Reel DesignerSocial Media ace shares success tips how Video Marketing and Social integrate! Terri Davies of Sociability: “Relationships are the foundation of business, and always have been…” Davies demos methods that video builds trust and strengthens brand loyalty. If your organization will be, or is using, video and social media, bookmark this interview!
Our first Social Media expert – glad to have a chance to pick your brain, Terri! For those who might not have heard of your company Sociability yet, what are you an your company is all about?
TERRI DAVIES: We work with entrepreneurs and non-profits who are enthusiastic about marketing their organizations online. They may not know exactly where to begin, but they understand that online marketing is a critical part of business success in today's digital world.
This can involve blogging, social media set up and training, mobile websites, email marketing, and creating online marketing plans.
Your tagline is “It's all about relationships” – tell us about the significance of this statement for Sociability's clients.
TERRI DAVIES: Relationships are the foundation of business, and always have been, but today those relationships can begin both online and offline! For example – right now there are probably prospective customers who would prefer to start a conversation with you via Twitter or Facebook.
In fact, they may never contact you unless you have those channels open to them. That person is every bit as real and important as someone you meet face-to-face, but many of my clients have a hard time seeing that at first. They tell us that they want someone else to run their social media accounts for them, until they learn that it would be the equivalent of asking a complete stranger to answer their phones!
When you put it that way, it helps people to understand the power of online marketing. They see that it is important to either integrate online marketing into the job description of one or more of their current staff members, or hire a “community manager” who will take the time to learn about their organization first before being sent out to network online.
Great explanation about tr importance of meaningful connection, Terri! Now, in regards to online video, what makes it such a powerful and desirable communication medium?
TERRI DAVIES: Oh where do I begin!? I am a huge fan of online video. Here is a list of some of the reasons why:
1) Video is first Impression. A great way to make a first impression with your customers and prospects through the digital divide is video. People don't have time to read pages of text to get a sense of your business, but they will press play and watch a short video. After watching a well-crafted video, people often have a positive emotional response to you and your business. They will feel like they know you, and possibly even trust you – which is important when you consider that people do business with people they know, like, and trust.
2) Video is believable. I recently read a statistic about how few people believe written testimonials because it's too easy to fake them. However, video testimonials are highly believable because we automatically assume that someone is telling the truth when they earnestly communicate something verbally without any apparent remuneration.
3) Video is consistent. How many times in a week do you deliver the same message over and over again, but find that you say it better sometimes. Video is a way to capture the message just the way you want it, and each person will have the same great impression of your business or organization when they watch it. It's also a great way to answer frequently asked questions. Or to educate your website visitors on your products/services at the same time as showing your company culture.
4) Video is the ultimate website greeter. I love it when I visit a website and there is a high quality, well thought-out video on the home page that saves me from having to spend time clicking around to find all the answers to my questions.
5) Video adds SEO (Search Engine Optimization). Google owns YouTube, and it's now the second largest search engine in the world. That's amazingly powerful if you're looking to get found by your prospective customers. Here's an example: I helped to create a video for one of my clients who is an eco fashion clothing store in Victoria. Less than 12 hours after I published the video in YouTube, it was coming up on the first page of Google when you searched “eco fashion victoria, bc”.
All great, notable points Terri. Top Google Search result for a phrase in 24 hours – we've seen other similar results with video SEO too! Continuing onward, where do we see cutting-edge social interaction with video today?
TERRI DAVIES: Once a video is created, I teach my clients to upload them into YouTube because you can have a channel there where others can subscribe to your activity. The SEO benefits of YouTube are great, and then you can embed the video in your website and/or blog and post it on Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Google+. This allows others to interact with you and tell you what they thought of your video, or reply to something you said in the video, and most importantly – share it with others!
Of course, there are other types of video which allow users to actually interact with it and click on parts of the video and in that way it becomes more like a website. Plus, there is live streaming which is really neat because you are actually connected to an event live and can interact with others in the chat stream who may be thousands of miles away.
We're enjoying the maturation with video too, specifically applications with ‘social' in mind. What developments do you think we should watch out for soon?
TERRI DAVIES: The strange thing about our era is that we have this sector of society that is dialed in to the the digital savvy online world and is embracing everything from Twitter to video production on their iPhones and iPod Touches, and another sector that is just starting to understand the value of having a website.
By the end of this year, Google predicts 50% of North Americans will have a smartphone, but somehow there is still this silly paper book that gets distributed called “The YellowPages” – what a strange concept! LOL!
This means that businesses have to cater to a wide variety of customers and it makes things a little challenging. I am huge proponent of online technological advancement, but I am also completely cognizant that many of the things I am playing around with right now are going to be a thing of the distant future for much of the population.
In your experience how should online video be used in business? Is there anyway to measure video ROI (return on investment)?
TERRI DAVIES: There are many ways to measure the ROI of online video. One way is to measure the action people take as a result of watching a video. Whether that is filling out a form for more information or buying a product.
Sometimes it's not that simple to measure when it's not about sales. For example, the time it saves you and the impression that it makes on a customer or prospect when you refer them to a page of your website that has a great video explaining the answer to their question, instead of sending a textual email response.
We've interviewed Chris Walts and Debi Blizard from big agencies from Tribal DDB Vancouver and W+K Shanghai respectively in earlier interviews with video marketing strategy. It also is possible for the small-time DIY creator to engage online too, even without the big Ad Agency creative team or big budget, do you agree?
TERRI DAVIES: I find that basic video production is accessible to anyone with a recording device, which in my case is an iPhone. I've even taught clients how to do this. When it's done with a tripod (I have a cool gadget called a ‘Glif' that allows me to connect my iPhone to a standard tripod) and with good light and clear sound, the video is of a decent enough quality to represent the business well. Of course, there is a lot to creating an effective video – most importantly the content – so I don't want to make it sound overly easy. As we all know, there are millions of poorly thought-out videos on YouTube that are devoid of concise, interesting content.
The kind that make you wish you could unwatch them and get those 60 seconds of your life back. But there is something about watching a fairly uncut video from the perspective of a business owner or staff member that is accessible. It can be very intimate experience – which can be a good or bad thing.
What tips do you suggest when producing a video with ‘being social' is in mind?
TERRI DAVIES: I think the most important thing is to think about the people you are making the video for, and to speak to them. The content of the video really is king. If your video is remarkable – catchy and relevant – it will spread itself to your target audience and you won't need to put nearly as much effort into spreading it.
As I mentioned before and you've covered in other interviews here, sound and lighting are important, and short videos are best. Even if you need to take your footage and make five 1 minute videos out of it, that's better than one 5 minute video.
Trends, predictions, especially in regards to the social media video?
TERRI DAVIES: I'm just as curious as everyone else about where things are going. I won't make any predictions other than this: we are only seeing the tip of iceberg with regards to social video and what's coming is going to blow your mind. I'm watching the field of interactive technology very closely! Thank you for the interview, I hope my take will be useful!
Visit Sociability at Sociability.ca
Or Follow on Twitter: @sociability
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