Author: Hootsuite / Source: Hootsuite Social Media Management

If the perfect social video were a cake, what would go into making it? We talked to Hootsuite’s in-house video expert, Derek Saddler, to find out the four key ingredients you need to bake a delicious piece of content.

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1. It’s short and sweet

According to a survey conducted by Animoto, nearly two-thirds of consumers prefer video under 60 seconds.

That’s why Saddler recommends keeping your social video between 30 and 90 seconds long. Attention spans are short and you want to keep viewers engaged.

Here’s a few ways to ensure your video holds the audience’s attention:

  • If your video includes text, keep the word count to a minimum. You don’t want your viewer to be reading the entire time instead of watching the actual video. Your audience’s time is precious, so try to get your message across with as few of words as possible. At Hootsuite, when we repurpose a blog post into a social video we’ll often cut it down from eight tips to three, like we did in this video.
  • Use numbered lists to keep people engaged. This makes the video content easy-to-follow.
  • Get the pacing right. Make sure the text doesn’t go by too fast or too slow. To test pacing, Saddler suggests reading the text out loud. Make sure it’s slow enough that leisurely readers can pick it up, but not so slow that it drags—you might lose your viewer’s attention.

2. It’s optimized for specific platforms and devices

Consider which platform you will share the video on (Facebook? YouTube?), and how your viewers will watch it (on a laptop or mobile device?). Your goal is to deliver the best experience.

Here are some quick tips for optimizing videos for different devices and platforms:

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