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.