I’ve always said video is all about the viewer. It’s not about you, it’s about them.

They have to get some value out of investing their time in to watching (or reading) your content.

And I have a prime example of that.

Strava

If you haven’t heard of Strava its a fitness app with a strong social media platform.

The app can be used to track activity (running, cycling, swimming and loads more) and even links to fitness trackers so you can get loads of stats automatically from these devices too.

On the social side of things you can join clubs, follow friends, like activities (called giving kudos) and comment or someone activities.

So it’s a bit like Facebook but for fitness and its brilliant at what it does!

And just like Facebook, Strava produces a ‘year in review’ type video for it’s users.

B.t.w the Facebook ‘Year in review’ video is just as bad.

What’s in it for the viewer?

For me as the viewer it’s 75 seconds of ‘meh’.

75 Seconds of who cares!

Don’t get me wrong, it’s nicely animated and I do love stats. Particularly about my performance but it doesn’t need to be a video, a fancy infographic would have conveyed all the info in far less time.

Its interesting to know I ran 432km, cycled 1,279km and swam 52,000m, but the figures don’t tell the endless hours of activity, the aches, the pains. Well it is for me, no one else really cares about this and I know you certainly don’t.

Anyway, here is the automatically generated video of my stats. But you won’t watch it.

Boring, right?

I bet you just scrolled past it. I would have done and I don’t blame you.

In other words, stats don’t sell. They are not sexy and no one cares.

The stats also don’t convey the fact 900 of the kilometeres I cycled in 2018 took place over 10 days. 10 days of back to back riding to the Alps which is a far more interesting story…

Back to my point

It’s all about value. My own sats are mildly interesting to me but no more than that. No one else is interested so I didn’t share it as Strava encouraged me to do.

I didn’t share it because there is no value in it to anyone else in the world. The only place I have shared it is here, as an educational lesson.

But many people will share their version of the video but they won’t get watched.

So if you are going to share a video, make sure it’s something that adds value (education, entertainment, inspiration) to your audience’s lives.

p.s. My video coaching club launched this month which is a club for business owners who are serious about getting the most out of video in 2019 and want to create engaging videos.