How To Create Video Content That People Want To Share

While businesses sell goods and services, the success of any business depends on how it conveys its content to current and prospective customers, stakeholders and the public. The product you sell might be impressive, but someone has to know you are selling it and be willing to pay for and be associated with it.

There are many forms through which you can share your content. The most common include oral, written and video content. People are currently more exposed to information technology and social media than ever before, and with the increasing exposure, video content has become an essential medium of communicating content mainly because it is more visual and allows for greater creativity than other forms.

A business cannot reach its entire target audience all at once regardless of the means of dissemination of the content. It is, therefore, important that those who see the content be inspired to share it with others. While the premise of creating a video that inspires others to share may sound easy, it is far from it. The important thing to focus on is, how do you create video content that people want to share with others?

People Are Attracted To Videos

Consider two scenarios of experiencing a movie: one where you read the script for the movie, and the other where you get to watch the movie. Most people are visual and would prefer to experience the message in video format. Also, the person making the movie for screening has greater opportunities to be more creative with the delivery of the content than the scriptwriter.

While the audience may prefer to experience the movie in video content, not all movies inspire the same reaction from the audience. Think about movies that have been successes worldwide and grossed billions of dollars and those that did not do quite as well. So, too for video content; people engage and react to video content in different ways, and it is important that the user of the video be drawn in by the message at an emotional level and be inspired to share it.

Make Your Video Upbeat for People to Want to Share

The first consideration in making video content should be who the target audience is and what is important to them. The second should be to structure the video content such that the content is highly likely to evoke a strong emotional reaction from the audience. A good example of evoking strong emotions is Nike’s advertisement headlined by Colin Kaepernick who is a professional football player who knelt instead of standing during the American National Anthem before games and is no longer employed as a professional football player.

In the ad Nike ran, the audience would either be strongly opposed to the ad or strongly support it. While evoking strong emotions is important, Jonah Berger, author of the book Contagious: Why Things Catch On, found the most highly shareable content tended to be that which had a positive or upbeat note.

Stay Current

News and current events are fluid and do not stay relevant for too long. There is a narrow window of opportunity for your content to be relatable and highly shareable before something else overtakes it for relevance. By staying current on pop culture, Internet memes, TV shows, music videos or movies, you increase the likelihood that your content stays relevant and gets viewed and shared by those already interested in the topic.

Respect The Viewer’s Attention Span

Our attention spans are getting shorter and shorter. Keep in mind; we are living in a world where presidents and C.E.O.s are likelier to convey important information using 140 forty characters on Twitter than in lengthy articles in the mainstream media.

Interestingly, many forms of media also recognize the shortening attention span: stories are increasingly being sent to the audience in the form of catchy, short, one-sentence alerts and notifications for the reader/viewer to decide on whether to read the full articles.

Informational Versus Promotional

Any type of content should be informational rather than promotional. Your audience is always searching for new information and better ways to perform everyday tasks and better businesses to support. If your video content is interesting and informative, it is more likely to get the other person to connect with the message and to build a bond with the message.

Be Discriminating About Where You Post Your Video

All the work that goes into creating video content means little if the content is not put in the right platform to reach its target audience. It is important to realize that not all type (and topics) of content are appropriate for all places online. You will want to post it on a social media channel where you have a lot of good-quality followers.

Part of defining your audience should include how best you can reach them, and how they reach others. This level of insight into the target audience habits should direct what platforms you put your content in; Most social networks target specific types of content. If you do the research first, it will save you a lot of headaches and frustration later and set up your video content for the biggest impact possible.

Conclusion

It is important for you to have a good sense of the audience and the effect that your video will have on the audience. That will only happen if you educate yourself about your audience and the platform for delivery.

Once you find the story, tell it in an informative and engaging manner in a short amount of time while discretely promoting your brain. Audiences adore inspirational stories, so sharing such stories in the right manner and platform will make your audience want to share them with others.