How video can grow your business

Tags : business mentor, facebook live, how to, mentor, small business, video, youtube

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Guess what the most popular social media platform in Australia is?

If you said Facebook, you’d be WRONG!

According to the Digital 2021 Australia survey, YouTube has pipped the perennial favourite at the post.

Who didn’t fall down the YouTube rabbit hole during lockdown? Under Google’s ownership, they’ve upped their algorithm game to suck us into clicking just one more ‘recommended’ video.

Not only did we spend more time on social media in 2020, 75% of Australians shopped online. So, if you’ve not created a YouTube channel and provided ‘one-click’ options across all your digital platforms to make it easy for people to purchase a consultation or other goods or services from you, you could be losing out.

What’s more, if you’re already doing (or considering) Facebook or Instagram Live broadcasts, these videos are easy to save and upload to YouTube. Voila! Instant content for your channel.

“But I feel self-conscious being on camera”

I’ve got to admit I love talking. Radio was my home for 20 years but initial forays into TV made me more me feel incredibly self-conscious.

Compared to the days I’d go into the TV studio and get plastered with make up for a 3 minute chat with Bert Newton, social media videos feel so much more authentic and even fun.

Platforms like YouTube, Facebook and Instagram Live are informal. You can shoot them in an environment where you feel comfortable, like your home or garden.

NZ Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s use of social media is a great example of how video, when done well, can make you relatable and build trust. Her regular Facebook Live’s are legendary. Usually at night at the end of a long workday, she might be wearing an old sweatshirt and folding washing while she puts into simple language what happened in Parliament that day. She’s a natural at handling the unexpected with ease, like when her daughter interrupted her Live recently.

Source

“I’m hopeless with technology”

All you need is a phone or computer – both of which you already have. While a good microphone or lighting can help create a better audio-visual experience, it’s not essential. Just try to minimise distracting background noise or flashing light.

When first creating videos for my business, I taught myself to edit my Health Q and A series (from watching YouTube tutorials) but don’t bother with that now. We’ve become a lot more attuned to watching raw video, where authenticity enhances credibility.

But if you want to have greater control of what you publish, you can edit videos on your phone, before uploading or in YouTube Studio. Just like a post on your website or other social media, you can remove your video at any time if it’s no longer relevant.

Different ways I use videos in business

I launched my clinic website over 17 years ago and, as a prolific writer, it’s absolutely packed with articles. But over this time we’ve shifted the way we consume information. While I still produce written content (and I get the irony of writing a post about video rather than recording it), jotting down a few thoughts and making a 5 minute piece to camera can be a lot quicker!

After moving my business online and a brush with cancer in 2014, I created a series of “Q&A Monday” videos for my website and YouTube. The motivation was primarily a kind of ‘proof of life’, to show my clients I was not only alive but well and still in business.

When most of the world first went into lockdown in 2020, I knew my clients needed some tangible support. Committing to doing a Facebook live broadcast at lunchtime every weekday for the duration was an easy way to do this. After each Live, I’d upload a copy to my YouTube channel. It was a really simple way to add content to my channel.

While the Health Q & A series was about responding to viewer questions and mainly around specific health conditions, the lockdown Lives were more free ranging. They aimed to ground the emotional impact of the uncertain times we were living through, including a body scan exercise, gardening and a pantry basics video. As the lockdown went on for many weeks, these Lives created a lot of content to populate my YouTube channel!

My mentoring videos includes some short pieces on topics like the knotty issue of sharing testimonials and some longer interviews with practitioners and educators who I think are pretty amazing.

I’ve curated my videos into different playlists, including ‘healthy biz’ mentoring and health & wellbeing, as they’re for two distinct audiences.

Quick tips

Be clear about your audience. When we add any content to our site or social media, it needs to relevant to our existing clients and potential ones we’d like to work with.

Jot down a couple of points you want to get across, rather than a script.

Keep it short. What’s your concentration span like these days? There’s no hard and fast rule but ideal length can vary depending on the platform you’re creating it for.

Need inspiration for a video? Crowdsource questions (via your other social media channels eg Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn etc), make a mini how-to video (a quick recipe, relaxation technique, mindfulness exercise etc) or share an announcement (clinic move, class/online program/webinar launch).

Two for the price of one: sometimes I double screen my Lives, simultaneously on Facebook and Instagram by streaming one platform on my laptop and the other on my phone. My ring light has a handy phone holder attachment to make this easy, though there are other ways to do this.

Share across multiple platforms. Upload your Lives to YouTube (see how-to below). Embed your YouTube video into a post on your site. You know the drill!

Remember to use tags to help new viewers find your channel.

YouTube also helps you promote other videos you’ve made by adding cards and links in your video (don’t worry, when you upload content there’s prompts that walk you through this).

Encourage viewers to like, subscribe and be notified of new content on your channel.

Promote your video across all your social media channels. Highlight it in your next newsletter.

And do it again later! Reuse and recycle, when relevant promote videos you’ve previously made.