The Essential Guide to Creating High-Impact Social Media Videos

Social media has now become the main means by which people across the world communicate, get their news and stay connected with one another. And it’s video which is now the most powerful medium on these platforms, giving brands and individuals potentially huge global reach. In this guide we break down the essential steps for creating high-impact social media videos.

What is social media?

Social media, which includes both websites and applications, is a mass media technology that allows for the creation and sharing of content via the internet. It allows users, including both individuals and brands, to share information, messages, and communicate with one another and share content such as videos and images.

Today the most popular social media platforms include the likes of Facebook, YouTube, X, LinkedIn, Instagram and TikTok, and are used by billions of people around the world every day.

Why is video so popular on social media?

Social media started out as a way to share updates about your life, communicate with friends and engage with others online. It mostly relied on text or images to achieve this. But as technology has advanced and the barriers for entry to create videos have been lowered, with the arrival of the smartphone, video has quickly become the most popular content format on social media and its success will only continue to grow.

Many social media platforms now prioritise video content over other formats, further solidifying its dominance. In a fast moving media world, video is perfectly aligned to modern day habits of scrolling through feeds and engaging audiences online.

Steps for creating high-impact social media videos

With so much content uploaded and shared onto social media platforms every day, it’s harder than ever to get your videos noticed. That’s why it's now become so important to set yourself apart from the competition and find ways that you can break through the noise online.

Understand the social platform

Before you even begin planning your social media video, you need to decide where you are going to share it, understand the platform and learn about the audiences you could reach there. 

Whether it’s Facebook, LinkedIn, TikTok or YouTube, audiences act in slightly different ways and expect different things from the videos they consume on these platforms. Longer form video content will suit YouTube, whilst short and sharp social videos will perform better on platforms like Instagram and TikTok. 

Plan your video

Like any content you produce, laying the groundwork before hitting record will give you a higher chance of success. Take the time to plan what your video is going to be about, consider how it will resonate with your target audience and think about how you’re going to grab their attention (more on that in a moment).

If you’re filming yourself or someone else speaking to camera, then take the time to plan out what they’re going to say. You could write a script or a list of bullet points, whatever works for you.

Plan out where you’re going to film your video and what shots you are going to capture. Social media videos need to transition quickly between shots or scenes to maintain the attention of your audience, so take this into account when planning your video.

Decide on your hook

The first 3 seconds of your social media video are the most important. That’s all the time you have to grab the attention of someone who is scrolling through their social media feed looking for something to watch. You need to capture their attention, make them stop and think ‘what’s that?’ and then continue to hold their interest for the duration of your video.

Hooks, or visual pattern interrupts, can come in many different forms. They can appear as on-screen text at the start of a video, someone jumping into frame or the camera quickly panning to a shot, or cutting straight to the exciting part of the video first to tease what is coming up.

Keep testing and trying out new ideas

You should never stop iterating or trying out different concepts for your social media videos. This helps keep them fresh for your audiences and ensures that your content goes through an ever evolving programme of improvement. Even when you find a format which works well for your target audience, you should keep identifying ways that it can be improved and developed.

Time to go vertical

If you’re sharing short form video content and it’s not being produced in a 9:16 aspect ratio, or vertical format, you need to make that change now. Almost all short form social videos on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and YouTube are viewed on a mobile device like a smartphone. Your audience is not holding their phones in landscape, they're holding them in portrait so your videos should reflect this too.

Add captions

More than 80% of social media users watch videos on mute, without any sound. More often than not they’re scrolling through their social feed whilst travelling to work, killing time or before they switch off the light to go to bed. So if someone is speaking or narrating your video it needs to include on-screen captions, otherwise the storytelling or messaging could be completely lost to most of your viewers. 

Choose a clear call to action

A clear CTA (call to action) is the best way to encourage your audience to do something after watching your video whether that’s to learn more about a topic, engage with your mission or take an action like buying a ticket for example.

The best CTA’s are clear and easily understood. You want me to buy this? Ok, I can do that. You want me to sign up to this, donate and subscribe to your podcast? I’ve lost interest and I’ve scrolled on. Keep your call to action simple and clear.

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We’re Sheeran Media

You might have reached the end of this article and thought that you’d like some help from the professionals to create your next social media video. 

We're Sheeran Media, a bespoke content production company with expertise in video and audio production. If you have a project you need support with, then get in touch. We’d love to help!