How to Increase Video Views on Social Media

Getting more views on your social media videos isn’t about luck or some secret algorithm hack, it’s about a smart, repeatable strategy. If your video views have hit a plateau, you're in the right place. This guide walks you through the practical, no-fluff steps you can take to get more eyes on your content, build momentum, and grow your audience.

Grab Attention Immediately: The 3-Second Rule

Modern social media is an endless river of content, and your audience is scrolling fast. Your one and only job in the first three seconds is to give them a reason to stop. If you fail here, the rest of your video doesn’t matter. Your hook is everything, but most creators waste this opportunity with slow intros, generic greetings, or unnecessary branding.

You need to open with a jolt of energy, curiosity, or value. Instead of saying, "Hi everyone, in today's video I'm going to show you how to organize your closet," punch them with the problem or the solution right away.

Actionable Hook Strategies:

• Start with a bold or controversial statement: "You've been folding your shirts wrong your entire life." This instantly makes people intrigued and want to see if they're making a mistake.
• Show the end result first: If you're decorating a cake, show the stunning final product for two seconds before cutting to the first step. If you're sharing a business tip, show the impressive sales graph first. This creates a "how did they do that?" moment.
• Ask a thought-provoking question: "What if you could save 10 hours a week with one simple change?" The viewer's brain automatically wants to find the answer.
• Use dynamic motion: Don't start with a static shot of you talking to the camera. Open with a quick camera movement, a fast cut, or you physically doing something interesting. Motion is an eye-catcher.

Think of your hook as the trailer for your video, except it only lasts three seconds. Test different types and pay close attention to which ones stop the scroll. Your audience's behavior will tell you everything you need to know.

Stop Cross-Posting Blindly: Speak Each Platform's Language

Posting the exact same video file across TikTok, Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts, and LinkedIn is a surefire way to get mediocre results everywhere. While the content might be similar, the context, audience expectations, and algorithmic preferences are completely different. What works on one platform can feel out of place and even annoying on another.

Treat each platform like a different country. You might have the same story to tell, but you need to speak the local language to connect. This means adjusting your video’s length, tone, captions, and even editing style.

TikTok: Raw, Relatable, and Trend-Driven

TikTok champions authenticity over polish. Users here have a sharp radar for anything that feels too much like an ad. Your best bet is to create content that feels native to the platform.

• Jump on trends fast: This is non-negotiable on TikTok. Use trending sounds, filters, and formats as a vehicle for your own message. The algorithm heavily favors them.
• Use on-screen text: Add text overlays to narrate your story or highlight key points. It makes videos easy to follow without sound and helps retain attention.
• Prioritize looping: End your video in a way that makes it smoothly transition back to the beginning. Seamless loops trick people into watching multiple times, which massively signals to the algorithm that your content is engaging.

Instagram Reels: Polished, Aspirational, and Aesthetic

Instagram viewers generally prefer a more curated and visually pleasing experience. While raw B-roll can work, Reels often reward higher-quality footage and clean editing.

• Focus on visuals: Use good lighting, clear audio, and visually appealing shots. Beautiful transitions and high-resolution video tend to perform better.
• Tell a story: "A day in the life," before-and-after transformations, and behind-the-scenes content that feels aspirational are popular formats.
• Use a mix of audio: Relying solely on trending audio can be effective, but Instagram also rewards original audio. Don't be afraid to do simple "talking head" videos where you share expertise or tell a personal story.

YouTube Shorts: Searchable, Evergreen, and Value-Packed

Think of YouTube Shorts as the search engine of short-form video. While trends can work, the real power of shorts is in creating durable, helpful content that people will be searching for weeks or months from now.

• Create "how-to" and educational content: Your shorts should be tiny, digestible packets of information. "Three tips for X," "The fastest way to do Y," or "What you need to know about Z."
• Optimize your titles and descriptions: Unlike TikTok, the words you use in your title matter immensely. Use relevant keywords that people would type into a search bar.
• Deliver value quickly: Get straight to the point. Answer a specific question, solve a specific problem, or teach a specific skill.

LinkedIn: Professional, Insightful, and Human

LinkedIn video is all about professional value and building B2B relationships. Corporate jargon and stuffy presentations don't work. Approach it with a balance of professional insight and personal storytelling.

• Share industry insights or expertise: Break down a complex topic from your field, offer a prediction, or react to industry news.
• Subtitles are a must: An overwhelming majority of LinkedIn users scroll their feeds in an office or a quiet setting with the sound off. Your video must have baked-in captions to be effective.
• Tell a career story: People connect with people. Share a story about a career challenge you overcame, a lesson you learned, or a project you're proud of. It humanizes your professional persona.

Make Your Video Watchable on Mute

A huge percentage of users across all platforms watch videos with the sound off. They might be in a public place, in a quiet office, or just prefer to scroll in silence. If your video relies entirely on audio - whether that's you talking or a trending sound - you're losing a massive chunk of your potential audience from the start.

