Thread by @AliAbdaal

What separates a good YouTube video from a great one? Structure.

There are four simple steps we can use to hook the viewer and keep them engaged throughout our video.

This is the HIVE framework 👇

The framework consists of 4 key parts:

🔗 Hook
✍️ Intro
💍 Value
🖥️ End Screen

1 - 🔗 Hook

The first 10 seconds of your video is KEY.

Average human attention span is now shorter than a goldfish so you’ve got to keep people engaged. (Source: Time)

The best hooks address an issue or make an emotional connection with the audience.

📹 Use enticing B-Roll
❓ Ask a question
🤩 Show a transformation
💭 Share a thought-provoking fact
👉 Provide a tip

2 - ✍️ Intro

Do you really need an intro?

In some cases yes, in some cases no.

There are broadly three types of videos:
🔎 Discoverable - hook new viewers into watching more of your videos
👬 Community - deepen the relationship with existing viewers
💲 Sales - get the viewer to take an action

Technically, you only really need an intro for the 'Discoverable' type videos - where your viewership is outside of your core audience.

So - what does an intro look like?
👉 I am X and I do Y
👉 I help X do Y
👉 I help X do Y by Z

3 - 💍 Value

This is the main chunk of your video.

How can we add value to our audiences while keeping them engaged?

There are two main things to think about - the structure, and your writing style.

There are broadly four types of video structure:

📝 Listicle Structure
3️⃣ Triplet Structure
🎵 Quartet Structure
📚 Story Structure

📝 Listicle

The more you speak from personal experience, the lower lift creating consistent videos will be.

Listicles are great because you can literally riff off 5-10 things and provide clear value to your audience while doing so.

3️⃣ Triplet

This is really helpful for topics where you have three broader statements, but you want to give the audience action points within those.

Within each of your 3 main points, you’ve got a number of smaller points.

This is a good example:

🎵 Quartet

Why, What, How and What If?👇

This structure works incredibly well for educational videos or topics where you want to convince the user that said topic is going to be a positive change.

📚 Story

It also works great for sales videos when you want the audience to follow a CTA.

A more creative way of getting your point across.

The Hero’s Journey is commonly used by fiction authors, but when you simplify it’s actually quite similar to the Quartet approach with a bit more flair.

Think more B-Roll, story-telling and personal experiences shared.

Then, there’s the writing part:

✍️ FBR
🎙️ A mix of A-Roll + Voiceovers
🚫 Minimise repetition
✨ Add flair
🤔 Intellectual property

✍️ FBR - aka Fast, Bad, Wrong (lol)

We all have unfair advantages that we can tap into, but most of us let perfectionism creep in before we even get started.

My best advice - outline the 5-7 points you want to talk about super quickly and refine the script later.

🎙️ A mix of A-Roll + Voiceovers

As you script your video, think about ways you can spice things up. When I first started YouTube, I recorded a bunch of random B-Roll clips in one sitting - flicking through books, scrolling on the iPad etc - which I still use to this day.

🚫 Minimise repetition

It's normal to want to summarise things at the end of a point, but this will probably make your viewers bored and result in them clicking away.

Clearly define each point and the key message in your script, and try to train yourself into sticking to it.

✨ Add flair

As we grow as creators, our audience becomes more interested in our personality. Think about how you can present value in a different way that's memorable.

🗯️ Give a structure a new name
🖊️ Add funny headings to your steps
🖼️ Use familiar objects in B-Roll

🤔 Intellectual Property

You can really get creative here.

Giving a simple concept a name gives it power - and hopefully it benefits the user by helping the concept to stick in their mind.

If you’re successful in this, people will talk about that structure with the name you gave it.

Just like in this video about how I use Notion as my “Resonance Calendar”

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4 - 🖥️ End Screen

If the viewer has got to the end of your video, they’re probably your ideal audience. Now your main aim is to keep them on your channel.

The best ending to a video is when your audience doesn't even realise it's the end.

Create a segue to point the audience towards another similar or helpful video of yours, using an "if" or story to lead into it.

Even if you haven’t made the next video yet, start to create links between your content.

Make use of YouTube's end cards to give viewers a visual cue right on screen.

That’s the HIVE framework of how to structure your YouTube videos.

If you found this helpful, why not learn the other frameworks I teach to budding YouTubers in my Part-Time YouTuber Academy.

Enrolment closes this Monday so check it out 👇

academy.aliabdaal.com/?utm_source=so…