Every day we see hundreds of shareable videos, from social media stories, emails and blogs. There are plenty of reasons to share your video online, but most importantly they must resonate with viewers. There’s no formula that goes into creating a shareable video that goes viral, and that shouldn’t be the aim of your video. The aim of your video should be to offer enough entertainment, or expertise, or uniqueness to make people want to show others. Not every video can go viral, nor should it. This is still a difficult task, but there are a few tips you can follow to make it a little bit easier.
Tell a Story
From day one of human history, the most important aspects of human life have been passed down in the form of story. It was the most effective way to communicate a message or learning, and the oral histories of Homer will attest to the longevity of a good story. Today however, it’s a whole lot easier to convey a message; from stone tablets to phones and tablets, we have come a long way. There’s a reason we are so inclined to relate to stories. Our brains respond to ideas more effectively if we connect with them emotionally as well as intellectually.
That’s why storytelling is so much more powerful than just telling. It’s definitely possible to persuade an audience with facts and figures, but if you want to inspire your audience, you must speak to them on a deeper level.
Shareable video = Short and Sweet
As we’ve been through in our blogs in the past, keeping the viewers attention is incredibly important in the success of your video. Our usual mantra is shorter is typically better, especially if your video is mainly for social media or YouTube. The main reason for this is our shortened attention spans and huge array of content out there, 300 hours uploaded to YouTube every minute in fact.
For platforms like Facebook and Instagram, where infinite scrolling is the name if the game, you have about 2 seconds to grab a viewer’s attention. And you can lose their attention within a few seconds as well. Keeping your videos short, i.e. under 30 seconds for social media will help you avoid the people seeing that there is 4 minutes of the video left and then opting out. People just aren’t willing to invest that much time in a Facebook video. Having a good video thumbnail helps too.
Make it Emotional
As you will see in the video above, using emotion to create an image for your company is an effective way to get people to share your video. The hook that will enhance how shareable your video is, is an emotional angle. This won’t work for every type of video as shoehorning emotion into something not appropriate will grate on audiences and feel inauthentic. If your product or service has a strong positive impact on people, then it is an ideal candidate for an emotionally charged video. People will be more willing to share a video that has made them teary-eyed or overjoyed.
Teach Your Viewer Something
Before setting out to create a video, (that ideally you want people to share) ask yourself this: What’s in it for the viewer if they watch it? We have to reward the viewer for their time somehow, whether that be through entertainment, or through teaching them something.In some simple social psychology, people will embrace a video that makes them look smart or interesting. If you package your knowledge into a simple format that makes the viewer feel they have learned something interesting, and by sharing this with friends, you have ticked both boxes when it comes to making a shareable video.
Ryan Spanger is one of Melbourne’s most respected and sought-after video production professionals. Ryan founded Dream Engine in 2002, and specialises in helping medium to large corporates, government departments, and the non-profit sector to connect with their audience more effectively by using video.
