CHAPTER 9
Use Rich Media to Engage and Connect
Get Ready For Your Close-Up
Video is vital. If you have read anything I have written over the past decade—in my Forbes column, my LinkedIn blog, or previous books—you know I am video’s biggest fan. And that’s because it is the single best opportunity for brand building, next to being there in person, of course. Look at the nine trends I shared at the start of this book, and you’ll see that a majority of them are tied to the importance of video. In fact, one of the reasons remote work has become possible and more productive is because of the power and availability of all things video.
MINDSET RESET
Video is not just for TV personalities, it’s not reserved for CEOs, and it’s not something to fear or avoid. Video is every career-minded professional’s best friend and the most powerful tool for being real in the virtual world.
Eight Reasons to Choose Video
When I talk about video, I’m speaking about both synchronous video—using real-time, same-time communications tools like Webex, Skype, Join.me, Google Hangouts, Adobe Connect, and Zoom—and asynchronous video—producing, editing, and sharing videos on YouTube and via other social media. Both are important and valuable to your
digital brand.
Synchronous video puts you in the conference room even when your home office is 2,000 miles away. It reminds people you’re there and allows you to deliver more memorable messages when you’re sharing updates on videoconference calls. Get in the habit of using video for your one-on-one calls and group meetings to increase your impact and help you stand out from your peers.
Asynchronous video is a powerful tool for demonstrating your thought leadership and making sure your communications stand out. It’s more engaging than the written word and allows you to demonstrate your passion, energy, and personality in ways that are virtually impossible to do with articles, whitepapers, or other text-based forms of communication.
“Alright Mr. DeMille, I’m ready for my close-up.”
Those were famous words uttered by Gloria Swanson at the end of the Billy Wilder movie (and more recently, the Broadway musical) Sunset Boulevard. But don’t worry, you don’t need to be a melodramatic, attention-driven actress like the character Norma Desmond. Quite the contrary, in fact. You’ll be using video to connect with—and deliver value to—others.
Fun Fact
1.8 million words: That’s the value of one minute of video, according to Dr. James McQuivey in the Forrester research report, How Video Will Take Over The World.
Here’s why you need to make video your BFF:
Video builds trust. Effective personal branding is all about connecting with others on a human level. Video is the next best thing to having a deeply connective human-to-human, face-to-face interaction. It allows you to engage with people on a much deeper level than text-based communications. It also conveys your personality in a way that text (and even audio alone) just can’t. That’s because video allows you to deliver a complete communication.
Video fosters teamwork. It’s hard to feel part of a team when you’re communicating exclusively by email, text, and instant messaging. But when you use video, you feel more connected and engaged with your co-workers. Polycom, a communications and technology company, learned from a global study that an astounding 92 percent of workers say that video collaboration actually improves their teamwork.
Video is differentiating. It helps you stand out from the myriad others who rely on the 26 letters of the alphabet to share their message. Many of your peers or competitors aren’t using video yet. Most don’t have a YouTube channel. That gives you an instant competitive edge when you incorporate video into your brand communications. This is critical because the world is getting more and more competitive. When you master video, you can distinguish yourself from everyone else who seemingly does what you do.
Remote Control
Insist on having all your meetings via video. If you’re in charge of the meeting, always choose a videoconference over a phone conference so you can “be there” even when you aren’t. If you aren’t running the meeting, suggest to the organizer that you use video.
Video is popular. Many people prefer video more than text as the medium for consuming information. A Cisco report states that “by 2020, there will be almost a million minutes of video per second crossing the Internet” (Doeing 2018). Video reaches 85 percent of the U.S. Internet population. According to Forbes, 59 percent of executives would rather watch video than read text. Every 60 seconds, 72 hours of video content is uploaded to YouTube, and 45 percent of people watch more than an hour of Facebook or YouTube videos a week (An 2018). Technically, YouTube is not a search engine, but according to Social Media Today, the number of daily searches on YouTube is greater than those on Yahoo and Bing combined (Hubspot 2018).
