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Social Media   URGENT - Need Help Fast!  
 
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Starting To Explore Social Media VideoPremium Member
Posted By: AriRose on 11/5/2009 6:29 AM (CST) 1000 Points
My company has been on Twitter and LinkedIn since the beginning of the year, but we are interested in entering the YouTube/video space.

We are an HR consulting/outsourcing firm and have the ability of creating dozens of mini-training videos that can be uploaded to our blog, YouTube, etc... A few basic questions:

1. For high-ticket consulting services, does it even pay to enter video? has this proven to be worth the investment of time?

2. What is the ideal length to upload?

3. We are a "conservative" organization, but recognize the "social" aspect of the web and are pulling between how corporate or hip/fun these videos should be.

4. Aside from YouTube, what other social video sharing sites do you recommend?

5. Any other video basics (fundamental concepts that are important to know).

Thank you - lots of questions, but lots of points!

Ari Rosenstein
CPEhr
Twitter: @cpehr

Posted by: Jay Hamilton-Roth Accepted Answer
11/5/2009 8:04 AM (CST)
Video makes great sense, depending on your market. Since you're not trying to create paid video, create very brief on-target videos (1-2 minutes) to get across your key point.

As far as content, choose the perspective of your ideal client. What attracts them? What language do they use? How do they dress? What's their environment like?

YouTube is probably the best first choice for uploads - it gets the most visitors of all the others (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_video_hosting_websites). Having them available as podcasts on iTunes is also free. Certainly post them (embeded from the video sharing site) on your website as well, and consider having the transcription of the content available on your site (for SEO reasons, search engines can't yet listen to the content of the video). But do take a look at the other video sharing sites to see if your audience is more likely to use these. Many of the sites will also automatically cross-post/upload to other video sites for you.
 
Posted by: Frank Hurtte Accepted Answer
11/5/2009 9:13 AM (CST)
I have used youtube in my own business and have pushed it forward for a couple of my clients.

Here are some thoughts:
1) think of youtube as a free sample. The sample has to have value. At the same time, the sample should not be a substitute for your work.
2) the video should be short. Videos at 2 minutes are watched. Videos at 10 minutes (the max for youtube) draw a smaller audience.
3) inbed the video into your own website - it will improve your google rankings
4) many people prefer video to reading...
 
Posted by: jstiles Accepted Answer
11/5/2009 3:11 PM (CST)
1. High ticket consultants advertise on television, as do financial investment firms. The media vehicle doesn't matter as much as the message and ability to reach your target.

2. Keep it simple, shorter is generally better since nobody really wants to sit through an lengthy infomercial. 1-3 mins is probably a good target. Take a look at some vids and see where you start feeling channel changing ADD.

3. You have a dual purpose here, first you must engage your audience and hold attention however, your second goal is to provide info, so deliver your message in a more casual/entertaining manner. Maybe not a comedy sketch but if the present makes some topical humor it helps set you apart.

4. You need YouTube, after that is up to you. I would definitely embed your vids and share them from you other vehicles. Here are some site reviews for other venues.
http://video-share-review.toptenreviews.com/

5. What will you do to make this stand out in the minds of your target audience? What will create value to them to use and share? keep these answers in mind as you discuss the project with your production company.

best of luck!
 
Posted by: Levon Member Response
11/5/2009 4:45 PM (CST)
Video is the next logical step of the internet. If you can afford to - release a series of video then transcribe them for maximum SEO.
 
Posted by: Gary Bloomer Accepted Answer
11/5/2009 6:56 PM (CST)
Dear Ari,

I wish more people would ask questions as wide ranging as this,
I really do. OK, I'd like to address your questions one by one.

1. For high-ticket consulting services it makes perfect (and engaging) sense to use video because, as anyone who has ever watched a documentary knows, the more you tell, the more you sell.

2. For YouTube video uploads your maximum length videos is 10 minutes.

As to the ideal length to upload, well, that depends on your message, its significance and value, and how compelling your story is. To begin with you may want to keep things just just under ten minutes, then branch out.

If you host an iMovie on your site it could pretty much be any length you wanted it to be. But you're not making a motion picture here, your goal is to deliver bite-sized pieces of content that don't bore people and that leave them enthralled enough to want to come back for more, and you can do this with a compelling series of short movies far more effectively than you can with your version of Lawrence of Arabia.

3. We are a "conservative" organization, but recognize the "social" aspect of the web and are pulling between how corporate or hip/fun these videos should be.

Conservative or not, it's still nice to relax a little. If you take your approach to video too seriously you run the risk of coming across as stiff and scripted. By all means work with a script, but don't be too afraid to go with an ad lib here or there.

This isn't live TV we're talking about here; you can always reshoot any howlers (you can even make a tape of out takes and bloopers). Think business casual: fun, informative, educational, engaging, and thought-provoking and you'll be fine.

4. The best social media video sharing site you can use is TubeMogul (www.tubemogul.com). Why? Because once your movie's on Tube Mogul your content is distributed to literally DOZENS of other sites. You can also use YouTube, which is free. Or, you can use Viddler (www.viddler.com), which is NOT free.

