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You don't need to be a director--or even have a video camera--to create a video for your business.[/caption]
In the days of decreasing organic reach, video might be your ace in the hole.
Videos tend to get more engagement and will therefore make it into more of your customers’ newsfeeds than other, more static content. That’s increasingly important after the so-called ‘Facebook Zero’ announcement, in which the social media giant explained that content from users’ friends and families would be favored over public (i.e., business and news sites) content. That effectively means that organic reach, which was decreased to about one percent last year, will go down even further, making it less likely that users would see your content.
The new algorithm hasn’t caught up with video yet, so that format is still a viable way to reach out to potential customers if you are determined not to follow the pay-to-play option that Facebook is all but mandating. The trouble is, you probably own a small business without the budget or technological capability of creating a marketing video or video blog.
The good news is, you don’t have to.
There’s a reason why the phrase “there’s an app for that” has become such a cliché among technological and marketing gurus. There is an application for everything and creating videos is no different. In fact, you probably have everything you need to put one together using an app like Animoto.
Animoto allows you to use images you already have to create a video that will help tell the story of your business. It’s easy to use and has enough different formats, templates and options to make it as unique as you are. It’s not free, but after the initial two-week free trial period, it is affordable at about $22 a month.
Here’s how to see if it’s right for you.
First, sign up and choose which type of video you want to create. There are two types: Memories and Marketing. There’s no reason not to select Marketing. Yes, you are dealing with social media, but the days of trying to fool people with marketing material disguised as personal content are over—people know when they’re being marketed to.
Then, choose a format. You can technically create your own from scratch, but there are so many different designs, you won’t have to. With more than 40 different templates to choose from, you may not even want to.
Choosing the template is the hardest part. Now go through and swap out the images for your own and add your own text. You can record a voice-over, too, which you can use to accent the text on the screen or add emphasis to the words. That’s particularly helpful if you want to provide a personal touch—people tend to read text in their own voice, and emphasize the words they want to emphasize. For your first few videos, a voiceover may give you additional confidence. If you create several videos, your voice will begin to shine through.
You can also select a background song from the library of about 2,000 recognizable tunes. From there, it’s just a matter of getting everything in the right order, publishing it and then posting it to YouTube, your business blog or your Facebook site.
Have you experimented with any other video apps? Which ones and how did they work for you?