Top Video Social Media Platforms in 2021

It’s true that by 2021, video will account for 80% of all web traffic. We’ll focus on the most popular, promising, and profitable ones in use today. While platforms like Facebook and YouTube continue to attract users in their hundreds of millions, there are plenty of newcomers with distinct advantages for businesses and products of all types through the audiences they attract.

When you are ready to start adding video to your social media marketing campaign, contact Media Northeast for ideas, tips, advice, and expert know-how. We’re ready to make beautiful branded films for your product, service, or business.

1. Instagram Videos

Stripped-back, nothing-but-essentials social media posts, Instagram is wildly popular among users and businesses. Its business accounts grew to 25 million since 2013 — all run by people who know that the app is a surefire way to catch the attention of over 1 billion users.

Available Formats 

Landscape, square, and portrait/vertical

Max Video Length

15 seconds for Instagram Stories, 10 minutes for Instagram TV, 60 seconds for all others.

Ideal Audience

  • Instagram is the platform for entertainment, fashion, and media brands, as well as (famously) food. It’s a particularly good way to reach those under the age of 35, who make up 65% of the platform’s active user base, but with over 1 billion daily users, it’s hard to go wrong with reaching a variety of demographics.

2. LinkedIn Videos

LinkedIn has recently enjoyed a boom in popularity among professionals and thought leaders who use it to quickly and convey core concepts from their respective fields of expertise. Video content is consumed by 75% of business owners every week, making LinkedIn a perfect place for B2B communication. Videos on LinkedIn see share rates more than 20 times higher than other forms of content. LinkedIn content should be informative and professional but friendly and interesting in tone.

Available Formats

Cinema scope landscape and portrait/vertical

Max Video Length

10 minutes for shared videos, 30 minutes for ads. However, LinkedIn recommends 15 seconds for best performance.

Ideal Audience

  • Longer average supported runtimes and an extensive catalog of editing options make this platform stand out as a way to reach professional audiences interested in tutorials, documentary-style film, and live broadcasts explaining your work and the benefits.

3. Twitter Videos

Twitter is the go-to for sports, entertainment, and current events. Videos and ads are presented in identical formats in a seamless stream, so users organically encounter both as they explore their feeds. Because these videos play automatically and perform best in shorter lengths, viewers are more likely to watch them all the way through, consider the content actively, and remember the point of the video and the branding.

Available Formats

Landscape and portrait/vertical

Max Video Length

140 seconds.

Ideal Audience

  • Twitter has a strong presence among young professionals in the English-speaking world. It also has tens of millions of users in China, India, and Japan, many of whom use it to track short segments of political news, music, TV, film releases, and influencers.

4. Snapchat Videos

Snapchat is built on the back of short, snappy videos attracting 229 million daily users, over half of whom are 15-25 years of age. If you have a range of products to advertise, these can be inserted organically into a purpose-built story which gives viewers control over how and when to watch. You also have the option to create 15-second videos or single image ads for unobtrusive, but memorable, content.

Available Formats

Landscape and portrait/vertical

Max Video Length

10 seconds for standard video, 15 seconds for ads.

Ideal Audience

  • Viewers younger than 25 years of age interested in eye-catching clips focused on current topics and trends in entertainment, fashion, and sport. Snapchat works best for video content when used in conjunction with other sites like Facebook, particularly if you’re trying to build a wide base of awareness. Remember that usership drops off sharply among age groups older than 25.

5. YouTube

YouTube has a reach like no other video-focused social media site, with 2 billion users worldwide and strong appeal across all demographics. Nearly 5 billion videos are watched on the site every day on both the desktop site and on mobile apps, hosting longer content comfortably and simply while providing ample ground for short pre-video ads.

Available Formats

Landscape only; vertical videos are automatically ‘pillar-boxed’

Max Video Length

  • Skippable Video Ad – 5 seconds
  • Non-Skippable Video Ad – 15 seconds
  • Mid-roll Video Ad –  available for content longer than 10 minutes. Can be skippable, but users must watch 30 seconds or the entire ad, whichever is shorter.
  • Bumper Video Ads – 6 seconds
  • Standard videos – 12 hours 

Ideal Audience

  • Everyone uses YouTube, from teenagers to the retired. The best way to boost engagement and awareness is through featured playlists. These encourage viewers to click through to more content just because they play automatically, anchoring your image and name firmly with an audience.

6. Facebook Video

Facebook is great for shared videos and ads with tons of options for formats and new features. Viewers are more likely to engage with honest, down-to-earth videos showing surprising but believable situations that get straight to the point. Memorable or surprising hooks are more likely to drive engagement and shares.

Available Formats

Landscape, portrait/vertical, 360° immersive video, square, right-hand column

Max Video Length

  • Shared post video – 120 minutes
  • 360 video – 40 minutes
  • Desktop news feed link video – 120 minutes
  • Carousel video ads – 30 seconds
  • Collection video ads (mobile) – 120 minutes
  • Canvas video ads in the news feed (mobile) – 120 minutes
  • Autoplay video within canvas ad (mobile) – 120 minutes
  • Slideshow video ad – 120 minutes
  • Facebook Stories – 15 seconds

Ideal Audience

  • Facebook is projected to reach 1.69 billion users in 2020, with even distribution among all demographics. Essentially, it’s a catch-all that can be tweaked to function as an efficient platform for all content types depending on your audience. Despite the long runtimes supported, it’s best to keep videos fairly short, with Facebook themselves recommending a length of 5-15 seconds.

7. TikTok Videos

TikTok is one of China’s most significant social media exports, blossoming into the third most downloaded app worldwide with over 800 million users. Similar to other platforms favoring ultra-short video content, it capitalizes on 15-second shorts featuring popular topics like food, sport, athletic apparel, and fashion.

Available Formats

Landscape and portrait/vertical

Max Video Length

15 seconds or four 15-second segments for 60 seconds total.

Ideal Audience

  • TikTok’s appeal partly lies in the relaxed, homemade appearance of its best-performing content. Users are keen to engage with visually surprising and clever videos of ideally 16 seconds.

8. Vimeo Videos

Vimeo has earned a reputation for more artisanal content than near-parallel YouTube, as demonstrated by its unlimited running time for full members. Its special business package, Vimeo Business, offers analytics, marketing insights, and advice for calls to action, placing a hefty array of controls in your hands when it comes to spreading the word about your business.

Available Formats

Landscape

Max Video Length

Unlimited for full members.

Ideal Audience

  • Vimeo offers unbeatable options for video and subtitle formats as well as terrific support for audio. This makes it perfect for film creators, animators, and musicians. Users are highly likely to visit the site for pop-up and banner-ad-free content which is longer and more in-depth.

Ready to start you video social media campaigns? Contact Media Northeast for more information.