By now, marketers know that it’s not enough to just create fantastic content and produce explainer videos that generate leads and drive traffic. They must also encourage sharing among followers on social media and inspire them to expand their content’s reach. Much like any social phenomenon, there is actual science involved with the popularity of video when it comes to sharing. Your company and marketing campaign can benefit from knowing exactly what’s behind your target audience’s motivations.

Shared video is more trustworthy: You probably have more respect for your friends – both on and offline – than you do for traditional marketing messages distributed by companies. These people know you and your interests, so you’re more likely to trust what they have to say. Your ears and eyes are wide open when someone you know shares an explainer video with you as opposed to encountering this type of content on your own.

We all want to share content that will help others: It’s true in both work and personal social media environments, that we want to spread the word if we find content that’s useful. From a better way to boil an egg to increasing manufacturing efficiencies, there’s a sense of altruism behind sharing video. Essentially, it’s popular because we want to make others’ lives easier or more enjoyable.

Sharing explainer videos is the equivalent of social currency: There’s value in a social media profile that goes far beyond money and, like all currency, it’s better to gain it than spend it. Sharing explainer video with followers is investing in our social media reputation, generating “income” in the sense that we’re seen as more respected by those who view the content. In that sense, video is popular because it enables us to increase our online net worth.

Video acts as a trigger that can activate other brain activity: Video includes both audio and visual components, which can wake up other emotions or sensations. An explainer video that triggers a pleasant feeling induces people to share it online with a goal to make others feel euphoric. The sights and sounds presented by video literally double the opportunity to elicit an emotional response, which makes them twice as popular to share.

A share-worthy explainer video is more cost-effective: The science of video sharing goes hand in hand with the numbers, and there can be no doubt that video content is a wise investment. You’ve probably heard it before, but video is shared more often and with more people when compared to text-based content. This might make you re-think all that time and money you’re sinking into blog posts and whitepapers. That’s not to say you should go all-in with explainer videos and forego other content forms; rather, it just means that you’ll see better ROI on video from a sharing standpoint.

While science can’t always enlighten us on every trigger that motivates people to share material, it can at least give us some direction on what inspires viewers to spread the word. It’s not easy creating content, but going beyond that to get prospects to share it with others is even more challenging. However, knowing that a well done explainer video is passed on more often and more frequently than other types of content is reason enough to put the best material out there.