Explanation Video Going Viral
February 20, 2012 in Business, Education, Management
Imagine starting a painting. If a person is experienced the painting has a good chance of catching people’s hearts and making a name for itself. Unfortunately the truth in fact is counter intuitive.
In the end no matter what production method is to used the viewers will decide the value of that painting. That painting may in fact be a series of smudges but the viewers will find how much it is worth.
There is some of this mentality when it comes to creating video explanations. But in the case of a video explanation unlike a piece of art, there is an expectation that the product successfully explain what is being asked for. A piece of art does not have that need, in a sense it just has to create a buzz.
On the other hand, an explanation video can create a greater buzz depending on the quality of what is clarifying and effective in educating the viewing audience. At this point there has to be a balance between the entertainment value and the educational value. Starting out in creating the video, the educational value is far more important. After all the video fundamentally is an explanation, and then explanation is an attempt at education.
The seeker of these videos are students. But what has to be kept in mind is that all viewers are potentially students if the subject matter is related what they are interested in. So before the next explanation video is to be created, one has to make sure that it is interesting, relevant, helpful and easy to follow. The biggest problem with educational material is that they are not easy to follow, understandable or easy to remember. It is easiest to remember something visual and something that emotionally is more intense than the rest of our environment.
Everyday material, scenery, stories, commercials become boring and one shuts of their viewing attention in an endeavor where maximum attention grabbing is the goal.
So the bottom line is to talk about something that one finds interesting first. After that the organizing of the information and the entertainment aspect can be developed. If the subject matter is not relevant and entertaining, the video will not be interesting to anyone.
Everyone wants to improve something about themselves. A great explanation video delivers the most benefit with the least cost in both money and time. If a video no matter how short and inexpensively was created can deliver a message highly relevant to improving a desperate situation in an entertaining manner, it is bound to go viral.
That is not to say that clever animation or never seen before the video techniques cannot have an effect, but that they are secondary to the fundamental message that is being delivered. The message is the viral backbone of the video. A week and on interesting message will never succeed no matter how clever the visual aspect.