Always design your videos to be understood visually. This means adding captions and on-screen text overlays to guide the viewer. This small step has an outsized impact on performance:

• It boosts watch time: When people can read along, they are more likely to watch the entire video instead of scrolling past because they can't hear it.
• It increases comprehension: Reinforcing your spoken words with text helps your message land more effectively.
• It improves accessibility: Captions make your content inclusive for viewers who are deaf or hard of hearing.

Most platforms have auto-captioning tools built in. Use them, but always take a minute to review and edit for accuracy. AI-generated captions often make mistakes with names, industry terms, or even simple words, which can make you look unprofessional.

Hashtags Aren't Just for Show

Many creators either skip hashtags entirely or just copy and paste 30 irrelevant, overly popular ones. Both approaches are ineffective. Hashtags are a categorization tool. They tell the algorithm exactly what your content is about and who it should be shown to.

Think of hashtags like filing folders for your video. A well-organized strategy helps the platform file your video in the right place so the right people can find it. Use a mix of tag types for the best results:

The Smart Hashtag Mix:

1. 2-3 Broad Tags: These are high-volume tags related to your general topic (#videomarketing, #socialmediatips). They provide an initial burst of visibility but your content can get lost quickly.
2. 3-4 Niche Tags: These are more specific to the content of your video and your target audience (#contentcreatorhacks, #reelstipsforbusiness). This is where you find your highly engaged audience.
3. 1-2 Branded Tags: If you have one, use it to group your content and encourage user-generated content (#YourBrandName, #YourCampaignName).

Don't overdo it. A lean, focused group of 5-8 highly relevant hashtags is far more effective than 30 random ones. Use tools to see which hashtags are trending in your niche, but always make sure they're genuinely relevant to the video you're posting.

Every View Starts a Conversation (Hopefully)

Social media algorithms are designed to promote content that sparks interaction. Views are good, but engagement (likes, comments, shares, and saves) is even better. When a user actively engages with your video, it sends a powerful signal to the algorithm that the content is valuable and should be shown to more people. Your job isn't done after you hit "publish", that's when the real work of community engagement begins.

Don't just post and ghost. Nurture the conversation around your video, especially within the first hour of posting, as this is a critical window for the algorithm to assess your content.

How to Drive Engagement:

• Include a Call-to-Action (CTA): End your video or caption by actively asking for engagement. Avoid generic pleas like "comment below." Instead, ask a specific question like, "Which of these tips will you try first?" or "What's the biggest mistake you've made in X?"
• Reply to All Comments: When someone takes the time to comment, reply. Thank them, answer their question, or ask a follow-up question to keep the conversation going. Each reply is another engagement signal.
• Pin the Best Comments: Find a comment that is particularly insightful, funny, or sparks discussion and pin it to the top. This rewards the commenter and can shape the tone of the entire comment section.

Your Analytics Are Your Roadmap

Gut feelings and guesses won't get you very far. The only reliable way to know what resonates with your audience is to look at your data. Your analytics aren't just vanity metrics, they are a roadmap pointing you directly to what you should create next.

Each platform offers a backend dashboard with insights. Spend a few minutes each week reviewing your top-performing videos and ask yourself why they succeeded. Was it the hook? The topic? The format? The sound?

Key Metrics to Pay Attention To:

• Average watch time: This metric is arguably more important than the view count. It tells you how long, on average, people watched your video. A high average watch time signals compelling content.
• Audience retention graph: This chart shows you the exact point where viewers drop off. If you see a big dip at the 5-second mark, you know your hook needs work. If everyone leaves before your CTA, you need to make it more compelling or move it earlier.
• Shares and saves: These are "super engagements." A share means someone found your video so valuable they wanted to show it to others. A save means they want to come back to it later. Analyze videos with high shares and saves - that's your gold-standard content.

Once you identify a winning format, don't be afraid to double down. If a "3 tools for..." video did well, make another one with 3 different tools. If a behind-the-scenes tour was popular, create tours of other areas. Recreate your success until your audience tells you otherwise.

Final Thoughts

Increasing your video views is a systematic process of capturing attention instantly, optimizing for each platform's unique culture, engaging your community, and studying your results. Stop throwing content at the wall to see what sticks and start building a strategic approach that will deliver consistent, predictable growth over time.

Keeping all this straight across multiple platforms - planning unique videos, scheduling them at the best times, and measuring the performance of each one - can feel overwhelming. That’s why we built Postbase. Our visual calendar lets you map out your video strategy for every network at a glance, and because our platform was built for modern social media, you can schedule your Reels, TikToks, and Shorts reliably without the formatting hassles and publishing errors that plague older tools. It simplifies your workflow so you can stay focused on what you do best: creating.

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