… if your video isn’t any good.
Who among us hasn’t seen a video about how important video is? Who hasn’t seen infographics and charts and tables on the subject? (Not lately? There’s one at the bottom of this post.) Who hasn’t seen article after article (after article) about how important it is to include video in your marketing strategy or content strategy or digital strategy? Just for fun sometime, take a look at YouTube’s own usage data in its press room.
But now, let’s talk about the dark side of that data. While the rest of the world talks about how important video is, I want to talk about noise – specifically, breaking through the noise. Because the oft-forgotten truth is that with all of the video available to us on YouTube and Vimeo and … well, really, all over the internet – it can be really hard to make videos that people want to watch.
So you don’t need to just think about adding video to your content mix. You need to think about creating good video. As with every other form of content out there, it’s not whether you have it that matters; it’s whether it’s any good.
The burden is on you… the content creator
I may be a bit biased, since my training is in journalism. But think about it for a minute. Anyone can write a blog post or a letter to the editor; that doesn’t necessarily mean they know what they’re talking about or you want to read what they say. The same is true for video. I might be able to shoot video on my camera or my smartphone, but that doesn’t mean it will be video that’s worth you investing the time it will take to watch. So if I want you to read my blog or watch my video, the burden is on me to create content that’s worth your while.
Does that mean you need expensive equipment and editing software for your videos? Absolutely not. Inexpensive equipment can create great video. It’s the content that matters. Tell me a story. Show me something amazing. Teach me something I didn’t know. Make me smile; make me laugh; or make me cry. That’s what’s going to make your video worth my time to watch. That’s what’s going to make me send the link along to someone I know, so they can share my experience.
What’s that mean for you when you’re thinking about video? It means that you need to be thinking about your audience. What do they want and need? What can you show them that will make their lives better or easier? What’s in it for them?
Start there, and you just might be able to cut through the noise.
