You must have heard by now that video is a highly effective way to market your business, especially now, since we can’t meet in person, video is the next best thing. Video is also scalable, so you can reach people all over the world. Since we’re all at home, it’s a great time to start making videos or keep making videos. It is also important to share your videos, because if no one sees your videos, what’s the point?
If you’re just getting started with making videos, make the decision to create your first video and just do it, you don’t have to tell anyone or even show anyone. Almost everyone I’ve suggested this to comes back to me to report it wasn’t that bad after all and they wished they hadn’t waited so long.
If, however, you just can’t go there, remember that your videos do not have to be you as a talking head. You can also create explainer videos for free using Adobe Spark or Biteable or turn your text blog posts into videos using the amazing (and free) Lumen5.
If you’ve gone to the trouble of making a video, you want to be sure to leverage it so that it reaches as many of the right people as possible. So, if you’re currently only sharing your videos in one place, I have loads of ideas for you. Please don’t worry that you will annoy people if you share your videos across channels. The people who follow you are not on every single channel and even if they are, there’s a slim chance that they will see your post on every channel. Even if they did, repetition is powerful for learning, so you really can’t go wrong.
In addition to sharing your videos on many channels, you also need to know the right way to share them on each platform so that they get the most exposure.
Seems obvious, but to share videos, you need to be able to find them. An easy way to do this is to create a folder on your computer for your videos and then create sub-folders with names of either topics or dates. Also, be sure to save your videos with descriptive names so you can easily identify the video you’re looking for.
If you create video directly on a platform, like a Facebook Live or Instagram live you can download those videos to your computer and then upload them to other platforms.
Sharing across platforms is critical and it’s also important to share them in a way that will ensure they reach the most people. Which means you don’t want to share the link to your blog post (or the link to your YouTube video) on social media. To get the most views, you want to upload your video directly to each platform.
You always want to share your content on your own platform. Create a blog post for each of your videos; I upload all of my videos to my YouTube channel and embed (copy and paste that link) the video into my blog posts on my website. Share the link to your video blogs post in your newsletters. You also want to share your videos on social media.
Upload your videos directly to Facebook. If you make a blog post of that video, you can add a link to the post in the comments.
LinkedIn also loves video that is directly uploaded (not a link to your blog post or YouTube). Again, you can add a link to your blog post in the comments.
Same for Twitter, upload your video directly and include the link to the blog post in your update as well.
As I mentioned, I upload all of my videos to YouTube. Google owns YouTube and it’s the second-largest search engine, so it’s a fabulous place to host your videos. You can start your own YouTube channel in a matter of minutes.
On Instagram, you can upload videos that are 60 seconds and if they are longer, you can upload your videos to IGTV. You may need to edit them to adjust the format, for example, I shoot my videos on my iPhone in landscape which would look weird if I uploaded it directly to IGTV. I use the free app InShot to adjust them so they work for IGTV.
I hope you’re getting excited about sharing the videos you’ve already made or that you will make. It’s never too late to start. Video means visibility and that will help you connect with more of your ideal clients. Remember to be passionate and enthusiastic, but most of all have fun. Like with any marketing tool, really believing in your product and showing passion are key to connecting with your audience.