How I Made A Viral Social Media Video
@bryanpostofficial on Instagram
This Champion Production video went viral on Instagram and Facebook with 277K views and counting. Here’s the link and my recipe:
https://www.instagram.com/p/C9VzcncynsR/
I picked one of the most powerful stories I have ever heard Bryan Post tell. The story is great and he himself is a great verbal storyteller. In my experience, time and again, great storytelling is the most significant factor in videos performing well. The primary focus at Champion Video Production is well-crafted storytelling.
I cut out pauses and any part of the video that didn’t move the story forward.
The visuals are simple — a closeup and a wide shot, so it is easy for the viewer to focus on and absorb what Bryan is saying.
Subtitles were added to support the storytelling because a lot of people watch social media videos with the sound off.
The video is high quality.
I omitted B-roll and music so it was just Bryan’s real and raw story. Less artifice in this case intuitively felt like the right decision for this particular video given the nature of the story.
I wasn’t afraid of making it too long. People will watch longer videos if the content is great.
Fast cuts in the beginning to grab peoples’ attention. Pacing throughout is really important. Slower pacing with less cuts towards the middle and no cuts and very slow pacing at the end for emotional impact as he reaches the conclusion and lesson of the story.
In most of the videos I create for Bryan and The LEAF Company, I try to present a problem and, by the end, a solution. So that people who are searching for this type of information or stories online can find them by watching the start of the video and then find value by watching to the end because they learn some valuable and/or inspiring piece of information.
Subtitles, captions, and hashtags also all provide keywords to help this video connect with people interested in this type of content. In this case, there are A LOT of specific keywords in this 7 minute video.
What do you think of the video? Pretty powerful isn’t it?
Do you know any nonprofits like The LEAF Company that could benefit from videos like these? Reach out!