I caught this from Huffington Post May 2010.

*96% of millennials have joined a social network.

*Social media has overtaken porn a the number one activity on the web.

*1 out of 8 couples married in the US met via social media.

*The fastest growing segment on Facebook is females 55 to 65 years old.

It took radieo 38 years, TV 13 years, the internet 4 years, and the IPod 3 years to reach 50 million users-while Facebook reportedly added 200 million users in under a year.

All this reminds that I used to read recipe books like science fiction magazines. When I got to the end of an article I would say to myself  “Well that’s not going to happen”.

Now I see that all the science fiction stuff I used to question is actually starting to happen all around me.?

I think I might start my own group of independant thinkers.  We’ll call it… “Back to Stone Knives and Bear Skins”.  Of course it would be nice to have a computer network to sign people up?  There ya go!! I’m beat before I start.

Ok,  so video is the big thing now.  Everyone has a nice HD camcorder that delivers great images.  So why not shoot something with this great quality and put in on our website?

A lot of  (would be filmmakers) think all you have to do is stick your talking head in front of the camera, tell everyone that comes to your site how great your product is and the orders will come flooding in —WRONG!!

Unless your name is Robin Williams. Bill Clinton or Martha Stewart nobody cares to look at your (what the news media calls) “a talking head”.

First you need to recognize that in this fast moving world, you have very little time to get your message out, before your audience gets bored and clicks away to another site.  The average length of a corporate or promotional video ( and I’ve done lots) a few years ago was 7 - 10 minutes. Today on the web the average video is around 3 minutes.  Your talking head just ain’t going to cut it.

Now you have to fill up 3 minutes (less is ok too) with some meaningful images that invoke an emotional response from the viewer.  So how can you do this with your hot little camera and your less than awesome knowledge about the production process?  Here are some thoughts.

First sit down and think about your product.  Ask yourself …Who would really benefit from seeing a video about my product?  This is your target market.

Then ask…  How can I show my product in its best light so that people will want to buy it?   Think of ways that your product can be used  in a dramatized situation.  By this I mean that you show your product solving a problem for anyone in your target market.

The key to making an add (especially a video add) that works, is to first visually set up the problem your client has, and then solve it successfully with your product, but do it in a way that makes the solution “amazing”.

We  have to remember here that you are not James Cameron or Stephen Spielberg and you’re not working on Gone with the Wind Two. You most likely don’t have any directing experience and you can’t afford to hire actors. What you can do is write out a short scenario of your three minute production. In the biz we call this a “story board”.  It is simply single pane drawings of what your show will look like on video.  Anyone can do this and the more you work at it, the better the end product will be. Break everything down into shots that will be in your video. Each shot should be more informative than the previous shot and bring new information to the screen.

If your product is a really good vaccum cleaner that can suck a golf ball through a garden hose then can you demonstrate this?  Don’t try to fake anything that your product really can’t do.

You don’t need any actors.  Any good looking relative of yours dressed in the way you audience would be if they were using you product will do just fine. 

Get someone with a great voice to do what we call a (voice over) to cover the images you have shot.  You will of course have to write out the spoken word to fit the images, this is called  ”the narrrative”

Some of what I’ve said here may sound a bit over simplistic and I must say that in the production business you really have to think things through well to have a successful production, but if you make a stab at this and can get a hold of a good editor, you could have yourself a strong video that will do much more for sales than a lot of the useless talking heads the grace a lot of sites.

My book The Video Bible has tons more tips and techniques that can help you with the process.  You can get more info on the book from my front page.

Cheers,Barry

In the last few years ther has been a tremendous explosion in video production.  Much of this due to ease of acquiring a simple video camera that has great resolution.

The amount of videos being created for use on the web is off the chart.  However there is a big problem with all this video due to the fact that many people are creating videos for marketing and business purposes and yet have little to no knowledge of how to create images that work.

I recently watched a video on the web with a woman pitching something and behind her was a cork board with countless photos of her family.  Any viewer would be drawn to this busy board looking at the photos and not really paying any attention to what she was selling.

Another video had three young girls sitting on a bench against a white wall. One of them was pitching something about how to be an entrepreneur All three looked quite shy and not comfortable on camera.  It seems to me that whatever they were selling wouldn’t get through to make anyone  buy the product.

There are some very simple rules to follow when creating any video to sell a product.  One of the big rules is to keep it short.

I recently did a talk to a chamber of commerce about creating videos for Social Media Marketing on the web.  In my talk, I showed them a successful seven minute video that I produced for a client.  I’m sure they all benefitted from seeing how much information you can pack in to seven minutes. I had to add however that these days the average video length on  the Web is down to three and a half minutes.

There are some really good video tutorials on this site that you can use when creating your next video. Check them out on the front page.

Cheers, Barry