Experimenting With Social Media Video Content That Hits The Emotions

Even if we think of ourselves as rational and logical, the truth is human beings are slaves to emotion. Our emotions play a vital role in how people operate which is why eliciting an emotional response ought to be at the very core of all marketing and social media campaigns. When used appropriately, these emotional video marketing strategies help companies stand out in a heavily saturated market.

If your campaign can appeal to an audience’s emotion, you effectively connect with your target audience. It is this connection that results in high conversion and engagement rates. But how do you create social media video content that hits the emotions?

Know the Most Important Emotions Your Videos Can Trigger to Be Effective

In creating videos for marketing, the first thing to do is come up with a good story.  The next is to bring it to life with compelling visuals, creative writing, and music to match. All these elements should then be streamlined towards a specific emotion you want to trigger so your audience responds as you intended. This is because when it comes to engagement and marketing, people rely on emotions rather than information in making decisions. According to Hubspot, here are the emotions known to contribute to video marketing success and inspire people to act.

The first one on the list is happiness. Happiness and joy are emotions that make people hit like or share; and sharing leads to an increase in brand awareness. Good news and uplifting content spread faster on social media compared to other types of content. In other words, positive content travels fast. Of course, a greater percentage of people today still want to spread positivity.

The second emotion is sadness. Feelings of sadness cause people to empathize and connect, and with empathy giving increases. A study reveals that “feelings of empathy lead to altruism and the motivation to act on behalf of others.” This is why if you intend to increase the rate of people who would like to give, donate, or take part in a cause, go for feelings of sadness.

The third is surprise and fear and these emotions instill brand loyalty. Sometimes marketers are hesitant in drawing content based on fear because they don’t want to associate their brand with negative feelings. This is not necessarily true. Videos that elicit a certain level of fear allows people to see your brand as a good thing in a “dark world.” Similarly, your audience will see you as the epitome of hope, comfort, and stability (when done right, that is).

The fourth is emotions related to anger and passion. These two may lead to viral content that garners loyal followers. Topics for such content may be anything from political issues, tragedies, and other controversial bits. Like happiness, strong emotions like passion and anger cause people to share content that increases views and lead to virality.

Be Familiar with Both Short-Form and Long-Form Social Media Video Content

There’s no denying that this is the golden age of social media. The opportunity to produce videos and publish them independently can be done anytime, anywhere. This current state has allowed people to be avid consumers of video content because videos create stronger connections than images and text. Creative decisions as to the type of videos to produce are more critical now than ever. To give insight on what type of videos are ideal for marketing strategies, Ezra Firestone, eCommerce marketing expert and founder of Smart Marketer, shares his expertise on short-form and long-form videos.

According to Firestone, short-form videos are two minutes long and shorter, while long-form videos are longer than two minutes. Some long-form videos can run up to 40 minutes. In a sales cycle, each of these two types of video content is effective in certain phases. Short-form videos attract people’s attention and cause them to get to know you. Once you’ve established that your audience likes you, you can now then show them longer content. Those interested in you will naturally watch longer content.

Learn How to Be Strategic with Montage Videos

Montage videos are categorized as engagement or consumption content because they are designed to keep the audience engaged and to strengthen a brand name. This kind of video content easily engages the community on social media. It is also easy to run ads to them, send them through email or put them on blogs. In this sense, montage videos play an important part in content marketing. Since montage videos have so much potential, they can be used to answer specific marketing needs.

Use Montage Videos for Short Interviews. Ezra uses this strategy by compiling a list of 10 -15 questions that will be answered by about 50 people. To create the montage, simply cut up the responses into individual videos after each question is asked. Usually, a 10-15 second answer from different people is more than enough. Montage videos of interviews are effective for engagement because people naturally want to know what other people think about certain things or issues. If you find yourself relating to the answers of the interviewees in the video, then you know that the video is compelling. Ezra recommends doing a minimum of 10 interviews so you get more compelling responses for the final video.

Use Montage Videos to Sell through Transparency. Another effective way to use montage videos is to present the manufacturing process of something you are trying to sell. This approach is similar to showing people what is going on behind the scenes of an event, product, or service that you need your audience to engage in. A video montage used this way then becomes interesting, compelling and brings in sales because you can give people a window as to how you create something and why you create it. This brings about authenticity and establishes authority — the main factors to soaring engagement rates.

Working With Social Media Influencers

Influencer strategies are proven effective. Including brand ambassadors, expert thought leaders, specialists, or mavens is a good opportunity to put people in the spotlight. As humans, we all have that need for validation and acknowledgment. If your brand or organization is willing to acknowledge people in their field of expertise, then a lot more people are going to be supportive. Your audience will find something and someone they relate with and look up to. So, by staying true to the ideals of forming real connections with good intentions, collaborating with influencers will bring you strides closer to success.

If you are successful at weaving emotion into the videos you create, then you will be able to effectively encourage your audience to act. The key is to get to know your audience and find out which of the emotions resonate.