A Quick History Of Video Content
One of the most popular topics discussed on marketing blogs over the past year has been the rise and vast growth of video content. Video content in general has become a vital part of our daily lives whether we like it or not. From Tiktok to Youtube Shorts, Instagram reels to video ads, creators are all trying to get a taste of virality. But did you know that video marketing has actually been around much longer than you’d expect? The first advertising video was published in 1941 by the watch company Bulova in the US. The first viral video came in 1995 with ‘the spirit of christmas’ and, after the release of Youtube in 2005, the first video to gain 1,000,000 views was from Nike. If you didn’t know these facts about video marketing content then chances are, you also don’t know the 10 rules for making great video content in the modern day.
From iconic short videos on the YouTube platform like ‘Charlie Bit My Finger’ in its early days, to the boom of TikTok in 2020, video has come a long way since those first ads but the aim to go viral has remained. Lucky for you, the web now holds a vast spectrum of video content catering to audiences globally. So, whether you create niche long form videos about Philosophy or upload YouTube shorts highlighting your life as a fitness guru, the social video space is full of opportunity for creators. But how important is the content you put out? How do you create an audience that lasts? And how do you know which audience you should cater for? In this blog we’re going through the 10 rules for great video content.
1. Make An Audience Want To Share Your Content
Your content needs to be shareable in order to reach the highest amount of potential audience. So, find a subject matter or format that will make your audience want to share your video with their friends and family. Remember, the key to shareability is engagement. So, make sure your content is highly engaging. How do I make my content more engaging you ask? Spend extra time editing your content, researching your topic of conversation and create original content on trending topics that people want to see more of!
2. Keep Your Video Content Accessible
When you see a new YouTube Channel or TikTok creator in your feed, how do you feel when you can’t understand their content without having watched their other videos? Chances are, you’re not going to want to watch the video and you might even click off early on, leaving the creator with a lower watch time. If you want to avoid this problem then you need to ensure your videos are accessible to your viewers. Make sure you introduce yourself and your content before your video and ensure your video can be watched independently of your other content. This will expand your audience and lead to greater engagement!
3. Treat Your Audience Like A Friend
Your audience wants to feel like they are engaging with you during your videos. They want to connect with a community and bond with their favourite creator so make sure you’re actively conversing with your audience. Make your videos feel conversational by speaking directly to your audience and see how your audience engages with you in turn. One tip for this is by greeting your viewer at the beginning of your video and saying goodbye at the end, being sure to thank viewers for their time and holding competitions where you shout out the audience members who engage with your videos and content the most.
4. Stay Consistent
Being consistent with your Social Video is the fourth rule on our list. Consistency doesn’t just mean scheduling, although this is important. It involves having a consistent style, format and personality that remains similar throughout your entire content library. Audiences will likely find one of your videos through their recommended feed and will subscribe or follow you under the presumption that all your videos are similar to the one they just watched. So, make sure to keep your content consistent! Of course, content and style will evolve over time if you’re doing it right. However, understand that your subscribers follow you based on your content so too much of a shift will lead to a loss of subscribers in most cases!
5. Create A Sustainable Business Model
Listen. In an ideal world, we would all be pushing out 5 top quality videos a day to our audience in order to gain the most views and engagement. However, unless you have a huge team and endless budget behind you, this just isn’t possible. So ask yourself, is your video process sustainable? To put it simply, in order to stay consistent and produce high quality videos that can stick to your timetable, you need to be able to continually make the same quality videos over weeks and months. Make sure you learn how long it takes for you to produce one high quality video and then work out a schedule that works for you based on this workload. For example, if you know it takes three days to write, produce, film and edit a high quality video, you will not be able to fit a schedule that posts 4 times a week. So, to keep your content quality high, make sure you’re creating a sustainable schedule for your video creation. Remember, it’s better to put out one highly polished video per week that your viewers will absolutely love than put out 7 videos a week that your viewers only feel so so about.
6. Make Yourself Discoverable
Another key question you should ask yourself is: How are people going to find my content? Make sure you have a process during the editing stage of your video to finalise titles and descriptions of your video that match the content you are creating. This includes partaking in keyword research in order to perform well in SEO. Remember: Titles, Descriptions and Thumbnails are key for discoverability. Make your thumbnails stand out with colours and intriguing wording. If in doubt, search the highest performing content creators amongst your niche and see what style they are using. Use this research to create your own original thumbnails, titles and descriptions.
7. Get Collaborative
Think about whether your format and content allows you to collaborate with fellow creators and advertisers. For successful collaborations, look for content creators who have a similar audience to yours so that it benefits both of you. This can also lead to greater connections within the industry. A great example of this was during the YouTube era through the years 2014-1016 where popular British and American YouTubers such as Zoella, Tanya Burr, Tyler Oakley and Miranda Sings would collaborate constantly, creating a huge boom in YouTube influencers. Collaborations create hype as audiences can watch two of their ‘faves’ interact together, and also they introduce a whole new audience to your channel if they don’t already know you. So, get collaborative!
8. Make it Interactive
Your video content needs to be interactive for your audience. As we mentioned before, your audience wants to bond with you and feel like they are part of your community. Therefore, you must stop thinking of social video as a broadcast medium and start viewing it as an interactive platform instead. Find ways to allow your audience to participate and shape your content with feedback. Make sure you’re social listening and aim to give your audience what they want to see. This interaction will lead to a much higher rate of engagement as individuals love to feel as if they are a part of a community!
9. Target Your Video Based On Your Audience
One of the most important parts of social media marketing is targeting your specific audience with your content. To achieve this, you need to clearly define the audience that your content is trying to reach. Think of your ideal audience member, what they like and dislike, what they want and what they don’t want. Then cater your content around who you want your audience to be. After you have started to create social video, make sure to check your analytics to find out who is actually watching your videos. The more niche your content is, the more engaged your audience will be so don’t worry about finding a niche and targeting a specific audience.
10. Be Yourself!
Finally, your content should strive to be authentic. Audiences will support you in your social video journey if they can tell there’s passion behind your content. Your content needs to be authoritative and show enthusiasm for the subject you are talking about. On camera, it will be very clear from your body language whether you are passionate about the content you are making so talk about your passions! Your audience will engage more with your content if they feel your message is credible and authentic.
That’s It!
And that’s it for today’s blog post! Remember that creating a platform on social media takes time, dedication and testing so give yourself time to implement these fundamentals of social video. If you would like any advice on social media content, give us a call! Our team of experts will be able to assist you.
Call us on 01708 952952 or visit our website here