For many indoctrinated by corporate culture in big city life, the daily ride to work is generally occupied by social media, whether it be messaging, browsing, and entertaining ourselves on social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter – our guilty pleasures.

Hi, its Adam, the resident Summer Intern here at Sightworthy. Here, I’ll be exploring our apparent need to inhale social media content.

Oftentimes, when I’m browsing my Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter feed, I come to the same question day after day of, “Why am I doing this?”

Because browsing social media is fun? But why is it fun? Because I can look at whatever I want, when I want to?

I’m on social media so that I can entertain myself! If I’m not looking at the next meme from @9gag on Instagram, or my friend’s status update, I spend my time reading cool facts from the Guinness World Records Facebook page and watching online videos.

Here’s a totally accurate picture of my brain reacting to great social video content:

I mean, what else gets you to spend hours on social media?

And it seems that I’m not alone – people agree, enough to produce mass quantities of social video. According to an index done by Cisco Systems, 78% of the world’s mobile data traffic will be video by 2020. And platforms such as Facebook and Instagram, have started to feel its effects. Facebook’s daily watch time for Facebook Live broadcasts has quadrupled in the last year (as of May 2017), and time spent watching video on Instagram has increased by 80% in the same period. Instagram has also been reporting an increase in year-on-year posts for video, and that trend looks set to continue as Instagram Stories continues to gain traction.

With online video becoming increasingly popular, you might be thinking about joining the movement. Sure, there are plenty of services out there, but with social becoming more individualized and personalized, you want to make sure to know how you can make a great video.

For us at Sightworthy, we find it important that a good video holds these qualities:

A great video tells a great story. First, it starts with an intriguing message. I mean, why would you make a video if the story isn’t interesting?

And with every great message, originality is key. Leaning on storyline, script, audio, voice and formatting by social channel all drives an authentic narrative.

We, at Sightworthy, find it helpful to rely on the skills of experienced editors and writers to help drive this polish. If you have an idea for a story, don’t be afraid to experiment! Often times, the more experimental the idea, the more authentic and engaging it might be!

Many brands look to content creators because they don’t go by branded rule books. You can do this too. Looking for some tips? Our Director of Customer Success, Chloe Mae Loop, wrote two posts on creating and promoting your own online videos here:

Creating Online Video

Promoting Online Video

And remember, creating video is exciting, so don’t forget to have fun too!