Video is essential. Video is being used to evaluate you. If you’ve been avoiding video, thinking that you can get by without ever looking into a camera, think again. Video is being used by companies in the hiring process. Companies like HireVue, Spark Hire, and videoBIO are working with organizations to completely transform the traditional interview. Some companies are using real-time video interviewing in lieu of flying you to their HQ. Others are relying on videos submitted by candidates with responses to a set of questions. How you perform in these videos will determine if you make it onto the shortlist—or not.
Video is easy. It’s no longer hard to produce, edit, store, or share video. Not long ago, creating a quality video was a challenge. You needed to go into a studio, hire an editor, and expand your computer’s storage. And sharing and watching video was frustrating because of bandwidth demands. Today, you can get similar results yourself thanks to built-in HD video cameras, video-editing apps, and social media platforms like YouTube. In addition, the formality of video is decreasing. More casual videos are not only acceptable, they are what we’re becoming used to, thanks to our collective video-viewing habit of a billion hours of videos watched on YouTube daily (Heine 2017). Sure, a lot of those hours are spent watching hilarious dog tricks or Beyonce’s latest music video. But YouTube is more than an entertainment platform. Every major corporation has a channel and so do most thought leaders.
Video is viral. When you go to the effort of creating brand communications, you want them to be received. Creating compelling video content that you share on your preferred social media channels will greatly outperform other forms of communications. That’s because it allows you to engage others in expanding the visibility of your content. Social video generates 1,200 percent more shares than text and images combined (Mansfield 2019). On LinkedIn, video is shared 20 times more often than other content formats (Bunting 2018).
Video is the future. It’s the fastest-growing form of communications. Video will represent 82 percent of all IP traffic in 2021 (Business Insider 2017). As companies continue to allow (or even encourage) their people to work remotely, their investment in video tools is increasing. Since it is likely that you will work remotely some or all of the time in the future, being skilled on these video platforms will be essential.
Still not sure if video is the right tool for you?
PONDER THIS
Is video right for you? Track the number of times you answer “yes” to these questions:
• Am I—or could I become—comfortable in front of a camera?
• Am I a remote worker, spending more than half my time away from the office?
• Are the people I regularly work with (my team, clients, business partners) not co-located with me?
• Do I often have complex information, concepts, or stories to share?
• Would I like my communications to stand out from my peers’ or competitors’?
• Do I often sell products, ideas, or plans?
• Would my audience prefer video to written communications?
• Am I more skilled at speaking or presenting rather than writing?
• Do I prefer speaking or presenting to writing?
• Am I looking to build my thought leadership or become known as a subject matter expert?
If you answered yes to any of these questions, consider video. If you answered yes to five or more of these questions—make video your medium!
Video is the next best thing to being there. So how can you use video to help you stand out and connect with people, specifically people who count?
12 Ways to Use Video on the Job
Here are some ways to incorporate video into your communications strategy that are clever, interesting, or easy to implement. Pick the ones that resonate with you and commit to making an impact with video.
1. Team update. Want your team to pay attention to your regular status messages? Use video. I have a client who has a global team. Only one member of her team is co-located with her. Each Sunday night, she creates a one-minute video from her living room letting her team know what happened in the past week, acknowledging great work from her people (calling them out by name), and letting them know what she’s planning for the coming week. It has made her team feel more connected to her and to each other.
2. Community welcome. Recently, after accepting a LinkedIn connection request, I received a message from my new connection. It really stood out because it was a video “welcome to my community” message. He differentiated himself from my 30,000 LinkedIn connections because the video really let me get to know him and made me feel like I had met a real human being—not a robot.
3. Invitation. If you’re holding an event or a special meeting, or you want to boost attendance at a webinar, a video invitation will feel more personal than one that is delivered as a regular boring email. When I was launching my last book, Ditch. Dare. Do!, I used a personal video message letting everyone know the fun things the launch party had in store. Over 80 percent of the people I invited attended. I’m pretty sure it was the power of video that got them there, but my co-author Deb Dib thought it was more likely the promise of cupcakes from my favorite NYC bakery, Billy’s.
