Movieize – Short Form Video Your Brand

I came across a very interesting article that touted the benefits of short form video branding. The basic idea is that people are consuming media in video more than they are reading. They like it because they can multitask at the same time as consuming information. That makes sense. If you are going to watch some boring info piece with people you’ve never heard of giving you some relevant and some not-so-relevant information, then you might as well sort your desk, check your email, and/or do the dishes while it’s happening.

However, what if there was an emotional element to the information. Something beyond a guy in a button down shirt showing charts and screen shots. It’s not a commercial, it’s not a lecture, it’s a well produced and interesting (perhaps funny) piece of quick and informative media that people will share.

The article parrots what I’ve been saying to clients for years, make SHARABLE content and lots of it. Video is part of the social media experience. Here are a few tips to creating good quality video content:

1. Pinpoint a single goal – Highlight a product, brand awareness, promoting an event. Multiple goals muddy the message.
2. Write a script – Winging it rarely turns out well. Plus, you can get a sense of the timing, setting, and shooting schedule hashed out by creating a template and vision, which is something that scripting provides. Best of all, this will also give you an idea of budget.
3. NO MORE THAN 2:30! – Your video should probably be shorter if at all possible. Strive for one minute.
4. Consider hiring an actor(s) – You are interesting, so is your staff, but the likelihood that you or they are able to deliver a natural sounding scripted line is probably minimal at best.
5. Shoot it in one day – Continuity is key to a good online video. Shooting over many days makes editing and scheduling a nightmare.
6. Properly SEO it – Tag it, link it, post it, share it. Metadata and some good old keywords in the title.

Equipment is affordable now and having that on hand for your staff to use at a moment’s notice is important. A solid HD camera, a high quality boom mic, two or three clip mics, and some good editing software is all you really need. Remember, everything can be turned into sharable content so pull it out when you can. Natural moments are fantastic, so make sure there are a few people on staff that know how to use the equipment.