What You Need to Know about Video and Social Media Marketing

Welcome to maximize your social, practical and actionable advice on how your business can truly maximize your social media presence. Now, the host of maximize your social author of the recently published book of the same name, and founder of maximize social business, Neal Schaffer. Hey, this is Neal Schaffer. And welcome to another episode of maximize your social today I have a very special guest for our podcast, Jason Duncan of Miller farm media, some of you who are avid readers of maximize social business that you should be already know of Jason, from his contributions in the topic of video. And in fact, if you've watched the book trailer for maximize your social, which you should have as well, that was actually done by Jason and his team here at Miller farm media. So I couldn't think of any better person to bring on to talk really about what I call and I've called it on earlier podcast, I think I recorded a podcast shortly after I recorded that video of really, that social media marketers tend to forget about video in their social media marketing, but it's still an extremely powerful medium. And there's no better person to talk about that than Jason. So Jason, welcome to the podcast.

Thanks for having me.

So I mean, Jason, you've been doing video since obviously, before social media, YouTube has been around for a while, obviously. And when you used to do video was on corporate websites, what have you, and now we're seeing social video, and we see long form on YouTube, we see short form of violin, what have you, you know, starting out, when you meet with clients that are talking about, hey, you know, we want to record a video and we want to have some sort of social aspect to it, what would be the first sort of things that you would recommend them think about,

they need to think about the story they want to tell, and they need to make sure that their that story is cohesive across all the social media channels, it really needs to take a lot of time to think how does this fit our brand overall, as this voice fit that brand,

so it's less about the social side and more of telling your story, and your branding, and how you use the video medium to help bring that to

life. Right? It goes back to terms overused, but content is king. So having content that fits your brand and hits all the metrics you're trying to hit is very important tells that story. The next piece is that story needs to have an emotion to it. People buy emotionally, they don't buy rationally. So what is the emotion that your video is going to have to engage the audience?

So when someone comes in and says, Hey, we want to make a viral video after you've stopped laughing? I'm assuming it really comes down to those basic elements. And how have those basic elements that you talk about the storytelling and the emotion? Has the advent of social media and the popularity of YouTube? Has it? Has that changed in any way? Or is it still like it was before social,

it's still like it was before social, it's just opened it up to a lot more people before when we started in 2003. It was usually only larger companies that use video because it was so expensive. And now everyone's trying to find a way to be a part of that. On some level.

We talk a lot about storytelling, it's become a very popular buzzword in social media marketing. And obviously video has been doing that for way before the advent of Facebook. But what about emotion? How do you convey emotion in a video?

My answer circles back around it actually is about storytelling. One of my favorite videos that we ever created was for a company they make sandcastles what a great profession to have is Be professional sandcastle makers awesome. But the guy gentleman owns the company tells a story about how they were creating a sandcastle for an engagement. And the couple was to come, you know, as the sun was setting and the sandcastle would be there and it would say will you marry me and he get on one knee and do the whole thing. Awesome. Well, the tide started to come in and the sandcastle was too close to the water. And there was a birthday party happening down the beach. And these these 10 year old girls caught wind of what was going to happen if the sandcastle was gone, you know, awful moment. So they grabbed their Boogie boys boards, and they stood side by side. And as the waves that come in and knock them down, and they get back up, and they brace for the next wave, and they will save the sandcastle until a couple could come in while getting engaged in front of it. So that story creates an emotion that makes you want to learn more about why this guy does what he does. And it's a great way to draw people into the video. And that's really the best way find out what you do that's unique, how you've got above and beyond why you do what you do those all their stories and all of that. And that's really what can take your video to the next level.

And that's advice that not just for video, but any you know, form of marketing is really the basics, right? That's what it comes down to. It's true. And I think that a lot of marketers when I think about storytelling, they immediately think about keywords and what I would call content buckets, what have you, but it's really getting down to the core of who you are, what you do well, and how you do it. Right.

It's being human and that goes for executives, all the way to local, you know, pizza shop, they really need to look for those stories. One of my favorite examples of how executives are doing this well as the show Undercover Boss. They spend the first five minutes telling a story about this executive so you care about him. And then he goes through this emotional journey with him. People in this company.