4. Thought leadership. The best way to show that you’re an expert on a topic is to exude your enthusiasm and expertise through video. It’s the ideal medium for demonstrating that you’re an authority and expressing your point of view so you can attract followers and build your community within your area. One of my law firm clients uses video to introduce the whitepapers their lawyers create. The video highlights important points and introduces prospective clients to the author.
5. Video bio. Rather than (or in addition to) telling your story via a traditional text bio, tell the world who you are and what you’re passionate about with a video bio. It will be easier for them to understand what you’re about. And don’t worry about sounding all “me, me, me.” You can use phrases like, “I am so proud to be working with a team that … ” and “I have had the privilege of working with some of the best … ”
6. Vlog. Instead of having a blog, commit to video as your platform. If you prefer to speak rather than write, creating a vlog could be easier and more fun (in addition to being more fruitful). Vlogs need only be one to three minutes as long as they deliver value to your audience. And don’t worry about having your own vlog site. YouTube is the perfect place to host and share your vlogs.
7. Pitches or proposals. When you’re pitching an idea to your boss or seeking funding for your idea, or you want to get stakeholders to buy into your pet project, video will cut through the clutter. Video helps your ideas stand out and get noticed, evaluated, accepted, and, most important, funded (approved). So when you’re facing competition and you want to win, get out the video camera.
Fun Fact
Viewers retain 95 percent of a message when they watch it in a video compared to 10 percent when reading it in text, according to Forbes (Stafford 2017).
8. Recommendations. To put yourself firmly behind someone, share a testimonial in video for impact. Recommendations help people validate what they say about themselves, and video recommendations—because they feature the actual recommender—have even more weight.
9. Live videos. LinkedIn Live is LinkedIn’s version of Facebook Live, and it provides an opportunity to get in front of your connections and groups in a more interesting way. These live videos need not be polished or highly produced; they’re best when they’re pithy and timely. Posting a video while you’re at an industry conference, for example, is a powerful and generous way to share that experience with others who are interested in the same topic but can’t be there in person.
10. Meetings. Real-time video—using Skype, Google Hangouts, or the video features of web conferencing tools like Zoom, Webex, GoToMeeting, and Adobe Connect—is an efficient way to interact when you can’t bring everyone together in person. These platforms allow participants to feel a stronger connection to the meeting. One of my clients who works in professional services is always traveling. To stay connected with her team, she uses FaceTime for her one-on-ones—often doing it from the lobby of a client or in a taxi on the way to the airport. She says it takes the mystery out of what she’s doing when she’s away. Her people experience her itinerant lifestyle vicariously. It also shows her people she always has time for them even when she’s busy globetrotting. Video one-on-ones and conferences also prevent participants from multitasking. When participants know they can be seen, they’re less likely to read their email or have extraneous conversations using instant messaging. That makes video meetings more productive than teleconferences.
BRAND HACK
Use a consistent backdrop. Make your video meeting space recognizable by always using the same background for each office. This helps remind people of you. For example, these days when I am not on the road, I split my time between New York City and Miami Beach. My backdrop for each city is a piece of art, but I use a different piece by a different artist for each city. Inevitably, I’ll hear, “Oh, William, you’re in Miami today” or “I see you’re back in NYC.” This little detail creates a sense of connection and familiarity.
11. Follow-up to meetings. Do you eagerly await the follow-up emails that come after many of the meetings you attend? Probably not! You can get more people to pay closer attention to your post-meeting content (including the action items that everyone committed to) via video. Using the word “video” in an email subject line boosts open rates and clickthrough rates. And if some things are better in written form—for example, legal content or complex data—consider a hybrid vmail-email message.
12. Acknowledgment. Email can be such an uninspiring form of communication that a thank-you message sent via email can seem almost insincere. When you want to send heartfelt thanks to a client, a member of your team, or your boss, consider video. It allows you to convey what you really feel, and you can include visual evidence of the impact the partnership, gift, or deed is making on your team. A video message says, “I took the time to show how much I really care.” Recognizing your people for the work they do is part of every leader’s job. How would you feel if you received a video message praising your accomplishments and expressing gratitude?
