Posted 2 October 2014 12:00 AM by Jennifer Andrasik
In this age of reality TV shows and YouTube, online videos can have far-reaching impact on your small business. Better yet, they are easier to make than ever. Gone are the days requiring overly-polished videos with professional talent. A simple video is a great way to alleviate all kinds of hidden concerns that prospective customers have. It is a great opportunity for a prospective customer to see that you are normal, organized, creative, and easy to talk to, all in a succinct 60-90-seconds.
Here are a few of the basic rules to help ensure the video does its job for your small business:
Keep it short.
This is the age of short attention spans, so stay under two minutes. If you have a lot of content to cover, break it up into episodes.
Know what's out there.
Before you begin, take an hour to look at what other businesses do on YouTube and decide what works for you.
Use a tripod.
Unless you are an experienced hand-held camera person, a tripod will make your video easier to tolerate while viewing so that prospective customers will consume more of your content.
Sound is critical.
Make sure that you are getting good sound. The microphones built into cameras generally do not capture the best sound and tend to pick up other "ambient" sounds. If possible, buy, rent or borrow a clip-on "lavaliere" microphone. These tend to clip onto your shirt closer to your mouth sound that is easier to understand.
Make a test video first.
This will help you refine the quality.
Use basic editing.
If your budget is tight, you can use any of the several free video editing programs out there like iMovie and Windows Moviemaker. This will give you more control over how the final product looks.
Put it on YouTube with a description.
This will help ensure that more people find it because YouTube videos tend to show up in Google searches. Make sure your YouTube video title and the paragraph that accompanies it use the words most commonly used in your business.
Content is still king when it comes to the internet. People enjoy a quick look inside of your business. The best part is that it's all sharable. One video online now will can generate customers for years to come.
Check out the Fleetmatics YouTube Channel for some video content ideas!
