If you want to up your social media game, we only have one word for you: video.
Half of all social media users prefer video over any other type of content. With TikTok’s rise in popularity, we don’t see this trend going away anytime soon.
That means it’s time for you to arm yourself with some excellent video content ideas and start filming.
However, not everything you do has to be based on your own, fresh ideas. Sometimes, you can use other people's videos in various creative ways to carve a place for yourself.
Just remember to ask for permission! There is such a thing as copyright and you don’t want to land yourself in trouble.
Provided you’ve sorted out all of the legal stuff, here’s how you can use a YouTube to MP4 converter to transform a bunch of videos and enhance your social media.
How to Convert YouTube to MP4
Downloading your videos from YouTube and saving them in MP4 format is super-easy with the help of an online YouTube downloader tool. Just in case you need a few pointers, we will break the process down into a few simple steps.
- Open the video you want to download and copy its URL from the address bar. Paste the address of the video into the URL bar on your Subly workspace.
- Click the Import button. We would tell you to go make a cup of tea while Subly does its magic, but frankly, it’s going to be much faster than that.
- Once the video is uploaded, you can edit it or save it without editing. The edit button appears when you hover over the video.
- The download options are located in the upper right corner. You can click the download icon to save the MP4 to your device or to Google Drive directly.
Before saving, the same dialogue allows you to change the aspect ratio. This can be useful, depending on which social media you want to post on. Different social networks have different format requirements.
Now that you have your YouTube video converted to MP4, what can you do with it?
How to Use YouTube to Create Social Media Content
There are plenty of ways to get creative with video content downloaded from YouTube. Here are some of our favourites:
1. Create Reaction Videos
Reaction videos are an extremely popular video format. Of course, the original video needs to be related to your niche. Making reaction videos on hot topics and viral content is an opportunity you shouldn’t miss.
Of course, be careful and try to find the right balance. The tone and wording of your reaction needs to catch the attention of the audience, without creating a PR nightmare for you and your brand. Being intentionally shocking might get you views, but it might also get you a lawsuit.
Technically speaking, reaction videos are much easier to create if you download the video you are reacting to. This will allow you to edit everything nicely together for maximum effect. There’s also no danger of your Wi-Fi baling out in the middle of recording.
2. Create Edits
Edits of pop culture content and celebrities are especially popular nowadays. If you don’t believe us, just type the name of any pop culture ship into the YouTube search bar and get ready to tumble headfirst down a rabbit hole.
But you can make an edit out of literally anything. It’s a fun format that audiences flock to.
Downloading YouTube videos is a prerequisite for making edits. You can use a video editor app to cut and splice videos, make montages, or put text over the video.
Here’s a simple guide on adding text. It might come in handy if you want to add a title, header, or any other kind of comment or written content to your video.
- Open your video in Subly Editor. Either upload it from an URL or from your device.
- On the left taskbar, click Text.
- Type your text into the text field in the top left corner.
- Format your text using the options below the text field. You can play with the font, font size and colour, effects and other options.
- Position your text using the subtitle position options, or the custom position padding.
With edits, the sky's the limit.
And your imagination.
Oh, and copyright.
Copyright is also very much your limit.
Just because someone posted a video online doesn’t mean anyone is allowed to use it as they please. YouTube content is actually published under a restrictive license which means that you have to ask for permission to use it.
YouTube as a platform can’t grant you that permission as they only host the content without actually owning it. The person you need to get permission from is the content creator.
If you’re thinking “It’s chill, I’ll only use a couple of seconds”, unfortunately, we must burst your bubble and inform you that it is, in fact, not chill. You are not allowed to use someone else’s content without permission, regardless of the length.
If you do so, your video will get pulled down, and if you have monetized it, you will most likely lose the money.
3. Trim Your Video for Social Media
Social media and long attention spans are not the best of friends. Shorter formats such as YouTube Shorts, Instagram Reels, and TikTok videos have transformed the way we watch video content on social networks.
This is a trend that you can easily use to your advantage. All you need to do is trim your video into short, punchy segments that you can use to attract audiences on social channels.
If you have permission from the content creator, sharing these short snippets can get your account surprising amounts of attention.
Subly has a handy feature which can help you create these snippets in mere moments. It allows you to open a timeline view of the video and simply drag and drop your way to a bunch of shorts and teasers for your social channels.
A multipurpose tool like Subly can help you create video content in new and exciting ways. This will accelerate your social media growth and attract new audiences to your account.