I’m so sanguine about how pervasive video will become in the future, I created a new company with my co-founder Ora Shtull— CareerBlast.TV—focused exclusively on video learning tools for career-minded professionals. I am so enthusiastic about video, I considered focusing this entire book on the topic of video for personal branding. I’m so enthralled with video that I invested in lighting, tripods, and other equipment to build my own in-house video studio. I’m video’s biggest fan!
You know who else is a big fan of video?
Google.
Seven Tips When Adding Videos to the Web
When you’re building your personal brand, you want to make sure you’re visible to the people who are making decisions about you. According to Forrester, videos are much more likely than text pages to get that coveted page-one slot in search results, thanks to universal search. Searchmetrics defines universal search as follows:
In the context of search engine optimization, “Universal Search” (also called “Blended Search” or “Enhanced Search”) refers to the integration of additional media like videos, images, or maps displayed above or among the organic (that is, unpaid) search results of search engines.
Instead of focusing on blogs, articles, and whitepapers, spend time creating a video bio or a series of thought-leadership videos or video interviews with thought leaders in your area of expertise. This is your best opportunity to stand out from the pack and increase your connections and influence. When it comes to building your brand on the web, showing up on page one of a Google search is important. Why? Because if you’re not on page one, you’re nearly invisible. In fact, the top three organic results capture 61 percent of all the clicks, according to a ProtoFuse study.
If you have a personal website, having video on the landing page of your site makes it sticky! According to Wistia, videos encourage 2.6 times more time spent on a home page (Ayres and Wellin 2017).
A great way to introduce yourself to visitors is with a video bio. In fact, you can create a video bumper (or ident) to add to your brand identity system. It’s a quick five-to-10 second opening image or animation that precedes your content. Your bumper will use elements of you PBID—like color, font, and imagery—and become part of your overall brand packaging. If you’re not familiar with the term video bumper, you certainly are with the bumpers themselves. Every time you watch a 21st Century Fox movie, for example, you see the search lights and hear bum ba da bum. You can use the same audio that you sourced in chapter 8 as part of your ident, adding pictures or video, creating even more consistency among your communications. iStockPhoto and others house royalty-free video footage that could be helpful.
Now that you’re convinced, use these Google-friendly tips to increase the chances of getting your videos to appear on page one and beyond:
1. It’s all in the name. When choosing filenames, use keywords that are relevant to the content and consistent with words people would use to find you in a Google search. For example, my video filenames contain the words “personal branding.”
2. Brevity speaks louder. Keep your videos short. Videos up to two minutes long get the most engagement.
3. Quality trumps quantity. A small number of high-quality videos will build your brand, but a flood of mediocre videos may detract from it. Make your videos scream quality by focusing on the sound, lighting, and what’s in the frame—and of course, the content. And remember to practice. When it comes to return on investment in a video, high technical quality will increase its popularity and ensure your brand is seen in the most positive light.
4. YouTube is the place to start. Create a YouTube channel and host your videos there. Remember, YouTube is owned by Google, and YouTube videos often show up on page one. In other words, no matter what a person is searching for online, it’s highly likely that they will come across some sort of video content early in their results, and 80 percent of these video results come from YouTube.
5. Keywords are … key. Make sure your video description is detailed, and choose tags related to how you want to be known, along with the words people would use to find you. When you are sharing your video using various social media, remember to use all the right hashtags.
6. Repurposing amps up visibility. Embed your YouTube videos in your website or blog and in the summary or experience section of your LinkedIn profile. LinkedIn allows you to integrate images and video directly into your profile. And, because most people aren’t using this feature, it helps your profile stand out.
7. The 80/20 rule applies. When you do the work to create the video, spend extra time maximizing its visibility with your stakeholders. Promote the video to your network and stakeholders so it gets the most views possible. Spend 20 percent of your time in the creation of your video and 80 percent getting the right people to see it.
BRAND HACK
Create your own mini video studio that’s ready to go 24/7. Make it easy to shoot video when the mood strikes and you have something you want to say to your brand community. Get on a last-minute video call with confidence by creating a space where you know the lighting is going to be great, the audio will be clear and free from background noise, and what’s hanging on the wall behind you won’t detract from your message. Then you have the perfect spot where you can shine at any time. When you make it easy to shoot video, you’ll be more likely to use it.
