How To Make Engaging Social Media Short Videos
Short videos are THE thing of the internet presently. Brands, individual contributors, and social media influencers use short videos as reels, stories, etc., to tell their stories. But do we find all the videos watchable? No, to be honest. Although short videos range from 15 to about 60 seconds, if they are not well done, they will likely fail to perform.
In this article, we look at 9 points that are essential to creating an engaging short video:
1. Get The Right Strategy
While making videos for social media, first and foremost, we need a plan. What are we targeting, and what is our audience? How are our competitors doing? Solving all these questions will clear the picture regarding our video.
The internet is full of videos and we need our videos to stand out. You can pick an easy route by using templates. For example, if you are creating Facebook video ads then you can use Facebook ad templates regarding brand awareness, offers, or lucrative deals.
Furthermore, we need to get out objective right. What are we planning with the video? Through Instagram Reels Maker applications, we can create exciting videos with goals focusing on gaining visitors to our website, sign-up, phone calls, etc.
2. The 3-Second Rule Of Video Marketing
Why should people watch our videos? Because they are attractive, right? It should tell a story that convinces them to stay hooked for some more time. You can use an image to videos tool to do your work easily by this you won’t require professional editing and you can easily convert your clicks into a video.
You need to create a video so that viewers gain interest. Viewers may easily get distracted and scroll down for newer ones. Our strategy is to surprise them with engaging content.
There are many examples of such brilliant short videos. Here’s one from Google.
3. Types of Short Videos
First, we need to be sure what our product is. And how can we make short videos interestingly to raise awareness of our product? Short videos can be of any three types, Live-Action, Screencast, or Explainers.
Live-Action is where we use real locations, natural objects, and people to show something. It can be a vlog, tour, tutorials, commercials, or challenge-type videos.
The screencast is more technical. Here, any problem scenario is solved on the computer and is recorded doing so. Later, it is published in a user account for people to watch. One thing to remember here is to portray the problem scenario correctly within the first 3 seconds and explain it in the later part in the easiest way possible.
4. Keep It Short
Only watch a lengthy video if it is attractive. Even if the video is interesting, the audience is not keen to watch long videos. And there is a good reason for it. Most internet users watching videos only use them on their commute or in between tasks. So, they don’t have much time to watch longer videos.
So, telling the story, in brief, is what we need to master. If it is impossible to know quickly, use Instagram reels maker to divide them smartly into multiple stories or provide a CTA to take them into our channel.
What is the ideal length of short videos?
- Instagram videos: 1 minute
- Instagram stories: 15 seconds
- Reels on Instagram: 15 to 60 seconds
- Facebook videos: Less than 1 minute
- Facebook Stories: 20 seconds
- YouTube video: 2 minutes
5. Don’t Ignore Subtitles
Subtitles are integral to a short or long video; only some viewers scroll through their social media channels with sound. So, to gain their attention, we need to provide good captions of the voice-over in the video.
If there isn’t a voice-over in the video, then we must work hard on the typography and animation part of the videos. We need to design the video so that even if the video is muted, there is sufficient text information for the audience.
6. Royalty-Free Music, Clear Audio Microphone
When we are providing audio in a video, we need to keep a few things in our mind. Take an example from Instagram story templates, and see how they work hard on visuals and audible parts.
So our first job is to ensure the audio is audible so the audience can hear clearly. Next, the background sound needs to match the theme of the video and, most importantly, be royalty-free. Numerous websites provide royalty-free music, and using Instagram reels maker for getting the audio is also recommended.
7. Evokes Audience Emotions
To get a video viral or get prompt attention to our content, we need to work on the story and the process of telling it. We can use real-life examples of a problem for it. These connect the audience directly to the event, and we can keep the audience for a long into our video. It is a brilliant way of getting engagement on social media.
The utmost priority is to learn the art of creating an emotional bond with the audience. That way, users are not only glued to our content but are well aware of our brand.
8. End With A Call-To-Action
Every short video we make for social media must contain a call-to-action button. It can be anything from the Sign-Up, Call Now, Visit Us, Contact Us, or Learn More. Every button will help to benefit our business in different ways. We need the audience to take action after watching our video; the CTA buttons are the way to do that.
9. Optimize For Different Channels
Once we have prepared a short video or reels using Instagram reels maker, we now have a crucial thing to do. Optimization. Every short video in our social channels must be optimized for mobile, tablet, and desktops.
A video created from Instagram story templates may not be visible on desktops. So, we must export high-quality videos in different dimensions for various platforms.
Final Thought
Short videos are in trend. And it is the most exciting way to present our brand. It helps us convince the audience with the help of both audio and video. We can use favored Instagram reel makers or other video-making software to create engaging videos. However, consider an example before proceeding and keep the above points to get the proper conversion through short videos.
