Social Media and the Return of Silent Films

There is no denying that when it comes to social media, video content reigns supreme. It is the most likely content to reach users through organic reach, outperforms text and video posts, and drives higher engagement numbers. Social media marketers across the world are on the video content train. So, while video content is great, there’s an important factor that many companies don’t realize: 85% of Facebook videos are watched with the sound off!
This means that successful social media videos need to be understandable without the sound. Facebook auto-plays videos in your feed, but defaults the audio to mute unless they are clicked on. The source of these settings is obvious, and highly unlikely to change anytime in the future – being bombarded with unexpected audio is jarring, impolite, and often embarrassing. Soundless videos are the future, and it is past time that businesses got on the video bandwagon for social media.

Video Types

Not all videos work well without the sound on, so when it comes to content creation start with a few video types that translate well to silence. Dialogue heavy videos can be captioned but are likely to lose viewer’s interest too quickly, instead consider using one of the following:

  • Tutorials – like the popular recipe videos you’ve likely seen on Facebook
  • Tours – give people a glimpse inside your operation with a video tour
  • Montages – collect popular/timely short videos and images into a longer montage
  • Explainers – More difficult but the clever use of captions and informational graphics can work

Finding the right video type is key to crafting successful silent videos – a good place to start is browsing what’s already popular in your social network for inspiration. Once you have some basic content ideas you can move on to creating silent-friendly videos that will make an impact.

Maximizing Content

You have to get creative when you can’t rely on sound to express your message. Successful silent videos capitalize on all the available tools to provide text, images, and context to your videos. Start with a text-based caption that provides context or a simple summary of the video – doing so gives viewers a basic idea of what to expect. Make the summary catchy or open-ended to keep their attention through the length of the video.
Then caption any speaking that happens in your video. No one wants to read extensive dialogue through captions, but you can get away with it if you keep it relevant, important, and brief. Finally, add graphics, charts, or animation to bring your data to life. Viewers are most likely used to reading and interpreting infographics so they are quick to digest data-based charts and diagrams included in your video – just make sure they are legible and easily graspable.

Short, Simple, & Impactful

The best social media videos are short, simple, and impactful. There’s a time to explain the complex in-and-outs of your business, but a silent video isn’t that time. Keep viewers interest by limited the scope and range of your online videos.
Timelapse and hyperlapse videos are a great way to show a long or complex process in a relatively short amount of time – consider using these methods for tutorial or tour based videos. Montages can be used to create emotion-rich and impactful videos as they lend themselves to capturing human experiences. And explainer videos should be focuses on a single, simple issue to accurately express the data in a way that can be easily digested by viewers.

Social Media Marketing

Social media is a powerful tool for businesses, but creating content that has reach and impact is a difficult process. Video is the best way to achieve that – even if it’s not always the easiest to pull off. Fusion Group USA offers monthly social media marketing services that can help to take that weight off your shoulders. From original content to social-based sweepstakes, we can leverage social media to grow your business. Contact us today if you’re interested in bringing your social media presence to the next level.

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