Brevity is the Soul of Online Content

‘Brevity is the soul of wit’, or at least so said the Bard. Then again, he went on to write several massive plays that happened to be rather popular across hundreds of years. When thinking about length, however, one must consider the medium. For web content and online videos, keeping it short and sweet is absolutely the right way to go. Shakespeare had the luxury of a stage and an established audience of theatre goers and patrons. With social marketing videos, you are usually trying to build an audience from nothing.

In my other blog post about narrative structure in online videos , I talked about the need to grab attention early on and establish the world of the ‘story’ (however much there is one). This is particularly important for two reasons. The first is that because of the short duration of online and social marketing videos, you have to come out swinging with engaging material, or risk losing your audience before you’ve even begun. The second is a reiteration of the point I made above. With this sort of content, the entire purpose of the endeavour is to attract attention and create an audience base from scratch. Having a powerful opening is fundamental to doing this.

There is a sweet spot  in terms of length versus content: you don’t want your video to drag on, but at the same time, you want to provide quality material to get your message across. It takes experience and a deft hand to get that balance right. If you’re looking for assistance in creating great online content, contact us today.  Skillman Video Group is a Boston Video Production Company. Call us anytime at 800-784-0140.