At this stage, it’s common knowledge that people are more inclined to watch a video than read an article. I mean who wouldn’t, it’s way easier than reading, and we’re taught to watch from such a young age. Online video content is much easier to digest but it can also be easier to forget. That’s why I’m writing this one… That and Google can’t read audio content for SEO purposes yet. However, online video content is still a great marketing tool and Google does acknowledge that you are both producing content and that people are engaging with it, and fingers crossed it goes viral and you too could be reaping the same success as the highly shareable and typically batted around dollarshaveclub.com or the squattypotty. So here’s a few tips for creating shareable content…
(I don’t know how many I’m actually going to write, once the post’s over 500/600 words we’re good. Google’s happy and if it was any longer I’d have to make a video to get you to the end.)
Short & Sweet
Today’s web surfers have short attention spans, like really short attention spans, ankle buster short. People flick from one page to the next, rarely reading all of the content, or scrolling to the end. This is the same with all content and online video content is no exception to this rule. So, create video content that is as short as it can be. Obviously the more compelling the story and the more visually impressive it is the longer you will hold the viewer, but in general make it as short as possible, ideally under 2 minutes, I personally try to keep them under a minute to get the most views.
People watch over 4 billion videos every day on YouTube and the best performing ones are all well under 5 minutes, but you need to take in to consideration that lots of these best performing videos come from pre-existing content creators with an already existing fan base, again giving them more leeway on the length of their videos.
Simple is Best
Simple is good, simple is reliable, at least if it doesn’t work, they get what you’re putting across. Now by simple I mean you don’t need to be fancy and by fancy I mean Batman, Dark Night Batman, But please do pay attention to lighting, sound and the camera angles because they are important and help increase engagement
, it should get you at least 15 seconds more attention time on your video, all which helps to increase the share-ability of your video. When I say simple, think cat videos! A cat barking like a dog is simple, Lecture 1 – An introduction to Quantum Physics is less so. Choose a single message and focus your video on that.
Be Relevant & Relatable
You need to think of your audience here, what is relevant to them. One of the easiest ways to engage people is through content that is relatable to them. You can go really general with it, pick something everyone can relate to like the stress of school, college or work, dates, breakups, even death. Or if you really understand your audience you can go for something a bit more niche and more targeted to that specific demographic. Either way, try to pick topics that are in line with the interest or life experiences of the audience you are trying to reach.
Or else just make another cat video and have your message scrolling at the bottom.
Be Emotive
We as emotional beings tend to be drawn to anything that arouses an emotion, just think of your everyday soaps or the explosion of emoji’s in the last few years. But it doesn’t have to be funny or all doom and gloom. There are many different emotions that will resonate better with certain target segments, and you can also use these different emotions to further highlight the overall tone of the message you’re trying to convey. If you can elicit an emotional response from your audience you’re going to get shares…
But if you were to ask what I think has the highest share-ability, I would have to say humor. You just need to be careful. What one person finds funny another will probably find offensive. Maybe that’s okay, as they say, all publicity is good publicity. Unless you get caught peddling horse meat. Many brands have been built upon offensively humorous content, just look at Ladbible or the even more socially controversial Benetton’s ads.
Lastly, once you have created that killer online video content, just remember to add a call to action. People are lazy and unless you tell them to do something they’re probably not going to do it. Plus, everyone is looking for likes and shares these days, it’s why you’re making content in the first place, just don’t be too desperate about it – no one likes desperation, not even with brands and certainly not on social.
Recent Comments