. However, it does include a Stupeflix at the end of the created video.
Limited Video Editing Software
PowToon – PowToon is one of the best online video tools around. Letting you create amazing animation videos with ease, the only drawback the app has is its slight learning curve. What’s more, it doesn’t let you edit videos, but is more of a complete video creation tool for animation. It is free in a sense that you can try it out, but you can’t really download or use your finished videos unless you get on a priced plan.
WeVideo – WeVideo is the most popular online video editing software tool for a reason. With it, you are able to create amazing videos, but you’d still have to pay to remove the WeVideo watermark from your video and as a whole, their ‘free’ membership is extremely limited. The upside is that you can test out the product, before deciding if it’s going to help you out in your Facebook video creation process.
Loopster – Loopster is similar to WeVideo in its pricing strategy. It is quite an intuitive video editor that allows you to do pretty much everything you need to create a professional-looking Facebook video without much hassle. The only downside is that you’d have to work extra hard to make the 90s style of fonts and colors work to your liking and design preferences.
Animoto – Animoto is an extremely intuitive and easy to use video editing software. With it, you’d be able to quickly make a professional looking Facebook video by arranging your videos and photos and adding text and music where required. The app also has a free trial, so you can check it out and see whether it works for you. The only downside is that during your free trial your videos will be watermarked.
Moovly – Moovly is probably the most affordable online video option currently on the market. It is quite intuitive and provides you with some great video editing capabilities.
Facebook Video Boosts Engagement
Facebook video is becoming more and more popular on the infamous social networking platform. In fact, as aforementioned, our most recent Facebook Report shows, video still has the biggest reach and engagement.
In fact, this was as true in April of 2017, as it was in the whole of 2016. And the most probable scenarios is that this won’t change anytime soon. If you want more stats like this, make sure to follow our blog or check out the full free trial of Locowise for 7-days right here.
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This article was written for Business 2 Community by Jay Leonard.
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This article has lot of tools mentioned to create a video. I need to create a Facebook cover videos and other short videos for my Facebook page. Can anyone help me to choose or recommend a tool that is inexpensive and has an easy interface?