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Unlocking The Power Of Video; Show More, Tell Less
March 10, 2015
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Video is becoming an even larger part of conversations within the social and mobile spaces. While it's always been an effective part of any brand's content strategy, video consumption is exploding.
- Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg revealed that 3 billion videos are now viewed on Facebook each day.
- Twitter recently added the option to shoot video directly into tweets. This may be fueled by Twitter's own research showing that video drives a higher opportunity for tweets to get retweeted.
- Snapchat stories -- which are Snapchat videos - are being viewed at a rate of 500 million times per day.
- And over 6 billion hours of video are watched each month on YouTube—that's almost one hour for every person on Earth.
With all of that consumption, becoming proficient at video should be on everyone's mind, but of course that's easier said than done. We're dealing with an audience attention span equal to that of a squirrel, which means earning a "must-see" reputation is challenging.
The transmitter and mic may give us an advantage in reach, but that should never be confused with having a built-in audience. We have to work at this as hard as many of the YouTube and Vine stars today have.
It starts by paying attention to the first few seconds of the video; and being mindful of the video's entire length. All research points to video under 60 seconds as the ideal length, whether it's Facebook video or video in general.
But there's something else, perhaps the most important element of video that gets lost often. It's about showing, not telling.
Video offers us the ability to share moments in an even more real-time way, and the more we move into that zone, the more interesting the content becomes. But we must help people feel what it's like to be there.
One example of what that looks like is watching Preston and Steve/WMMR Philadelphia. In this example they used Instagram video to bring a "snow day" to life:
Another example is Z90.3/San Diego's Pandor. He struck a chord with the station's Facebook fan base when he challenged famed DJ, Steve Aoki, to a cake-throwing contest.
Or rather than telling people how Governor Chris Christie fell off of a chair in the studio, WIP/Philadelphia captured it and used the power of Vine to show the moment:
Stunning visuals will always work, but there's something about video that is very powerful.
Find your brand's ideal content and length parameters by studying which videos earn the most views. And pay attention to the time when the audience seems to be baling out on videos. Fan behavior can teach you a lot about the length and the content they will tolerate.
Your radio show is no longer something that starts and stops with your daypart.
Your show is something that should always be happening, always on. Use the power of visuals to keep the fans connected to you - especially when they aren't listening.
But show, don't tell.
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