Twitter Videos

Twitter is home to 67 million monthly active users in the United States alone. Even more impressive? Twitter discovers most of its trending material organically — in other words, users simply scroll through Twitter feeds and find interesting and shareable topics.

Still, Twitter has some compelling video statistics worth bragging about. There is no doubt about it — video crushes all forms of shared social media content online. In fact, video tweets on Twitter have 10x more engagement than regular tweets.

Plus, videos are 300% more likely to be retweeted than regular tweets with GIFs and 600% more likely to be retweeted compared to tweets with just photographs.

 

How do you upload a video to Twitter?

There are several ways that you can go about uploading video to Twitter. However, there are only a handful of “Twitter supported video formats” one can upload.

Once you have created your account, you can quickly and easily share videos, edit videos, or record videos and post them to Twitter.

After you opt to compose a new Tweet, click the ‘Add photos or video’ button Upload a video to Twitter from your PC, Mac, smartphone or tablet.

It’s pretty easy uploading videos to Twitter from your PC or Mac device.

Video, text, and trending hashtags provide a much more compelling story to Twitter users. It’s always a good idea to add text that explains what the video contains to achieve maximum engagement from upload.

Click the ‘Tweet’ button to publish your video.

Everything you need to know about Twitter video specs

Twitter videos must meet with the social media platform’s minimum requirements, otherwise you will not be able to successfully upload videos to Twitter.

• Video size limit: 512 MB (async) /15 MB (sync)
• Minimum video resolution: 32×32
• Maximum video resolution: 1920×1200 and 1200×1900
• Accepted aspect ratios: 1:2.39 – 2.39:1
• Maximum frame rate for videos: 40 fps (frames per second)
• Maximum bitrate: 25 Mbps (Megabits per second)
• Supported video formats: MOV and MP4 formats for mobile
• Minimum Twitter video length: 0.5 seconds
• Maximum Twitter video length: 2 minutes 20 seconds (140 seconds)
• Twitter supports the following web video formats: MP4 video uploads with H264 format and AAC audio.

Try these 3 types of Twitter video ads for your business

Standalone videos ads

• File type: MOV or MP4
• Recommended aspect ratio: 1:1. If you have a 9:16 (vertical) video, it will always render in a 1:1 space on desktop and mobile

Twitter recommends files under 1GB and no larger than 30 MB. Files under 30 MB typically see better performance. Keep your video ad 15 seconds long or shorter, but Twitter supports video lengths of up to 2 minutes and 20 seconds.

Closed captions (or at the very least, text overlays) are required for video ads on Twitter. If you include your business’ logo, keep it on the upper left-hand corner.

Video ads with conversation buttons

• File type: MOV or MP4
• Recommended aspect ratio: 16:9

Videos can be up to 10 minutes long, but Twitter recommends keeping it short. They say 6-15 seconds for video ads with conversation buttons is your best best. Videos under 60 seconds will also automatically loop.

Video ads with polls

• Recommended aspect ratio: 16:9 ratio for videos (1:1 ratio videos will be auto-cropped to 16:9.
• Resolution: 1280 x 720 for landscape, 720 x 720 for square

Poll video ads can include between 2-4 custom poll responses, which can be a maximum of 25 characters long. Like video ads with conversation buttons, the video will loop if it’s under 60 seconds long.

What about Twitter carousel ads?

Use a carousel to tell a multi-part story about your brand, promote a sale, or drive awareness to your website. On Twitter, unlike Facebook and Instagram ads, you only have six slides to work with on a Twitter carousel, so choose your imagery and creative wisely.

• You can include videos or images in your carousel slides, anywhere from 2-6 slides.
• Use a single aspect ratio throughout your carousel. 91:1 or 1:1 is recommended for image assets.

Choosing a Twitter video thumbnail

Video thumbnails are important on many levels. The static picture of the video (before you click it) is the thumbnail. If you choose a blurry or irrelevant image as your default thumbnail, you are unlikely to get people to want to click on your Twitter video.

Let’s take a look at how you can edit the thumbnails of your uploaded videos on Twitter:

• Click the video within your Twitter library
• Click on the ‘Select Thumbnail’ button
• Choose a frame or upload an image (check the aspect ratio is ideal for Twitter)

How to delete a Twitter video from your profile

If for any reason you want to delete a video on Twitter, this is easily done. Simply delete the entire tweet where the video appears and it will be permanently removed from your Twitter account.

On the topic of Twitter videos, there are several broad-based categories of videos to consider, including the following:

• Uploaded Twitter videos – on Twitter.com
• Live-Stream Twitter videos – broadcast in real time using the Twitter app on Android and iOS
• Imported Twitter videos – Imported videos typically come from your mobile’s camera
• Recorded Twitter videos – The Twitter app allows you to use your phone’s camera to record videos and share them via the app

How do you convert video files for Twitter?

You may be interested to know how to convert your video file to be compatible with Twitter’s format. If you try to upload a video to Twitter and it gets rejected for some reason, you will be told why.

Fortunately, you don’t have to guess about compatibility since there are many reliable applications that automatically convert videos to be compatible with Twitter’s requirements. To get started, you’ll want to choose your target file format.

Various optional settings in these types of programs include target format, presets, audio tack, and so forth. The example listed above is for illustrative purposes only. There are scores of online video conversion apps that can be used to make your videos Twitter friendly.

If you’ve tried to post a video on Twitter and it didn’t work, it’s probably because the video you’re trying to post does not meet the Twitter format requirements.

Can you record a video on Twitter?

Use the Live Button

The Live Button lets you go live on Twitter. Note that live videos feeds stream in real time but they’re also available after the live stream has ended. This makes it easy for your followers to watch the video after the event. Twitter has also included a nifty additional feature which lets you download your live video to your device.

Use The Camera Button

The camera on the Twitter app is synced with your smartphone’s camera and lets you record several video clips.

Try Vimeo Record

Download and use the Vimeo Record Chrome extension to record your screen. Choose to record your screen, voice, face, or a combination. Once you’re done recording, instantly share your video with a private link.

How do you embed a YouTube video on Twitter?

To get started with embedding YouTube videos on Twitter, you’ll need to navigate to YouTube, or the YouTube video itself. You can either click the arrow ‘Share’ link and then post it to Twitter. Or, you can embed the video by inserting the link into the HTML code.

Scroll down to the bottom right of the video. You will notice the ‘Share’ button alongside the red arrow above. Click share and you’ll see plenty of social media options available. Look for Twitter.

Click the Twitter icon that is displayed and the video will instantly share to your Twitter feed.  A default description of the video comes up in your feed. You can easily edit that if you want to. Don’t forget to click the ‘Tweet’ button to post it to your Twitter account. It’s that easy!

Now that you know how to embed a YouTube video in a tweet, let’s move on to downloading videos from Twitter.

Can I download videos from Twitter?

Yes. However, you will need to download a ‘Video Downloader’ first. A video downloader program is the quickest way for you to download your favorite Twitter videos to your smartphone, tablet, phablet, PC or Mac.

These programs allow you to store the video on your hard drive and edit accordingly.  Be advised that certain provisions need to be adhered to such as copyright notices, permission from the video owner, etc. Many credible video downloader tools and applications are available online at the App Store and the Google Play Store.

When saving downloaded Twitter videos to your hard drive, be sure to save them in a location where you’ll easily be able to find them, like your desktop, the videos folder, or your downloads folder. This makes for easy retrieval at a later stage!