Why Tasty Videos are so Successful

by Nov 15, 2017Blog, Content | Social Media | Email

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uRU7d0WjC3A

198,369,931. That’s the number of views that this Tasty video has (as of 10/31/17) on Facebook. It also has 1.4 million reactions, 5,453,769 shares, and over 420,000 comments. The video is 1 minute and 44 seconds long, and the video shows the viewer how to make party sliders four ways.

That’s it.

Nothing more, nothing less. Imagine the reach and impressions on that! So what makes these videos so successful?

Overall theme

Food. End of story.

No need for subtitles or voice over

My personal favorite thing about these videos is that there is no need for explanation or a voice over. The video is simply there for people to watch. If people would have the desire to actually see the recipe in a longer context, or presented in a different format (i.e. written out recipe), then they have the ability to do that by simply clicking a link within the post or in the comments.

Prep work

One of the biggest appeals of Tasty’s videos stems from the fact that the prep work is pretty much already done. No one wants to watch a video of someone chopping onions, shredding cheese, etc. That’s what Food Network is for.

Rather, Tasty videos show premeasured spices, everything already chopped and shredded, and minimal prep work, so the viewer sees the chef merely dump all the ingredients together and voilá, dinner is served.

The recipe seem much more feasible because the ingredients are prepared and ready to go, and thus viewers are more inclined to both watch and ultimately try the recipe out!

Brevity

In today’s day and age, people have the attention span of an over-caffeinated squirrel. Study after study has come out showing that after the introduction of the internet, smart phones, and social media, our attention spans are diminishing. So good on ya if you’ve gotten this far through the blog.

ANYWAY, the ideal length of a video depends on the platform. Obviously Twitter videos should be rather short, and YouTube videos have the flexibility to be a bit longer. Usually the ideal length of a Facebook video is 1 minute-1 minute and 30 seconds.

Tasty’s videos range anywhere from 30 seconds-over 2 minutes. But the vast majority of them hit that sweet spot.

By keeping the videos rather short in length, the viewer’s attention span is less of a concern.

Simplicity

These videos aren’t showing you how to make escargot, turducken, or haggis. Rather, videos show the viewer how to make monkey bread, crockpot meals, and sheet pan dinners.

These are easy, family-friendly meals that everyone can try without being intimidated. If the viewer is looking for something a bit more advanced, there are also those videos available. The beauty of these Tasty videos is that they run the gamut from easy to hard, quick meals to hour long meals, and everything in between!

There’s so much diversity when it comes to these videos, but the one thing they have in common is this: the videos are approachable, and give the viewer the idea of “yeah, I could probably make that!”

Facebook Algorithm

Ah, Facebook. Marketers everywhere have a love-hate relationship with the King of Social Media. Namely, due to its increasingly confusing and complicated algorithm.

Nevertheless, time and time again, after just about every Facebook algorithm update, videos have remained strong. It’s no surprise that when a business page posts a simple text post, vs. when they post a video, that the video will have higher reach and impressions.

Put simply, the Facebook Algorithm favors videos, and Tasty takes advantage of that.

Buzzfeed community

This category is two fold. First of all, Buzzfeed has so many subsets: Tasty (obviously), Nifty, Nifty Outdoors, just to name a few! Each of these have their own incredibly large following, and each shares one another’s videos.

The second reason is that these meals don’t alienate any audience, and they appeal to just about everyone. Moreover, they’re expanding their reach by adding new subcategories of Tasty itself (so a sub-sub category of Buzzfeed). Tasty has spread to so many countries, and each has their own Facebook page now. They’ve added Tasty Vegetarian, and even Tasty Junior!

It’s obvious that Tasty reigns supreme when it comes to Facebook videos, and there’s a lot of contributing factors that have lead to this. Go watch a few and see for yourself!

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