Whether you’re working from a personal Twitter account, or you’re handling a brand’s social media presence, one thing is undeniable: video content gets more likes, more views, more retweets, and of course, more engagement.
Over the past decade, video content overtook all other forms of content in terms of accessibility, enjoyability, and engagement, with experts predicting that this is not just a trend, but rather, a complete shift towards video as the primary source of content for internet users.
To put it simply, these Twitter statistics should explain it:
- 8/10 of active users access Twitter via their mobile devices
- Reasons for watching Twitter video: 30% news, 30% entertainment, 30% social, 28% new and interesting things, 24% viral activity
- In-stream video advertisements increased the desire to purchase by 6%
- 93% of all video shared on Twitter are viewed on mobile devices
- What users want from video: 51% breaking news, 49% information, 48% viral content, 40% entertainment, and 37% celebrity
- Twitter boasts 1.3 billion accounts, of which 391 million have no followers
- Tweets with images generate 150% more retweets
- Video tweets on Twitter have 10 times more engagement than regular tweets
- Tweets that were promoted with video saved an incredible 50% on cost per engagement
- There are some 67 million MAUs (monthly active users) on Twitter in the US
It also helps that Twitter reported that tweets with videos were 300% more likely to be retweeted, as compared to tweets with GIFs, and a whopping 600% more likely to be RT’d as compared to tweets with photos. It’s this statistic that has pushed Twitter into overtaking video streaming giant YouTube as the number one source of interesting videos for people to watch.
It’s also worth noting that those statistics describe organic reach: a plenary majority of video views on Twitter come from people just stumbling on them on their feed rather than being presented to them as a sponsored ad. It’s a powerful statement that says Twitter’s video engagement is off the charts, and even short videos get so many eyeballs on them that it would make TV networks blush.
How to Embed a YouTube Video on Twitter?
In order to embed a YouTube video on Twitter, you need to do so via the YouTube website or app. First, go to the video you want to RT or embed on Twitter.
At the bottom, there should be an arrow labeled “Share Link”. Click this, and you’ll be prompted to copy the link to your clipboard. This can be posted on any social media platform, and on Twitter, you can either post the URL of the video itself or copy-paste the HTML code that comes with the “Share Link” button.
Simply tweet the link (which will show up as a shortened link), or the HTML code, and the video will appear on your follower’s feeds.
But what if you’re not on your laptop or desktop? How can you embed YouTube videos on your iPhone or Android?
How to Embed Videos on iPhone or Android
- Open the YouTube app on your iPhone.
- Navigate to a video and tap on it. Tap share and you’ll see a list of sharing options.
- Tap the Twitter icon to create a new tweet containing a link to the YouTube video. If you’re not signed in to your Twitter account, you’ll be prompted to do so.
- Type your tweet before you tweet. Your video and the accompanying tweet will be visible to your followers.
How to Download Videos from Twitter?
Unfortunately, there’s no way to download a video from Twitter using the native app. Instead, you’ll need a third-party video downloader, either as an app or in a specific Twitter video downloading website. More often than not, these third-party apps will download the Twitter video directly off your feed and save it on your smartphone and/or PC.
Exact instructions will vary, but usually, all it takes is copy-pasting the Tweet’s specific URL and posting it on the video downloader website/app. From there, you’ll probably be prompted to choose what size you want to download the video (which dictates how much space it takes up on your HDD/smartphone). Once you download it, it will save to your device’s download folder, ready to be viewed.
How To Embed Another Person’s Video on Twitter
On Twitter, you can share another user’s video by retweeting them or embedding the video into your tweets. If you share another user’s content, you can also improve your interactions. Sharing another person’s video increases the probability of increasing your audience plus the interactions your account receives.
As mentioned above, there are two ways to share another users’ video: by retweeting or embedding the video. Here’s how to do both:
- Retweet. This is the simplest option. When you retweet a post, you can quote the user’s whole tweet and add your comment.
- Log on to your Twitter account.
- Search the tweet with the video you want to share.
- Click on the retweet button, the one with two arrows on cycle.
- Embed. If you embed the video, you can share a video without retweeting it.
- Log on to your Twitter account.
- Go to the video you want to embed and click the share options (its icon has three dots).
- Select “Copy link.”
- Write your tweet and paste the link of the tweet.
- Don’t forget to erase the last part of the link until you see the “?” icon.
- Write the “/video/1” to embed the video without retweeting it.
What are Twitter’s Video Upload Requirements?
In lieu of reposting other people’s content, you could also opt to upload your own, as long as you fulfill twitter’s video upload requirements. These requirements address questions like, how big can a Twitter video be, or how long can a Twitter video be, and so on, and so forth. Follow these requirements, and you’ll have problem uploading videos to Twitter:
- The minimum video resolution on Twitter is 32 x 32
- The minimum Twitter video length is 0.5 seconds and the maximum Twitter video length is 2 minutes 20 seconds (140 seconds)
- The Twitter video size limit is 512 MB (async)/15 MB (sync)
- Twitter videos must comply with the following aspect ratios: 1:2.39 – 2.39:1
- Twitter supports the following web video formats: MP4 video uploads with H264 format and AAC audio.
- The maximum video resolution on Twitter is 1,920 x 1,200 & 1,200 x 1,900
- The maximum bitrate is 25 Mbps (Megabits per second)
- The maximum frame rate for videos is 40 fps (frames per second)
- Twitter currently supports the following video formats: MOV and MP4 formats for mobile apps
The best part about videos on Twitter? Tweeting a video is probably one of the easiest things you can do. In fact, the platform takes it seriously when someone can’t post a video to Twitter, as this messes up with everyone else’s algorithm. Whether it’s sharing a vid from a different platform, or you’re uploading from your camera roll, Twitter makes it fast, makes it simple, and makes it so that anyone with an account, a smartphone, and an internet connection, can post videos on Twitter whenever they want.