So when a client contacts you, how do you help them find those hidden stories, because I doubt that they come all prepared for the stories, right. And, you know, this is what we want to do. And this is the emotion and

it's a lot of questions, we really take the time to get to know them. And that's one of the best parts of this job is you get to learn things about people and see behind the scenes of places that no one else is really allowed to go. Because you've you've got to find those stories. And then you've got to find a sequence to be able to tell them and

so Jason, when we work together on the the Maximizer, social book trailer, obviously, I learned a heck of a lot in the process. One of the things since we're talking about video, and you mentioned that in the past, it obviously required a certain amount of resources. Today, it still does, obviously, as well, about the quality of video, the advent of you know, being able to shoot mp4 or whatever on your smartphone, uploaded to YouTube, what do you have to say about you know, what the quality should be. And if there's still a minimum amount of quality, that I'm assuming that corporate brands should be cognizant, or aware of how could potentially these lower forms, lower grade quality forms of video be used in your marketing mix.

So brands have to be careful with this, because in the early days of YouTube, it was okay to record a and this was what 2008 2005 On your Flip camera. And it was, hey, everybody do that whole thing. You flip cameras that went out with the advent of the smartphone, of course. But with that, also, without the ability to create content that wasn't as professional or polished, because the audience has become more savvy, they start to expect things to look a little more polished. So it's about finding that happy medium. The hard part is that video is expensive, no matter how you slice it. I mean, there's always someone that's willing to work cheaper, and you can always find that guy, but there's risks there, too. So what do you do as a business, you have to know that at least to get a decent picture and a decent audio, those are the two first things as a small business, as a as a small, medium sized business, if you can invest in somebody professionally coming in and helping you through the process, it works out to your benefit, unfortunately, it's it can be costly. It's like taking your car to the mechanic, there's a certain set of steps that go into it to make sure it turns out right. And so that you still have breaks when you get down the road.

Right, right. Yeah, and more than anything, I realized that video really is an art in many ways, and not just the storytelling, but there's so many different ways to tell that story visually, audibly, that are all going to create these unique emotions that we went through. So just some some advice for people some tips for people that are listening. And they I guess one of the things that we should, that we haven't really talked about is getting back to how I began the podcast of the importance of video, in your marketing, you know, both inside and outside social media. Do you want to sort of speak to that? You know, some of you may be listening? Well, I get it, it's going to cost a lot. Is it really worth that investment? What's the ROI of doing that? And I'm sure you get asked this a lot. And because you've been doing well, you know, successful in your business, I know that you've been able to respond to that as well. So how do you you know, how do you answer that question?

When it comes to ROI, you have to set just as anything, set goals that are reasonable and attainable. So for a small business that can't afford to spend all this money on metrics, it's how can we use this video in different steps of our process? So if you if you have, you know, the marketing funnel and you know, people know, getting people to know like and trust you how can that one video touch some of those steps of the your, the process of getting people into your system to totally you know, sell to them. So, the video, if your website is their first contact with you, that video should be on the front page. And then when you meet with them and present your product proposal, you should ask them, have you seen my video and if not, you should have the ability to pull it out right there and show it to them. Because in one minute or however long your video is you can tell them in a video can tell them way more about your business than you ever could sitting face to face. Because you have the option you have the ability to show and tell. So you can verbally tell them something but you can show them something so they get twice as much information right there at that one time. That's how you can measure it by knowing that we're gonna use it in this this step of our business and in this step, and in coming out and asking them Have you seen our video, that's the easiest way for a small business. Also make sure that you post it on Facebook and Twitter and all your social sites and then probably pushing it out every have a strategy to push it out every so often through those and blog about it and really make it something that you use as a tool, not just let it sit there and hope that it's gonna work for you.

