Remember my “In the Distance” Bredemarket blog post from Saturday?
I embedded a reel in that post with the following text:
If their focus is elsewhere
My focus won’t impede
Since I had created the reel anyway, I repurposed it by sharing it on Bredemarket’s social media channels.
Including YouTube. You can see the YouTube short here:
Now when I shared it on YouTube, I did so with no context whatsoever. The caption simply read “In the Distance.” Without the words I wrote in the original blog post (I’ll get to two particular words later).
Yet by Monday morning the short had over 1,000 views. For Bredemarket’s YouTube channel, that’s a lot. Only three shorts have attained higher views: two about Tropical Storm Hilary, and one about squirrels.
But why?
Why?
The relative popularity of this short on YouTube is a mystery. Other than its brevity, it includes none of the elements of a successful video:
- It does not use trending audio.
- It does not use trending key words or hashtags.
- Its message is obscure, if not downright cryptic.
- Its visuals do not appeal to a mass audience.
Perhaps…
I have a theory that probably isn’t correct, but I’m going to entertain it anyway.
If this didn’t immediately occur to you, the reel subconsciously incorporates emotion. Emotion at the loss of my “former friends” as mentioned in the blog (but not on YouTube). Yes, some of the same former friends who forgot my birthday long ago.
So my wild theory is that the sense of loss, resignation, and renewed determination (I won’t impede on them) permeated the reel and subconsciously increased interest.
Or maybe I’m wrong. Perhaps there are just more wombat fans than I realized.
Regardless of the unexpected popularity of this YouTube short, it illustrates why emotions are now the seventh of the seven questions that a content creator should ask you.
I (always) need to improve my INTENTIONAL injection of emotions into my content.
And yours.
Bredemarket 