Have you been going over the engagement levels of your videos and don’t like what you see? While creating videos that are engaging can be tricky, more often than not if your engagement levels are really disappointing it is an indication that you may be making mistakes that are ruining it.
Knowing the more common mistakes that can have a negative impact on video engagement is important if you want to avoid them. To that end, there are four in particular that you need to be aware of:
1. Videos That Are Way Too Long
Although there is a certain amount of leeway when it comes to the ideal duration of videos for various platforms – if you’re publishing videos that are simply way too long then it will definitely wreck your engagement levels. Simply put the longer a video is the more likely it will lose viewers, meaning that its completion rate will be low.
To avoid this mistake you need to focus on planning and creating videos that are short. Typically it is best to keep it under 2 minutes – and for social media you may want to make it even shorter than that.
2. Long And Drawn-Out Introductions
Did you know that most viewers take only 8 to 10 seconds to decide whether to watch a video or click away? With that fact in mind you should be starting to see why long and drawn-out introductions are a big mistake.
In short every second matters in your video – especially at the start. Those precious few seconds are all the time that you have to hook viewers and give them a reason to keep watching, so you can’t afford to waste any of it on unnecessary introductions.
Get straight to the point as soon as your video begins and outline how it will benefit viewers to convince them to watch it.
3. Too Many Messages In a Single Video
When it comes to videos, killing two birds with one stone is never a good idea. If your video has too many messages they’re likely to work at cross-purposes, and none of them are going to be able to effectively fulfill their goals.
In fact it would be best if you restrict yourself to a single message per video. If you do that you can focus on that one message and its goal, and your videos are more likely to resonate with viewers and engage them as opposed to distracting them.
4. Poor Audio Quality
If the audio quality of your video isn’t up to scratch it will put off viewers – especially if it crackles or the voiceover is muffled and inaudible. More often than not viewers will opt not to watch a video when the audio quality is poor, leading to a steep drop in engagement levels.
Ideally you should take steps to ensure that the audio quality that you record is top notch, or failing which edit and improve it afterwards. Most video editors have features that will let you trim the audio, adjust its levels, and remove background noise – and for example you could try Movavi Video Editor.
Conclusion
Although there are numerous other factors that can affect your videos’ engagement levels – the four listed above not only have a big part to play, but are some of the more common mistakes that people tend to make. If you can avoid them you should be able to not only ensure that your video engagement levels don’t dip, but should actually see them improve instead.
[Image: Pixabay by Klaus Hausmann]
Kris Olin, MSc (Econ.) * Editor in Chief at Social Media Revolver * Web Designer * SEO Specialist * Author of the Facebook Advertising Guide. Follow Kris on Twitter and LinkedIn. See his photos at Flickr.