Video has changed the way companies and business market themselves online and especially on social media. When it comes to videos they post and the way they are produced, area experts say things are continuing to evolve.

Conventional wisdom used to be that any video posted online had to look and "feel" professional, but consumers of social media video now prefer "less polished" content.

"Ten years ago you would have wanted the CEO of the corporation with hair and makeup done, professional lighting and a clean, scripted video," explains Nic Skovgaard of Herrin-based AlterEgo Marketing. "Now, in 2022, video has changed. It is such that you can roll out of bed in the morning and tell a story about what is happening, share it and people don't feel like you're putting up something fake; they can relate to it and feel like you're letting them in behind the scenes."

Skovgaard said videos - mostly thanks to the predominance of TikTok and other short-format video providers - have gotten less formal, less staged and shorter. There also has been another significant change: the orientation of the camera.

"There is no such thing as horizontal video anymore," he emphatically states. "If I were to give one piece of advice for online video, it would be to never turn your camera sideways again."

Skovgaard said a transformation is taking place with video right now and it is one that he doesn't expect to end.

"In fact, I think you are going to see televisions and computer monitors all change orientation in the next five years," he said.

The reason for the change is simple, said Austin Armstrong of Sociality Pro in Alexandria, Virginia. Armstrong is a recognized leader in video marketing.

"Vertical video has become the mass-adopted format now and it is really just a reduction of steps," Armstrong explains. "We naturally hold our phones in a vertical position, but we would twist our wrist and incorporate a second hand, holding the phone sideways to watch a horizontal video. Most people are now consuming all of their content from their phone so it a reduction in the steps. It's easier for people to hold their phone the same way they do for everything else."

Armstrong said vertical video was first featured in Snapchat, but it has been the TikTok social media platform that revolutionized video.

"It is the fastest growing social media platform ever and it has forced the hand of the every other platform to push vertical video content. You are going to start seeing vertical video everywhere: Vertical screens in hotels and restaurants and airports and more," he said.

Tom Harness of Harness Digital Marketing in Herrin said up to now, there have been distinctions in the way horizontal and vertical videos were trusted.

"For a long time, we have really conditioned ourselves to believe that landscape videos were more credible and vertical was more entertainment," he said, adding that business and organizational leaders who are more comfortable and creative can benefit from vertical video.

Britni Bateman of Brainstorm Boutique in Marion said video has turned because simply because of phone users.

"You have to meet your audience where they are, and for the longest time people were doing wide video on social media, hoping that people would turn their phones, but people aren't doing that anymore, so we have to make the experience more streamlined and seamless for them," she said.

Her advice for businesses and organizations is simple.

"Be willing to embrace whatever the trend is now and do it in a way that is accessible for your target audience," she said.

Shawnee Community College Executive Director of Public Information and Marketing Kevin Hunsperger said shooting vertical video is tough for him to get used to as he spent more than 20 years working in broadcast television - a horizontal format.

"It doesn't feel natural for me to record videos vertically, but I'm getting used to it," he said. "I still think there's a market for the horizontal videos, but most of the social media platforms are set up for vertical."

Hunsperger said he recently shot some video for the college and used two smartphones to capture video - one set horizontally and the other vertical. He uses the vertical ones for TikTok and Instagram, for example, and he will use horizontal for the college's YouTube channel and for distribution to television stations.

Skovgaard is adamant in his belief.

"I'm telling you, TikTok has completely changed that game and everyone else is copying it. I would tell you there is no reason from this day forward to shoot any video landscape unless you are doing it for television."

Armstrong agreed.

"Vertical video is not going away," he said. "I think it is just going to get bigger and it is the new format for online video content," he said

 - TNS