What are the top elements of an engaging social video?
Social media professionals explored that question first during CASE’s Jan. 23, 2018, #casesmc Twitter chat on social video. Led by Jonathan Gabriel, digital marketing and social media coordinator at the University of Central Florida, the discussion covered what videos perform well and how to create high-quality videos on a budget.
Great social videos are, according to chat participants:
- Emotionally resonant. “It tells a story and inspires action,” tweeted Gabriel.
- Captioned. “Accessibility is priority number one,” shared Erika Forsack of Virginia Commonwealth University. “[Plus] most folks are watching their videos in public places with the sound off, so captions are critical.”
- Instantly attention-grabbing. Viewers have to be engaged right from the get-go. “Making sure your first few seconds are engaging is important, since that often determines if someone scrolling will stop and watch the video, or keep scrolling,” shared Abby Meyer of the University of Nebraska Medical Center.
- Packaged with a good title, text and thumbnail. “Those things create a ‘video experience,'” tweeted West Virginia University’s Tony Dobies. “[The thumbnail] should be one of your best visuals, to grab attention.
- Reaction-inducing. “Are people talking about it? If we hear and see mentions and engagement from the video, we know people had a good or bad opinion. Ultimately, they did watch it, though.” tweeted Midwestern State University’s A J Lopez.
For video examples, and for tips on production and sharing across platforms, read the full chat recap.
Join us for a future Twitter chat. Here’s the upcoming schedule.
Meredith Barnett is CASE’s digital communications manager.
CASE Blog 
According to the CASE Twitter chat recap, the most effective social videos share key characteristics:emotional resonance, proper captioning, attention-grabbing openings, well-crafted packaging, and the ability to generate reactions.
These insights highlight how critical viewer engagement has become in today’s digital landscape.Based on these insights, I believe there’s an even deeper opportunity here. While creating compelling videos with these elements is essential, the true power comes from systematically analyzing engagement patterns across all your communication channels. The discussion about reaction-inducing content particularly resonates with me – A.J. Lopez from Midwestern State University makes an excellent point that engagement, whether positive or negative, indicates successful viewer attention.
My thinking is that organizations should extend this analytical approach beyond just video content. By measuring engagement patterns, emotional responses, and interaction metrics across all digital communication channels, teams can develop a comprehensive understanding of what truly resonates with their audience.
For teams looking to implement this data-driven approach, our platform ChatRecap（https://chatrecap.io/） offers advanced analytics that complement these social video best practices. ChatRecap provides emotion tracking, engagement pattern analysis, and visualization tools that help communication professionals understand not just what content performs well, but why it connects with audiences. These insights can directly inform your social video strategy by identifying the emotional triggers and engagement patterns that work best for your specific audience.
By combining the creative video principles outlined in the CASE discussion with the analytical capabilities of ChatRecap, communication teams can create more impactful content while measuring its effectiveness with precision.