“Identifying Ingredients That Make Mental Health Focused Short Videos Engaging: A Content Analysis of Source Type, Content Strategy, and Production Features

Yen-I Lee (PhD Alum), Louise Ying-Chia Hsu, Di Mu, and Yan Jin. (Forthcoming). “Identifying Ingredients That Make Mental Health Focused Short Videos Engaging: A Content Analysis of Source Type, Content Strategy, and Production Features.” International Journal of Strategic Communication.  Abstract: Video-based social media has reshaped prosocial communication and health public relations strategies, where health organizations need to prioritize videos, embrace authenticity, and stay up to date with user trends and platforms in order to devise more effective public health information online dissemination (O’Brien, 2025). To identify what elements make mental health focused short videos engaging on social media, we conducted a content analysis of mental health focused short videos from YouTube (N = 142; under 4 minutes and spanning 13 years), systematically selected based on demonstrated high engagement, examining how expertise heuristics cues, reference point strategy, and industry production practices were used. The results identify the following elements contributing significantly to greater social media engagement: (1) Source expertise heuristic cues are critical (i.e., shared by news outlets and health-verified accounts); (2) Reference point is the key to content strategy (i.e., particularly, highlighting the positive influence on the community; and (3) Production features matter (i.e., using a news presentation style). Theoretical implications on the content strategy of prosocial communication on social media and practical insights for advancing health organization led mental health information efforts, producing and sharing engaging videos online, are discussed.