That's a great idea. And I think a lot of people probably think of video as something well, it's part of an infrastructure in order for us to humanize our brand and tell our story. It's something that if we have a website, we should have a video up there that really, you know, tries to to bring people in and get them deeper into our website and you know, contact us but also that tactical way of thinking about your marketing funnel. And if you need to have at least five touches with a potential client of figuring out, you know, why don't we make one of those If I have a video and which part of the process where it makes sense to do it in, that makes a lot of sense, especially for companies that have maybe complex business models, or complex products, and the website visitor just doesn't know, how do I work with you? I'm assuming that can be really, really strategic as well.

Absolutely. And really to look at video, how can it enhance every step of the customer experience from when they first contact you to now they're satisfied, they're happy customers, and we want to get more, have them refer people to us and get more business from them and all those things. So and I think when businesses start looking at video like that this economy of scale, yeah, it's gonna be a little bit more. But now it's a whole strategy that they can build out. And they're already doing these things. Just adding videos one more tool to their marketing toolbox.

Yeah, no, that makes a lot of sense. So one thing I wanted to ask you, and I'm also going to give you virtually Well, physically, I guess, the mic at the end here for any final things you wanted to share. But I get asked by a lot of companies from a social media perspective, should our CEO tweet, or should our CEO be forefront in our blogs? What have you and obviously it comes down? Every brand is different? For videos? How important do you think it is that CEOs, executives of the brand come out? And are you No forefront? And facing the customer directly? Or are there a lot of cases where that may not be the best strategy?

I haven't seen a case where they shouldn't do it. I've just consistently seeing examples where the CEO should be out in a video as soon as he can get done, because it helps the brand internally and externally. You know, he's the face of the brand. The other thing is it does it builds rapport with the customers and the clients. And if something terrible was to happen, he's now got that relationship with them. So it's really think of BP. I mean, there's lots of things that went wrong there. And we could that's a whole, that's a different podcast, really. But if he had had some kind of presence before then it would have it would have made that whole, you know, that awful situation a little bit better for him and the company, if they had put him out there a little bit more.

It's funny, you mentioned that because I've worked with a utility company. And they originally wanted to use social media for crisis management. And I took a step back and said, you know, we should be proactively engaging and proactively building goodwill. And I guess a video coming from the top of your brand, is really, you know, one of the best ways to do that, and in fact that that company planned on doing just that. So that makes a lot of sense. So Jason, I thank you for your time we've we've covered a lot of very different types of video related topics that I often get asked I was curious about anything else you wanted to add for, you know, the listeners of the podcast that are looking to leverage video more for their social media marketing,

just to make it anytime you're creating a new website. Anytime you're doing any new branding, look at how video might fit into that. And video, there's tons of ways to get videos created. There's you know, there's there's Craigslist, there's the local high schools, I mean, there's risks to all those I mean, but not every company can afford a, you know, professional production company. So it's your try to find, do what you can with what you have, I mean, yes, small business owners, we've done that for years as you go as far as you can by yourself. And when you get some extra money, you put you invest in it and you go to the next level. You know, just be careful, make sure that you whatever you do represent your brand. Well. Great advice.

And if you're curious if you're going to maximize your social.com you'll see how I've used the book trailers, it's literally front and center. And when you go to the homepage, there's also an embedded widget of it on the right hand sidebar. And, you know, it can be embeddable anywhere it can be embedded within my blog post it can be embedded with any social media blogger wants to share the statistics that have in that book, trailer video or what have you. So it really is a powerful medium that can really as you heard from Jason really put your story your brand and create this emotion with viewers worldwide in a way that just written texts cannot. So I hope that's given you some great ideas. Once again, this is Jason Duncan Miller farm media.com. He is located right here in Irvine, California where I am as well which made this podcast very convenient in Orange County. I thank you for listening to another podcast. Always enjoy your five star ratings on iTunes as well as any comments. If there's any topic you want covered on this podcast. Please reach out to Neal Schaffer at Neal at maximize your social.com that's it everybody. Make it a great day. Bye bye. Thanks for listening to maximize your social. We appreciate your iTunes subscriptions, ratings and comments. If you would like to appear on this show or recommend content, please contact Neal Schaffer at Neal at maximize your social.com Thanks for listening and have a great day.