When creating video content for TV and online platforms, it’s important to ask yourself three vital questions:
- Who would watch this video?
- Would YOU watch this video?
- Would YOU share this video?
A colleague in the 4media Group London office penned a noteworthy article, “THE CHANGING FACE OF TV AND ONLINE VIDEO.” Much of what’s true for the UK audience also applies here, in America.
Starting with whether or not the video content is worthy of the viewer’s time to pass long to others. As the UK notes…
“Shareable content drives engagement and what’s more shareable than something that engages and generates a reaction from viewers? Be it laughter, sadness or pure joy, a video should be fluent in emotion. If it’s for a cause, don’t underestimate how quickly the public can potentially leap into action, eyes still filled with tears. A visually appealing story that garners this kind of reaction can be absolute gold dust in the modern PR landscape.”
This is absolutely true and validated by a Harvard Business Review article titled, “Why Some Videos Go Viral”:
“The greater the intensity of feeling the content evokes, the more likely people are to share it—the web’s answer to word of mouth…”
What emotions did you feel during Felix Baumgartner’s supersonic freefall in 2012? According to The Week, 40 TV stations showed the jump live and 8 million people tuned in to watch the jump online, crushing the 500,000 YouTube livestream record set by the London Summer Olympics.
Emotion is must for shareable video content, but the length of the video is equally as vital. The UK team drives the point home…
“A series can usually guarantee an audience’s return and if it happens to be 90 seconds or under you’ve got their attention for the full feature: they call it short and sweet for a reason. If you only have a minute to make an impression, use the time wisely.”
How many times have you closed out a YouTube video because 5 minutes had to load?
We live in an age of attention spans that helped a reality TV star Tweet himself into the Presidency of the United States. Don’t let your video wander. Get to the payoff as quickly as possible.
With that being said, let’s add one more question to the three we started with:
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- Are you even willing to let this video fully load to watch it to the end?
Need to create video content for your client? We can help!