Seven Final Thoughts for Leading the Video Vanguard
One of the most effective ways to build your brand is to demonstrate how innovative you are by planning and implementing a team-, division-, or company-wide initiative. Make video a part of your initiative—or make it the initiative.
These seven tips will help ensure that your videos build your brand with those who are making decisions about you:
1. Start with a bang. You have less than 10 seconds to grab viewers’ attention.
2. Know your message and take a stand. Your video can be an opportunity to demonstrate your thought leadership, express your unique point of view, and communicate what you believe and how you deliver value.
3. Keep it short and sweet. Keep your video to a maximum of two to three minutes. Attention spans are short and shrinking. Say what you want to say, and don’t waste a second. It’s OK—in fact, it’s valuable—to leave them wanting more.
4. Dress for the occasion. Reflect your personal brand while being relevant to the audience you want watching your video. Don’t wear clothes with stripes, prints, or busy patterns. Remember to use makeup to ensure you’re not shiny. Catharine Fennell, CEO of VideoBio, recommends Makeup Forever Professional HD Translucent Powder. These small details will all contribute to a polished product.
5. Choose what surrounds you. What you have behind you speaks about your brand. Make sure your setting reinforces your brand message and doesn’t distract the viewer. You want people to focus on you and what you’re saying, not the books that are teetering on the shelf behind you. Consider using your brand color to create recognition and memorability.
6. Hire the professionals. Make an investment in yourself and your career by investing in one high-quality video bio made by a professional production company, which is also worthwhile for any other really important, high-impact video you might decide to create. Use a comprehensive service or bring together the right experts, including a coach to help you with your script, a camera person, a professional video editor, and so on.
7. Maximize distribution. Now that you’ve spent time and effort producing your primary video (most likely a bio), amp up the dividends by making sure it gets seen by those who need to know you. Post your masterpiece to multiple video sites, including your own website and YouTube. Make your video part of your LinkedIn profile and your blog. Include it in your email signature and put the link at the top of your resume. Be sure that the sites where you post your video are targeting a relevant audience.
Still reluctant to get in front of the camera?
Although being on camera is ideal because that’s what creates the emotional connection between you and the viewer, if you are convinced you aren’t telegenic (it’s probably not true!) or you just abhor the idea of being filmed, produce compelling videos using still images (photos or other graphics) and stock video. Create a PowerPoint or Keynote presentation with voice-over to get your message across. Even if you don’t appear on camera, this format provides a much richer medium for conveying your message than text alone.
And if recording a voice-over doesn’t feel right, don’t worry. Using subtitles can still get your message across. In fact, this silent-movie approach reflects the trends of how many people prefer to experience their videos. Eighty percent of videos on LinkedIn are watched with sound off, and 85 percent of videos on Facebook are watched without sound (Patel 2016). This form of video content (images or stock video footage with subtitles) is becoming so popular, there are companies springing up—like Animoto, Videolicious, and Lumen5—with templates and tools to make the development process simple.
Brandi Brainstorms
Brandi decided that video is a powerful way for her to amp up her brand trait of “persuader.” She decided to incorporate these video elements into her brand communications strategy:
• All my client pitches will include a video story.
• My monthly team meetings will now be done in a conference room with a video wall and my remote team members will appear “on the big screen.”
• I’ll post to my LinkedIn feed live videos from my global travels—sharing relevant, valuable learning while highlighting the fact that I’m a citizen of the world!
Summing Up
Ready for your close up now?
I hope you’re convinced that video is the most powerful digital branding vehicle and you’re enthusiastic about executing your own video strategy. The more you integrate it into your communications, the easier it will become and the more polished you’ll appear. With that behind you, we’re going to move to the final frontier. Part 4 is where you’ll learn everything you need to know to truly showcase your message. You’ll go from being merely a distinguished brand to becoming a brand in demand. We’ll start by building your fan club in chapter 10.