Lately, it seems like everyone is talking about video sharing. Friends. Clients. Industry leaders. We all agree that video is here to stay – for personal and business stories. YouTube recently confirmed my hunch, reporting that people are watching an amazing one billion hours of content every day! Market researchers estimate that number will only continue to grow.
So, what should your organization be doing to introduce video into your marketing mix? Here are my five tips for getting started:
  1. Start small. The key is to start. Look for opportunities to record your company’s subject matter experts for one minute. Short videos work well. Using the video feature on your smartphone is a perfectly acceptable option for short (and short-term) content.
  2. Select your channels. Social media is an obvious place to share video. Social posts with visual content consistently perform multiple times better than text-based content – and, one-third of government employees spend time with social media during the workday. Include great videos on other marketing channels, too. Media outlets are interested in visual content, so a video on your website could support your next bylined article or industry blog. According to this HubSpot infographic, video content increases engagement for emails, landing pages and online ads.
  3. Create engaging content. What to record? Tips, how-to stories and “Day-in-the-Life” snippets all work well. Did your company just get recognized as a military-friendly employer? Record your HR leader talking about the value of retired military personnel as employees. Has your agile development team just finished a key sprint? A developer could talk about one user story and how the team approached the development. Are your employees about to drop off donated goods to a local food bank? Livestream the handoff on Facebook Live or Periscope. Have fraud, waste and abuse best practices? Share a series of tips.
  4. Stay on brand. Though you don’t need to design a backdrop with your company colors, you will want the content of the video to fit with your brand. The topics, what people wear in the videos, how they address your audience… each of these components should align with who you are as a company.
  5. Experiment. With video, it’s easy to experiment. Record a variety of speakers. Try recorded video and live streaming via social media. See what it’s like to create a series of short videos on topics your customers would like. You’ll soon get a sense of what works best to build a consistent video marketing presence.

 

Do you have a video to share? Send it our way! We’d love to include it in our social media, too!
As always, if you have a question or need some support, please let us know. Our team is always eager to help!