Video on Social Media – The Short and the Short of it

26th January 2018 by CH

If you read stats around video on social, you’ll know it’s becoming an ever-decreasing circle of time vs. value vs. return vs. time vs. value vs. return vs. value and so on!

Check out the graph below. It’s clear that capturing your viewer in the first few seconds is critical.

Reference:  https://wistia.com/blog/optimal-video-length

Alongside this, the growth of super-short social media broadcasts from Instagram and Snapchat have resulted in a viewer base demanding that if you have something to say, say it creatively.

Here’s an example of a creative video we spotted. It’s simple, it’s unhindered by endless exposition and captions, voice over and even music, and most importantly it keeps you watching.

Storytelling is paramount

There’s so many channels that can be used these days and they all have their particular attitude and customer expectation. But they all expect you to weave a story – nothing new of course – but it’s the most important element of any production.

In the rush to deliver ‘content’, build ‘strategy’ and create ‘engagement’ , people are starting to lose sight of the story. Everything has one and it’s a case of interrogating your aim and finding it.

A video that won’t ultimately see customer engagement often forgets that we’re all customers and want to know if our viewing time is to be rewarded, rather than ask us to sit and dutifully watch through what amounts to a Powerpoint presentation in motion.

Yawn-free videos

Generally, the most memorable videos and those with more creativity focus on a single message. It might be an evolution of online video viewership, but none of us want to receive multiple messages in one hit. Attention spans are often, hello! and you’re back in the room.

Don’t be afraid of using humour and emotion too. We all connect with it. Corporate companies are often too anxious to show a personality, so make hearts beat faster if you can.

Effective use of video on social:

• Keep it short
• Interrogate the brief and identify the singular message you want to get across
• Make it a story as the viewer always asks, ‘what will I get out of watching this?’
• Consider the square format – Your producer will accommodate this
• Upload them directly to the channel (LinkedIn, Facebook etc.) so they auto play as people scroll down
• If you don’t upload directly then THINK OF THE THUMBNAIL!
• Subtitle them (sound is often a luxury)
• When you subtitle them be more creative with the typography and colour
• Go straight into the content – avoid the logo up front, this turns people off instantly
• Link to the ‘long form version’ too (if there is one)