Entrepreneurial Wisdom: Being Moved By Video
Business advice for women entrepreneurs
On the radio this morning, I listened to two rock station disc jockeys talk about a young woman who end her life because she did not want to suffer from brain cancer any longer. When I arrived home my Facebook news feed also had women sharing the story and personal video about Brittany Maynard. It was powerful, moving, thought provoking and heart wrenching. What an amazing woman, what an amazing message.
After my father passed away, I remember rummaging through old black and white films of him from my childhood. I wanted to see him “alive” again. Those old films had images but not sound. One Christmas as a gift to my family, I converted them into a digital format. It was wonderful to see my father in action again and to share the visual with people who loved him..
As technology keeps changing, women entrepreneurs must embrace and use it to deliver powerful messages to their customers and the marketplace. We cannot rely only on photos or copy to express what we want shared; we must use video. If you witnessed Brittany’s video today, you realize the power behind video.
A few months ago, a woman entrepreneur – Elin Barton of White Knight Productions – shared her knowledge on using video to promote a business. I decided to include her advice in this post to inspire you to use video more often in your entrepreneurial marketing.
* Digital Social Media is important today because 23 million people have and use smartphones and people check their phones 150 times a day on average! 68% of people sleep with their phones near their bed. So getting the attention of consumers today means using digital media and part of that is using video to engage more viewers.
* Video is important in today’s marketing world because a 1 minute video = 1.8 million words and keeps someone engaged for 2.4 minutes (which is long compared to the 6 seconds someone spends when viewing a website if you don’t capture their attention immediately). It engages more emotional responses and more buying.
* Short, planned, educational, videos about your business used within social media as posts not only gets you in front of your audience but captures their attention and engages them in a memorable, shareable way that can exponentially grow your reach and your business.
* Google owns YouTube so the more video you can have on YouTube the more it will help with Google SEO.
* When crafting a video, always bullet point or script out your message and strategy. You want a clear road map on what you will convey in a very short period of time.
* Make sure you ask yourself, “What is my intention with this video? How do I want someone to react when they see it? Do I want them to be called into action and if so how? Do I just want to convey a mission?” It’s important to know your intention before producing the piece.
I am grateful for Brittany’s message today for so many reasons.
Women TIES 
Nice job, Tracy, and a great reminder of how critical video is to online marketing. Although we may not all feel we know exactly how to do it, I think it’s important to give it a try. It’s a much quicker way to help people to “see” the real you. Thanks for today’s post.
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Thanks Deb for commenting on the post and the writing inspiration behind it.
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If you are going to use video, make sure it paints you in a good light. A badly done video can actually hurt your business as it turns people off from doing business with you at all (I’ve run across several in this category just this week).
So, yes, do video, but only if you do it well. “Well” doesn’t mean perfect. It does, however, mean you need to be willing to look at it with a critical eye and make changes as necessary.
Virtually no one is born being great in front of the camera. Being great takes practice.
I like to share the story of Guy Fieri of the Food Network. You may know him now since he has several shows on the network, but he started out on “The Next Food Network Star” and earned his first show. He won because he worked harder than the other contestants, not because he was awesome to start with. In fact, in the beginning, his on camera work was the worst of any them (in other words, he was horrible). But he listened to the judges and applied what they told him — and spent TONS of time practicing — and in the end, his screen presence was engaging and he was the one everyone wanted to see more of.
If you aren’t willing to invest the time and energy it takes to be good in front of the camera, my advice is to use other means to connect with your audience. Audios work. So do screen capture videos where you pair slides with your voice.
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Thank you for your comments Lesa. We appreciate the additional insight into use of video.
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