How-Tu Tuesday: Create Shareable Video Content (By DP Digital Media)

If a picture paints a thousand words… then a 1 minute video is worth 1.8 million.

On the 23^rd of April 2005, just over 10 years ago, the first video was uploaded to YouTube.

Today, YouTube has over 1 billion users uploading 300 hours of video every minute, generating billions of views, with half of those views now coming from mobile devices. Read more here.

Some pretty staggering numbers. The shear amount of growth that YouTube has been able to achieve is testament to the growth that online marketing has seen over the course of the last ten years. And YouTube, although the largest player, is just one piece of the puzzle.

Instagram, Twitter, Vine and Facebook all allow you to create, share and engage with your audience through the platforms’ own video content creator.

So how can you make any impact when there is so much content flooding onto YouTube alone?

Well here are 4 big numbers to take into account:

10 seconds – that’s how long you have to grab your viewer’s attention. 20% of viewers click away from a video in 10 seconds or less.

5 minutes – iPad users last the longest… up to 5 minutes, whilst desktop users stick around for 2 mins or less, mobile 2.4 minutes and Android 3 minutes.

16% – Tuesday mid morning is the sweet spot for content… 16% of YouTube videos are embedded, linked or shared at that time.

15 seconds – videos this length or shorter are shared 37% more often than those 30 seconds to 1 minute. Read more here.

So we have some basic options for the kind of content which succeeds, but what’s next to make your YouTube sensation?

Get the cameras out and get started? No… Even though your iPhone is capable of shooting material that 10 years ago would have been a big bucks production job, the action in front of the lens is what’s more important.

This is where a little bit of pre-production goes a long way. Think about what you want to focus on in your video and who you want to watch it before you even pick up a camera, is absolutely vital. To start with ask yourself:

Who is this video for? Age/Location/Hobbies/Job…

What do these kinds of people like to watch? History/action/sports…

What would success look like for this video? Viewed by 85% of the local community/discussion point for conference/increase traffic to your homepage by 15%?

Making your project measurable allows you to be able to track your success and then review and make changes, with impact, next time around. Impact can be about much more than just the amount of views. This may mean getting some baseline figures, like current views on your website, but will make the whole process more worthwhile in the long run as you can see what works and what doesn’t.

With this information to hand, and following some of the top tips in the “4 big numbers” now it’s time to get the camera out and start shooting that masterpiece!

Don’t forget that when it comes to video, sound is just as important as picture. If you can, get a microphone you can plug in as it will make a world of difference.

If you’re shooting on a phone, hold it horizontally (landscape), not up and down like a portrait! Nothing screams amateur more than unwanted big black bars down either side of your video.

Edit your content including only the key elements that tell the story. You can use apps like iMove or Magisto which allow you to do this on your computer or your phone. YouTube now has a built in editor that is also really handy – www.youtube.com/editor

Before you upload your video, let a critical friend watch it back, and although no one likes hearing that their baby isn’t quite the darling they think, taking feedback onboard at this stage and making changes always leads to a better result.

So there you go. If you haven’t thought about using video before to either promote your services, engage with your users or educate your audience then there has never been a better time; 64% of marketers expect video to dominate their strategies in the near future, and as Hanan at Tuminds highlighted previously, online video is expected to account for 69% of all consumer internet traffic in just 2 years. Read more here.

By Thomas Hogben, DP Digital Media