The New Media Minuteis a podcast I listen to regularly. In each episode, host Daisy Whitney covers the latest online video trends. In the episode dated September 27, 2011, Daisy spoke with the head of AOL Video, Ran Harnevo, to discuss how video creators can increase video views. Content, of course, is a given. We’ve all heard that compelling, interesting content will drive views. But is there anything else that video producers can do to boost the amount of people watching their videos? Here are the take-away points from Ran’s interview:
When it comes to where you will place your video, think geographically. This point is geared more toward advertisers; i.e. those who place their videos in different markets. If you are an advertiser, thinking about how to get the most views for your video, consider the relevance of your subject matter. If it speaks more to an East Coast lifestyle/culture, place your video in those markets.
The placement of the video on the website affects the number of views. This might require some A/B testing, but the research will be worth it. Does the video perform better on the right sidebar? The left sidebar? Front and center? Evaluate the performance of your video as it relates to page placement and then insert your video in the location that will give you the most views.
Select an interesting thumbnail. Sometimes just the thumbnail image can entice a viewer to watch your video.
Work on building up a library of videos. Viewers are more likely to watch additional video content if it’s related to what they are already watching.
If you are an advertiser, your ad formats are important. Personalized pre-rolls and interactive videos will boost the number of views because they encourage engagement.
Hall Marketing hired us to provide production and post-production services on a video project for the Pelham Senior Center. The video was part of an overall re-branding campaign that included a new logo, new tagline, and new website. The client wanted the video to reflect the new tagline, “It’s a Brand New Day, Everyday” while highlighting the variety of programs, classes, activities, etc. that are offered. We developed a concept for the video that centered on the idea of contrast. The viewer is introduced to an elderly gentleman, writing a letter to his daughter. During the video, the viewer quickly learns that the elderly gentleman (as he describes things to his daughter in the letter) downplays how much fun he’s having. Hall Marketing wrote the script based on our concept. The Pelham Senior Center currently uses the video on their website.
We recently worked with Hall Marketing to produce a promotional video for the Pelham Library as a part of the library’s re-branding campaign. Conceptually, the video had to fit with the library’s new tagline, “Taking You Where You Want To Go” and their new logo, which features a compass as the central icon of the design. We developed the concept and the visual of the style of the video and were responsible for all production and post-production services.
Southwestern Consulting is a company committed to developing sales leaders through business coaching services. They were ready to produce an updated testimonial video and hired us to produce a new video with a more professional, polished look. We spent a day shooting five different Southwestern clients and edited their comments into a cohesive overview of the positive impact a business coach can have on an individual’s career.
SEO firms and marketers agree that placing videos on your website will not only encourage visitors to stay longer and interact more with your website, but it will help boost your site’s SEO. And if you also upload those same videos to various video hosting sites (and optimize those videos by naming and tagging them appropriately), you can drastically increase your content’s search rankings. Consider this quote from SEO guru Bruce Clay, of Bruce Clay, Inc.
…In the case of video, we believe that as one of the more important engagement objects, google has actually started to build it into the algorithm. To us, that means if your website has engagement objects on it, video or mp3… it is going to be received by the algorithm better and your site will actually have an opportunity to rank better.
*Source: Engagement Objects – Without Video, Your Website will NOT Rank in Google http://www.reelseo.com/engagement-objects-seo/#ixzz1WcQ54nuo
And this quote was taken from an article written in 2009, so consider the advancements Google made in their search algorithms over the past two years. Each day, those algorithms are more capable of crawling and indexing video content. Videos are now showing up more and more prominently in search results. In fact, videos may rank higher than your actual website. And you can take advantage of that by linking back to your website on every video you upload.
So, if you are interested in distilling information about yourself, your company, your team, your products, or your services, and you want to rank higher in Google search results, consider using video to increase your online visibility. You may want to start off with something simple, like a testimonial video from your clients/customers, or a stand-up, elevator-pitch-style video that introduces yourself to viewers. From there you can continue to build your video collection.
