Social video is all the rage these days. According to a study by Cisco, video will grow to be 80% of all internet traffic by 2019. It’s clear that we love video and marketers are rushing to produce tons of content to fill that desire.
With all the efforts to create engaging social videos, there’s one thing most are missing. Here’s why marketers must make their videos silent films.
Making Videos Silent Films
According to multiple publishers, 85% of videos played on Facebook are played with the sound off. Just 15% of viewers are engaged enough to turn on the sound. Those figures are huge. That mean that most will never have a chance to connect with their viewers through the audio portion of their videos.
Take a look at your video content. Turn off the sound and watch. Does it still convey the message you want your audience to see? If it doesn’t, you’re missing your mark with social video.
Haven’t gotten the response you’d hoped for from social video? Jump into the analytics to see if lack of sound played a part. Facebook now gives sound-on and sound-off metrics for video views. If you find that most viewers don’t turn their sound on, it’s time to create videos that are silent films.
Knowing how your viewers consume video content makes you better prepared to create content that your viewers will love, no matter how they view it.
Making Better Social Video
So how can you make your videos more appealing? Facebook gives these tips for better video:
- Capture attention quickly. Using colors, themes and imagery that evoke your brand at the start of your video can help people connect the ad to your brand quickly. Consider starting your video with lifestyle and product shots, recognizable spokespeople, action scenes or a vivid background to spark interest.
- Design for sound off. Since most video ads in mobile feed are viewed without sound, it’s important to convey your message visually. Showing captions, logos and products can help communicate your message, even in silence.
- Frame your visual story. Producing video for a small screen requires consideration of dimension and scale. Play with zoom, crop and overall visual composition to make sure your story is told well on a small screen.
- Play more. There’s no universal solution to building brands or driving actions with mobile video, so keep experimenting, testing and iterating to learn what works for your brand and audience.
As you can see, sound is a key consideration when making great video content. Your video should get the message across with or without it.
Silent Success
Understanding how our audience consumes content is critical to enabling marketers to create content our audiences love. Knowing that most view social video with the volume off means we should craft video like silent film. In doing so, we can ensure that our video gets the point across without the need to have the volume on.
Now that you know how to better reach your audience, get out there and create video they really want to see (and don’t need to hear). Silent film should bring about greater engagement.
