Don’t Start Your Video Marketing Conversation with SEO

video marketing does not equal data managementGoogle “video marketing” and you’ll get—as of this writing—2.63 BILLION hits. That’s way more than Kim Kardashian (266 million), weed (382 million), Donald Trump (1.4 billion) and, surprisingly, porn (also 1.4 billion).

Books, articles and videos (and more videos) offer you “21 Video Marketing Tools” or “5 Super Secrets” or “8 super-successful tips” every video marketer should know, all of which revolve around data manipulation: jacking your view count, tracking prospects, a/b headline testing, the latest changes to the YouTube algorithm, and reams and reams on Search Engine Optimization schemes.

Scrolling through this mass of information, you could be forgiven … Read the rest

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Shoot Video that You Love (p. 26)

From How to Shoot Video that Doesn’t Suck, Page 26:

Brandon Hardesty (www.brandonhardesty.com) has made a YouTube career reenacting scenes from movies in his basement, with Brandon playing all the parts.  He’s not joking– he performs with passion, giving it everything he’s got—and he’s a good actor.

As odd an idea as it is, it works.   Brandon started as an anonymous guy in a small town, and now draws millions of viewers, has an agent and lives in LA.  Why it works is worth thinking about.

The videos are obviously well rehearsed.  The shots are planned … Read the rest

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Short Shots Add Up (p. 106)

From How to Shoot Video that Doesn’t Suck, Page 106:

Cutting makes us pay attention. Each cut to a new shot forces our brains to figure out what we’re looking at and what it means. We’re more engaged in what we’re watching because we have to work to understand it. Short shots make us participants instead of passive viewers.

Strong, focused shots actually convey more information to the viewer. Little parts add up to a deeper, richer whole. Check out this famous milk commercial that made director Michael Bay’s career: Each short shot gives us another hilarious detail … Read the rest

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College and Job Application Videos: Singing Math (p. 171)

From How to Shoot Video that Doesn’t Suck, Page 171:

Application videos need to cover interesting topics, presented in unique ways. Doing a bad video is like misspelling the company name on your cover letter.  First, Do no harm.

Don’t duplicate what’s already on your resume.  The woman who applied to Tufts by videotaping dances she choreographed for her favorite math functions was both odd and funny.  I hear she got in:

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