It is said that what you say is as important as how you say it. Marketers are always finding better ways to reach out to their targets and engage them in a meaningful way. The Cisco Visual Networking Index has forecasted that video will account for almost 70% of consumer internet traffic by 2017. Videos are more likely to be shared in social media as compared to a written article. According to Nielsen 64% of marketers expect video to dominate their strategies in coming years. This is why social media marketing services are also emphasizing on creating more video content for their clients.

Here are the reasons why videos are gaining popularity in social media and are one of the best ways to connect with your audience:

Visually appealing

Do you remember the colorful pictures in your textbooks disappearing as you graduated to higher grades? Didn’t the books look scarier and less appealing each year?

There are four primary learning styles: visual, read-write, auditory and kinesthetic. Each person has a predominant style but using more of these means that the learner, or in our case the audience, finds it more enjoyable to consume, learn and understand content. Videos can use all of the four styles together and give a richer experience to the users. It is because they engage more of the senses that they are so appealing to social media users.

Ease of Absorption

The human brain always searches for the shortest way to do a task. Generally speaking, our brain has to do many processes to take in the meaning of a written content. In contrast to this, videos give us easily digestible visuals, audios and mind maps to take in. Videos are simply more effective way of getting the meaning of a message compared to a written article. They are also more useful to communicate complex concepts by including animation, simple relation- charts and diagrams.

Reducing Attention Span

The attention span of readers is decreasing day by day as it is proved by the popularity of sites like Instagram, Vine and Twitter. Although the rate of hearing in humans is less than the rate of reading ( 250 words/ min for reading  vs 150 words/ min for hearing), a video packs in more content in a shorter span of time. This is because a lot of information on product/concept is given simultaneously in a frame which would otherwise have required a lengthy written description.

Social media users are hence more drawn to videos and are more likely to share it with their friends who are equally hard-pressed for time in this world of information overload. Many social media marketing services run analytics to understand the attention span of users and determining factors on what content is shared.

Human Touch

Humans are social animals and we are wired to interact with others. In fact, our brains reward us with happy hormones on interacting with others and lack of interaction leads to depression. Videos are closer to reality by enabling users to see the people, their expression and actual demonstrations of tasks being performed. Videos also fulfill our need to know more people and are hence, a more rewarding way of information consumption.

So, when you conduct social media marketing campaign for your client make sure to invest more time and money on creating engaging videos. These videos can surely attract your target audience, generate leads, and thereby leading to conversions.