Often, when I’m helping deliver video skills training I’ll show a video towards the start.
It’s a video that I’ve taken from Facebook that I’ve not gone looking for. It’s found me. Someone has shared it and after autoplaying I’ve got distracted looking at it.
So, here is one that stopped me in my tracks just this week. So, here is one that stopped me in my tracks just this week. .So, here is one that stopped me in my tracks just this week. You can watch it here:
It’s a video of a Chinese-looking baby laughing at a man counting notes. The man pretends to spit on his hand. The baby chuckles. It makes me beam. It’s not long. I could watch it over and over.
Why do I show it?
To show that this is what we are up against competing for our attention.
Statista calculates that 32 million people use Facebook in the UK in 2016. As they scroll through their timeline they are usually not looking for content. It finds us, shared by a friend or a page we follow. The most arresting content is cute, funny and short. It can be the puppies having a bath. It could be cats. It could be something comic.
Now look at your organisations YouTube channel to get a flavour of the type of video they post.
Chances are you’ll find a man in a suit stood against a wall in the classic frightened bunny firing squad pose. There’ll be a couple of dozen views. At most. As a video, it has failed.
Here is breaking news. The world has too many videos with important people in them sagainst walls.
Think of what people are watching. Put yourself in their shoes. If your next video is short, cute, witty or informative you stand a chance of getting people’s attention.
If it’s none of these nobody online cares.
A cute baby v a man against a wall? The cute baby wins hands down.
Isn’t it time you re-thought your next video?
Essential Video Skills for Comms workshops are staged across the UK. For more information click here.
Great reminders! Just a friendly question in a totally non-aggressive way: If the baby had been white, would you have commented on its ethnicity? Probably not. But if you must, “Asian baby” is a lot better than “Chinese-looking baby” which sounds a little… dismissive for lack of a better word. Thanks for all your great blogs.
Never a truer word! I just had to watch that video three times… 🙂