How many videos does your brand create per month for the viewing pleasure of your regular visitors? Lots? One or two? None at all?
Whatever your response, you may want to step it up a gear after reading this.
Consumers have so far shared twice as many videos in 2013 than in 2009.*
Yep, video is positively booming and an increasingly popular way to present unique and creative content.
31% of American adults said they have uploaded and shared videos independently, representing a twofold increase on the 14% who said the same in 2009.
What’s more, almost 80% watch videos online. With these stats in mind, video is something brands cannot afford to ignore.
Realisation has dawned on the majority of companies, with figures released in the Content Marketing Institute’s 2014 B2B Trends report showing that 73% have already taken advantage of the trend – or are on the brink of doing so.
With visual media often having more of a lasting impact on viewers than text, it’s not surprising that brands are increasingly seeking top notch video production services for their content and social media strategies.
While Tweets and Facebook posts get read once or twice and disappear as new posts enter the feed, videos continue to rack up clicks three months after publication, according to Brafton.
Why is video so popular?
Excuse us while we get psychological for a second.
Susan Weinschenk, PhD is a consultant to the likes of Disney and Amazon and a leading speaker and author – and she has proposed a number of reasons why people are naturally drawn to video.
According to Weinschenk, the Fusiform Facial area is a brain function that hardwires us to use the human face as a gathering point for information and believability.
This is something text cannot offer – although it would be interesting to see whether author images that pop up in Google or article bylines have the same effect.
Dr Weinschenk also highlighted that movement commands attention and that a human voice converts information into meaningful content, making your brand message more relevant and engaging on a very human level.
Psychological analysis aside, it is quite simply far less effort to sit back and watch a video than it is to read a blog post.
Say you were given the choice of gleaning the same information from a 1,000 word blog post or a video. Which would you choose? Exactly.
However, there are ways to make text easier on the eye such as breaking it up into small paragraphs and scattering large, attractive images throughout.
It’s a question of putting yourself in your readers’ shoes – what do they want to see?
*According to the latest data from the Pew Internet & American Life Project.
Jenny Maclean
