Twitter Facebook LinkedIn Flipboard 0 The following is the sixth and final blog post adapted from a speech by Cameron Uganec, HootSuite’s Director of Marketing, given at the Marketo’s 2013 Summit Conference in San Francisco. The entire session, entitled “Social Media + Storytelling = Awesomesauce” can be watched in full here. So what have we learned so far? Social media and storytelling are a match made for marketers. As consumers continue to flock to social networks, reverting to the origins of storytelling may be the best way for brands to connect. But unlike in the broadcast era, marketers need to approach content creation with shareability (and the psychology of sharing) in mind. Visual storytelling has proven to be the best means for inciting content sharing on social media and a new type of content, social video, is quickly becoming the most effective tool for businesses across the globe. As social video continues its exponential growth, it will become more and more important for brands to hone in on what makes their online videos successful. These videos are very different from a commercials and should be approached as such. With that in mind, here are 10 tips brands should follow while creating social video. 10 Tips for Social Video Success 1. Design it to be shareable at the outset. You need to be able to answer the question, why will people share this video. 2. Use the power of storytelling. Use a beginning, a middle and an end. Make sure there’s conflict. Think about who the hero is in that story. What’s the plot, what’s the setting? 3. Use proven Archetypes and Story Structure. There is a lot of research that illustrates that people are hardwired to respond to the same types of stories with familiar character archetypes. (see Joseph Campbell’s “A Hero’s Journey”) 4. Shorter is better (usually). Kony 2012 is a very good 30-minute video but for the most part, shorter is better. I have made this mistake many times. I get into the story we are creating and what was supposed to be a 1-minute video morphs into 3-minute video. Be disciplined and get to the core of what your message is. 5. Always start strong. Wistia has collected data that illustrates how the first 30 seconds of a social video is what matters. If you can get people hooked in those 30 seconds they’ll stick around. Graph illustrating video drop-off by Wistia. The red line represents a 30-second video, while the blue represents a 90-second video. 6. Make the customer the hero, instead of your brand. You can play the role of the mentor, but the really powerful stories that get shared are ones where the customer sees themselves reflected back in the story. 7. Remember search. Think about the meta data and the descriptions of your content. Don’t ignore SEO. Hint: YouTube is a huge search engine 8. Focus on evergreen content. If you’re going to spend lots of time, money and effort on creating a video, make sure that the content is going to have a long shelf life. 9. Don’t forget the music. If you watch HootSuite’s product release videos. you’ll notice we have a certain sound in terms of the type of music we use. It’s not the typical sound you’ll hear on corporate videos; most of it is indie rock bands, and largely bands from Vancouver (where we are based – we want to support local talent). They are all earworms, catchy songs that you want to listen to again and again. 10. Distribution strategy is critical. You need to think about how you’re going to get this video out into the world with a converged media plan that includes a paid, owned and earned. This is such a critical point I think it needs some further explanation. More to come in a future blog post. Apps to Help You Do It At HootSuite we not only use social video for our own marketing efforts, but have also integrated multiple video tools into our dashboard to help you. Several HootSuite apps, including free and premium versions of YouTube, YouTube analytics, Vimeo and Vidyard, help our users produce and share their videos on each of these sites as well as across social networks. This means that within HootSuite you can upload a video, post it with all the necessary tags and information, share it to your blog and social networks, track its success and even promote it in a sponsored tweet. Your followers will take it from there. The integration of these video apps has turned HootSuite into an all-around video marketing tool. To access all of these features, visit the HootSuite App Directory today. Twitter Tweet Facebook Share Email This article originally appeared on HootSuite Social Media Management Blog and has been republished with permission.Find out how to syndicate your content with B2C Author: Connor Brooke Connor is a Scottish financial expert, specialising in wealth management and equity investing. Based in Glasgow, Connor writes full-time for a wide selection of financial websites, whilst also providing startup consulting to small businesses. Holding a Bachelor’s degree in Finance, and a Master’s degree in Investment Fund Management, Connor has … View full profile ›More by this author:ACH Crypto Price Prediction 2022 – Is it a Buy?Lucky Block Partners with Dillian Whyte ahead of Heavyweight Showdown with Tyson FuryNFT Pixel Art – The Best NFT Collections for 2022