Viddler works like this: A startup package will set you back
$100 per month. you receive 50 GB of storage and bandwidth, and this equates to roughly 3,000 views per month of a 3-minute high quality video. There are additional plans for $250 and $500 per month, or you could go up to $1,500. As with all programs, benefits and value increase the more you pay. See the www.viddler.com Website for more information.

Other video basics include: taking time to frame your shots (please, no pictures or light fittings growing out of people's heads); making sure you've got good lighting; taking time to test and set mic levels, using an auto cue if you feel it will help you, and avoiding interruptions and ambient sound.

Other things to consider are getting presenters to present rather than act; making sure that people look at and talk to the camera (for which read "viewer"), and making sure you have people in front of the camera who are COMFORTABLE being in front of the camera and who can keep the dialog flowing. This means no ums, ahs, ers, hmms or wahs— or as few as you can get away with.

Don't be afraid of using multiple camera angles (two or three is fine—but probably no more than three), but keep your edits to a minimum. Too many cuts back and forth with dialog that chops and changes for no good reason and suddenly, you're in a David Mamet movie.

Keep backgrounds and backdrops simple and well lit. If you are presenting in front of a dry wipe board, beware of reflections and make sure that what's being written on the board can be seen in the viewfinder, and that the presenter can be heard.

Don't get too tricksy with animated introductions or too orchestra with music. Keep captions and on screen text short and make sure it's legible. And whenever you need to give information that people need to make a note of (telephone numbers, URLs, vital points and so on), make sure to leave them on screen long enough for people to write them down. There's nothing more irritating than an an important caption that's on screen for half a second.

If you're shooting digitally, you're never going to run out of film, your editing is a breeze, and you can always reshoot stuff. And finally, if you're shooting a live presentation, again, use multiple views, make sure the camera tracks the presenter if he or she is moving around, and if they're pointing to or at a screen on which there's vital information that's part and parcel of your overall production, take the time to FILM THE SCREEN!

I've seen seasoned pros who ought to bloody well know better screw that up. It's irritating, it's unnecessary, and it's bad form.

I hope this helps. Good luck to you.

Gary Bloomer
Wilmington, DE, USA
Follow me on www.twitter.com @GaryBloomer

P.S. I'm sure I'm missing something but for the moment I can't think what it is. As and when it comes to me, I'll jot it down and get back to you.
 
Posted by: mary Accepted Answer
11/5/2009 11:25 PM (CST)
Hi Ari,

Here are my answers to your questions

1. Its worth an investment. Recent research shows that people uses YouTube as a search engine

2. you can find top video sharing sites from this list, http://blog.compete.com/2008/09/23/video-market-share-youtube-google-myspac...

3. Use Tubemogul to upload videos in multiple sites at one shot

4. To know more about Importance of YouTube in generating online value for business , read this http://blogs.position2.com/importance-of-youtube-in-generating-online-value...

Thanks,
Mary
 
Posted by: Gary Bloomer Accepted Answer
11/6/2009 11:18 AM (CST)
Dear Ari,

The thing I forgot was being able to turn the sound track of your video into an audio product, which in turn you can transform into a transcript.

This way, your video works three times as hard and you create additional value into the bargain.

There's also another video hosting source you may want to review. It's called Miro (www.getmiro.com) and it's free, it's open source, and it's a video player and an audio or podcast player all in one.

For transcription services, try:

www.verbalink.com
www.wetype4u.com
www.gmrtranscription.com
www.SameDayTranscriptions.com
www.transcriptioninstitute.com

I hope this helps.

Gary Bloomer
Wilmington, DE, USA
Follow me on www.twitter.com @GaryBloomer
 
Posted by: kimberly_mccabe Accepted Answer
11/7/2009 7:22 PM (CST)
Videos are great - but my experience is that the content must be memorable, or they'll just sit on YouTube or whatever platform with little views. Videos can be highly useful because of how the show personality. I would like to offer a good example: http://www.hubspot.com/marketing-videos/

First before everything, its about creating engaging content.

Once you figure out how to create engaging memorable content - then we can talk about how to market....

Cheers

K
 
Posted by: AriRose Author Response
11/9/2009 11:33 AM (CST)
Wow, thank you so much everyone for the amazing advice and information! I am looking forward to getting started and giving it a try.
 
Posted by: LyndiT Member Response
11/11/2009 1:51 PM (CST)
Video is not only an excellent SEO, and even branding and marketing exposure tool yet for clients I have worked with YouTube out performs all other social media venues in driving traffic to the website. Of course on the flip side, just because there is more traffic doesn't mean it is "Clean" or relevant traffic.

Highly recommend putting short videos - around 1 min in length on YouTube to constrain costs, keep viewers interested and use short yet descriptive descriptions and tag the video with relevant tags, also consider using Google Adwords keyword tool. [https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal] to think of other ways of "tagging" your videos if not your site for other popular keywords real users are looking for.

Thanks for asking the question, great community here willing and excited to participate in one anther's success.

 


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