Did you know that there are roughly 2.2 billion active monthly users on Facebook? It’s true and there are certain strategies you can use to grab their attention when learning how to make videos for Facebook (especially if you’re trying to make ones that viewers will love). Whether your goal is to increase engagement or expand your reach, you need to know how to create content that will make viewers hit that share button. These tips from leading brands will help you perfect your process of creating a shareable video for Facebook.

1. Add Text

Most people know that Facebook automatically mutes videos (viewers have to click or tap to turn the sound on). And even though this feature can be disabled, people watching videos through the Facebook app on their phones will still encounter this obstacle when their phones are on silent. Which means that your awesome voiceovers or attention-grabbing music won’t be able to draw viewers in the majority of the time.

Instead, you’ll have to rely on text. Because they’re visual, viewers will be able to experience them, no matter what setting they have on their devices. And if you start them at the top of the video, you can hook viewers into the subject matter before they scroll past.

In this great example from Wibbitz user Hubspot, their video for Facebook uses text styles the whole way through. They chose to make the text dynamic, flying in from the bottom of the screen. They also use color to emphasize certain words and names. And every single frame allows the perfect amount of time for viewers to comfortably read the full text before it moves on to the next moment. And, thanks to the placement they chose, the text do all this without distracting from the video itself.

2. Square up

Although landscape videos are effective, square videos are the most versatile. They look great on mobile (which is where the majority of Facebook users engage with the platform) and take up more screen space because of the proportions. Not only that, square videos have proven to create higher rates of viewer engagement, have a lot more audience reach on mobile, and are reliable viewer number boosters than their landscape counterparts.

Conde Nast Traveller UK created this successful square video (with over 229K views to date) to showcase a list of wanderlust locations their audience will love. Clocking in at less than a minute and a half, the brand did an excellent job of maximizing their video creation investment by going square and not landscape. In addition to being more engaging, the video capitalized on mobile viewers’ short attention spans by cycling through each major point quickly, adding only one key takeaway for each list item.

3. Tease viewers

The title of your video for Facebook should strike that delicate balance of informative yet mysterious. While you want your audience to know what they’re in for, you also want to leave the big surprises for those who actually watch it. And because online video best practices say that your title shouldn’t be more than 50 to 60 characters max, you don’t have a lot of space to get your point across. Which is totally fine if you follow examples like this one by Mashable, the company behind hundreds of viral marketing pieces.

If you’re learning how to make videos for Facebook, Mashable’s example below is a good one to bookmark. As you can see, they do a good job of using the title (10 Star Wars Facts) to pique interest without giving away too much information at the beginning. Automatically we know who the video is for (fans of the franchise), what you’ll learn by watching (some facts about the movies), and what format the video will be in (a list with a total of 10 points). That’s a whole lot of information in only 18 characters!

And as you begin to watch the video, you will find that the information shared is not super well known. So even the most hardcore fans can take away something new and interesting from it, which makes this video super shareable.

4. Surprise them

Sometimes the best videos we see on Facebook are the ones we don’t expect. Which is certainly the case from this example by social media powerhouse brand Dr. Oz. They attention-grabbing headline reads like a news highlight; shocking, intriguing, and action-inspiring. Those who watch the video then get an in-depth (yet not overwhelming) look at what one famous actress had to deal with while filming her uber-popular tv show.

This shocking story combined with twists and turns caps off by going a step further and educating its audience on the health issue she experienced. And while her initial ordeal was scary, the Dr. Oz brand brought their own positive perspective to the content, choosing to share her happy ending and how she’s now making the world a better place because of her experience.