If you’re not already incorporating social video into your marketing strategy, it could be the technical side of things holding you back. After all, 84 percent of professional marketers have recently used video marketing, while only 55 percent of small and medium-sized business owners have done so, according to Animoto.
While professional marketers have access to larger budgets and high-end video tools, it may be harder for smaller operations to get a social video marketing plan.
Fortunately, there are a number of free and inexpensive social video apps and tools that businesses of all sizes can use to create engaging videos for use across all social media channels. From quick text animations to photo-based video slideshows to movie-like video storytelling, here are eight social video tools that can help you create your first marketing video before the day is out.
8 social media video apps for marketers
1. Animation
Promise: “Turn your photos and video clips into video slideshows quickly and easily.”
Price: Professional plans start at $26 per month; 14-day free trial.
Animoto lets you select a pre-built storyboard and start adding photos and video clips. You can use collage and split screen tools to show several photos at once, or photos and videos side by side. Add your voiceover or choose from a library of 2,000 songs. Then add some text and share or embed the video directly from the Animoto interface.
Best feature: Square videos option using pre-built storyboards optimized for mobile.
Suitable for: Browser, iOS and Android
2. can be bitten
Promise: “Make animations fully online in minutes.”
Price: There is a free plan, but businesses will want to upgrade to the premium plan for $99 per year to get rid of the Biteable watermark and access additional social media video tools.
Biteable advertises itself as “the world’s simplest video maker”. With a library of pre-rendered scenes, including animations and actual video footage, it makes creating a video as easy as dropping elements into your storyboard and adding some text. You can upload your own footage if you want, but Biteable really shines for those looking for someone else to do most of the heavy lifting.
Best feature: The ability to create complete videos without ever picking up a camera, including real video footage.
Suitable for: browser only
3. GoAnimate
Promise: “Make professional animation videos.”
Price: Plans start at $39 per month ($299/year), but businesses will want to upgrade to the GoPremium plan for $79 per month ($599/year) to remove the GoAnimate watermark and access additional social video tools; 14-day free trial.
GoAnimate differs from Biteable in that it lets you create your own scenes where customized animated characters interact and talk to each other. When you record your own dialogue, the characters’ mouths will automatically synchronize to match the recording.
You can add your own logo, images and audio files to match your video with your brand and stream the video directly to YouTube and other video hosting sites or download and share it on social media. You can also use the video tools suite to create whiteboard animations or video infographics.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=2JGZYBGfEik
Best feature: The ability to create special characters using the character generator so you can create a digital version of yourself, your target customers or any of the key people in your company.
Suitable for: browser only
4. iMovie
Promise: “Turn your videos into movie magic.”
Price: It comes with a new Mac; iOS app $4.99; The macOS app is $14.99.
iMovie is the classic video editing app for the Apple generation. It is a robust video editing program with advanced options such as picture-in-picture, split-screen, and green-screen filming to add custom backgrounds. There’s a library of music, title sequences, and sound effects included, along with a pack of 10 filters to customize the look of your video.
You can post directly to YouTube, Vimeo and Facebook, or export a file to upload to other social channels.
Best feature: You can seamlessly start your video project on your iOS device and finish editing on your Mac.
Suitable for: Mac or iOS
5. legend
Promise: “Words move people | Legend moves words.”
Price: $1.99
Unlike other social media video apps on this list, Legend doesn’t let you combine photos or video clips. Instead, Legend is all about making your words come alive. Animated videos that can only contain a background photo or video clip are up to six seconds long.
You can save your animation as a GIF or video, then post it directly to Instagram or download it to post on other social networks.
Best feature: It only takes two taps (plus entering your text) to create your video.
Suitable for: iOS and Android
6. Sorcerer
Promise: “Magisto turns your daily videos and photos into exciting, memorable movies you’ll want to watch over and over.”
Price: Plans start at $2.49 per month, but marketers will likely want to upgrade to the business plan ($9.99 per month) or the marketers plan ($49.99 per month) for expanded social media video tools and branding capability; seven-day free trial.
Magisto uses artificial intelligence to create videos with virtually no editing. You upload photos and video clips, and video tools like facial recognition and speech recognition work with an “AI-based storytelling engine” to pull things together. If you’re not happy with the auto-editing, you can make manual tweaks.
Best feature: Fully automatic video editing lets you create videos in record time.
Suitable for: Browser, iOS and Android
7. Ripple
Promise: “Create stunning animated posts and share them to Facebook, Twitter and Instagram with one tap.”
Price: Ripl offers a free option, but marketers will likely want to upgrade to Ripl Pro ($9.99 per month) to replace the Ripl logo with their own branding and access other premium social video tools.
This video app combines up to eight photos with your text to create a short animated video that you can post directly to Facebook, Instagram or Twitter, or download to post elsewhere (Pro plan only).
https://youtube.com/watch?v=pBfSr-51h18
Best feature: Create fast, memorable videos from photos without any editing skills.
Suitable for: iOS and Android
8. Spark Video from Adobe
Promise: “Create engaging animated videos in minutes.”
Price: free
This free tool has robust functionality. To get started, choose a prebuilt theme and customize your layout, colors and fonts. Add icons, photos, and video clips yourself or a selection from the extensive library of photos and icons, then complete your video with an animated text overlay. You can add your own narration, choose from the provided audio clips or import your own music and then share directly to your social networks.
Best feature: Video templates guide you to create an engaging video with tips on how to create an effective narrative structure based on your video’s intent.
Suitable for: Browser or iOS.
If you’re keen on using these social video apps and tools but don’t know where to start, check out our quick tips for creating engaging social videos and our post on how to optimize video for different social media channels.
Note: All prices listed are in US dollars.
Ready to put your video marketing plan into action? With Moyens I/O, you can upload, schedule, publish, promote and watch your social videos all from one platform.
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