Greetings DN community. You may or may not know me. My name is Nate, DN’s resident video guru and one of the masterminds behind one of DN’s greatest videos: A Day in the life of Nick Bozic. I’ve gathered you here today to tell you why your business needs video content! Now let me preface by saying this will be my first ever blog I’ve written for DN, so go easy on this sensitive soul.
Before we begin, let me tell you a bit about me. I love movies! So much so that I went to Uni to study and make them. After graduating I fell into marketing (the film industry is a cut-throat place), but I was able to bring my video knowledge to DN and other companies, and help them explore a new avenue of digital marketing. Not only do I have a degree in film, but I also have another extremely important qualification, I’m… a Millennial!!!
I’ve grown up with and without social media, and have seen how this digital age has affected the rest of the world. A bit of a grand statement, I know, but I do genuinely believe that social media is the primary cause of how we now interact with businesses and other people in today’s society. With that out of the way, let’s jump into it!
Vlogs changed the game!
When I talk about how social media changed the marketing game, I often attribute it to Vloggers. If you’re a marketer of any kind, you’ll know that audiences are extremely perceptive, and can tell when something is genuine and when something is fake. Traditional marketing doesn’t have the same impact once had, because audiences have caught on to a lot of the techniques, especially millennials. We’re excellent at detecting bullshit, and it’s hard to pull a fast one on us (Sam wrote a whole article on marketing to millennials so check that out if you haven’t already).
We crave authenticity and genuine interactions; that’s where vlogging comes in. Vlogs work so well because they are designed to remove the barrier between creator and viewer. You can show your audience your day-to-day life, or share your opinions and create discussions. They are a much more direct and intimate way of communicating with your audience.
Does that mean that all businesses should vlog? Absolutely not! Remember, audiences (and millennials especially) know when you’re being genuine, so if you try too hard to be “young and hip” you’re probably going to distance your viewers. Not only that, but you’ll oversaturate the market. If everyone does the same thing, then people will start looking elsewhere for content. Our attention spans are shorter than ever (one of the other effects social media has had on us), so if you do the same thing as everyone else, audiences will feel like they’ve “seen it all before” and tune out. But, there are a lot of really valuable lessons that vlogging can teach us…
Engage more directly and follow up
Whether that’s doing a weekly Q&A on Facebook Live, or doing a little video on the people that work in your office, do something that allows you to create a conversation. People naturally want to communicate, and if it’s something they feel passionate about they’re more likely to engage with you. And if you’re worried about finding common ground, don’t. They’re already following you, which means they have an interest in your business; that’s all the common ground you need to get started. Just make sure that you engage back with your audience. You need to show that you listen to what they’re saying. No conversation ever ends after each party has made one comment, otherwise, it’s not really a conversation, is it?
See what I did there? I made it a question, so you could respond… so we can start a conversation… no? Ok, moving on…
Put your FACE out there!
Now, you could argue that you can do all of the above without ever recording a minute of video, and you’d be right. It’s very easy to just sit behind a computer and answer messages from an AMA post (Ask Me Anything, for those of you playing at home). But then you miss out on the face-to-face interaction. I think this is why vlogging is so popular; people become so much more engaged when there is someone “talking to them”.
Now, I’ve been both sides of this. Talking to a camera is a very bizarre experience, and it takes a lot of getting used to (I’m honestly still not used to it), but as an audience member, I feel like your talking to me, even though I know I’m not. The brain’s weird like that.
It’s also a lot easier to get to know a person if you actually see them because you see how they act and who they are as a person. It’s not just about communicating with people, it’s also about showing personality, which we all know is a lot harder to express in writing without writing in ALL CAPS AND USING EXCLAMATION MARKS! Video makes this a lot easier.
Quality vs Quality
I think businesses are a bit scared to give video content a go, and I can understand why. It’s not really something that you can quantify and it’s much more difficult to track, but I guess the same could be said for marketing in general. The other thing businesses are nervous about is how much it’s going to cost to produce. This is where the ‘quality vs quality’ argument comes into play.
You could put a bunch of money into a video, or get a really good camera or drone, and make something visually amazing… and then it gets maybe 100 views.
I’m not slandering video with production value, in fact, quite the opposite. Video content that has budget behind it is extremely valuable, especially if you are looking to promote your brand to a new audience or promoting a product or service (in fact, there’s a whole other blog on the value of video with budget…). What I’m saying is you can create “quality” content with a phone camera and zero budget. You just need to make sure the content of the video content is quality (how’s that for a brain teaser?).
A video should have a purpose, a point, an objective. Making a video for the sake of making a video is a great way to lose an audience because they’ll think you’ve run out of ideas; and in reality, you probably have. You need to think creatively when coming up with videos. Maybe you could show your audience a side of the business they may never see, i.e. if you’re a manufacturing company, then show them the manufacturing line, talk about the process. A great example of this is when Haigh’s Chocolates made a video about how their Chocolate speckles were made. A 17-second video with over 30k views! And it was shot on a phone.
As long as your video has a purpose, then you’ll be creating quality content.
Get on Facebook
For video content on the web, almost everyone goes to YouTube, and with very good reason, it’s the OG platform for looking for video content. But Facebook has jumped onto the video bandwagon in the last couple of years and they’ve hit it big! The Facebook algorithm gobbles up video content, and if you don’t believe me, go to your news feed now and try to tell me that you don’t see at least two videos in the first 5 posts on your feed.
Last year Sproutsocial reported that Facebook accumulates over 8 BILLION views a day! Maybe this blog should have been a video…
The other benefit that Facebook has is that their messaging and commenting system is the best out there. It’s easy to follow comments and threads that are made, and I find it’s a tangible way of seeing whether your video creates conversations.
Another little tip to note is that Facebook loves promoting Live video, in fact, if a page that you follow goes live, you will get notified almost immediately by default. It’s the most direct way to converse with your audience, with only a 10-20 second delay it beats posting a video and waiting for people to comment.
Just some food for thought.
Summary
I could go on all day about why your marketing strategy should include video; seriously, I’ve done it before. There is so much choice in what you could do, the sky’s the limit! Just think about the content that would best suit your brand and also don’t be afraid to ask your audience what they want to see. Sometimes it’s easier to get their opinion than trying to guess what they want. Have a conversation with your audience. Just a bit of free advice for you, although I guess all this advice is free…