Several years ago, I was leaving the office. I had on my coat and hat; I was holding my gloves until the moment right before I stepped outside. My bags were full of things to take home to work on. And I stopped in one of our account executive’s offices to say goodnight.
She was sitting there with two other colleagues and they were talking about video.
The one account executive who was not intimidated by me and had no problem giving her opinion said to me, “You travel the world telling business leaders about how important video is in telling a company’s story, yet we don’t do any of it.”
I looked at her and said, “I agree. But we sit behind our computers all day. What the heck will we talk about on video?”
(Cough, cough.) No one said I’m not stubborn or close-minded occasionally. But I am willing to listen and to think.
I set my bags down, unzipped my coat, and sat down in a chair to listen to what they had to say. Jack Bauer wasn’t happy because I’d told him we were going home so he could have dinner so he sat at the front door and whined.
But I quizzed them about what they were thinking.
This young lady said, “What do you hate almost more than anything else about selling your time?”
I responded I hate it when people ask if they can buy me a latte and pick my brain. When you sell your time, leaving your desk to meet someone for free is extraordinarily expensive. Let’s just say it’s not worth the price of a latte.
Pick My Brain for Free
They went on to suggest we let people pick my brain for free via Facebook.
This had to have been at least four years ago (I just looked – it was March 2009) so using Facebook for business wasn’t yet done. We had a business page, but it wasn’t exactly sophisticated or interesting.
I didn’t think it would work, but I committed to them I would try. I bought a Flip camera (I didn’t yet own a laptop that had a camera) and I taught myself how to use it, how to optimize the tags, how to use YouTube to enhance the views, and how to embed it on the Arment Dietrich home page, here (it’s in the sidebar over there —–> and changes weekly), and distribute it via the social networks.
How it Works
The way it works is this:
People leave a question on our Facebook wall. Of course, that requires you like our page, but gives us the opportunity to show you why you should stick around.
Sometimes the questions are goofy (cough, Danny Brown, cough), but most of the time they’re serious and in areas where people really need some advice or extra help.
I answer the question via video and send it to you.
It then goes on our home page, in the sidebar here, on all of the social networks, and it lives on our YouTube channel.
People feel like mini-rock stars because there now is a video on the web that talks specifically to them and their challenge.
This is one of those efforts that I can’t point to a particular return-on-investment, but I can tell you people tell me all the time they saw my video on such and such and thought it was great or terrible or my hair is too long or they have something else to add.
What it does do is provide another layer to the organization. We all know people buy from people, but more…they buy from people they like and trust.
Why it Works
The weekly videos build that trust and people either like me or they hate me. If it’s the latter, the video has saved me a ton of time in prospecting and meeting with that person, only to discover we’re not a match.
So there’s the big idea you for you to steal. I’m going to leave you with this week’s video, but before I go, I ask you this…how do you use video in your business?
About Gini Dietrich
Gini Dietrich is the founder and CEO of Arment Dietrich, a Chicago-based integrated marketing communications firm. She is the lead blogger here at Spin Sucks and is the founder of Spin Sucks Pro. She is the co-author of Marketing in the Round and co-host of Inside PR. Her second book, Spin Sucks, is due out in November 2013
I've left this window open on my desktop for 3 days straight until I had time to watch it, and now that I have-- Happy Belated Birthday!!!
On a more serious note (what was the group's opinion on "silly", are we okay with that?), I think this idea is "off the chain", and I'm gonna send it to my 2 partners ASAP. But finally, a question that's 100% related to the topic of your video itself:
Our company (LTCA) has just the one Twitter account, which I (co-owner and SVP) operate. My question for you is: should the avatar show my face or our logo? For the longest time I argued that my face was more relatable (people engage with people), but was finally won over my my partners (okay, my brothers) that the logo made better branding sense (it was hard to defend my big fat face as anything other than an ego-boost).
@ltcassociates I will always side on the "a face is more relatable" argument. People buy from people. They don't buy from logos. That said, there is one organization I interact with a lot that uses their logo and there are two different people who are behind it. It drives me INSANE that I don't know who I'm talking to when I tweet with them. A simple ^with their initials would probably be enough for me.
@ginidietrich Thanks for your advice! I'm afraid my partners fear that replacing that logo up there with a face makes us look "smaller". What would Coca Cola do? What would John Hancock do?
Behave in the way you want to be perceived. (Or is that there are different conventions for social media than old media...)
I use video to convey some of my natural enthusiasm to teach and get that "picture is worth a thousand words" effect. Moving pictures gotta be better, right?
I do not have polish, but I have enthusiasm and a little bit of knowledge to share.
I always thought this idea was awesome. Not only are you building video content, you are fueling conversation on your Facebook page and adding additional medium on your blog. It's so well-integrated, I wish I had thought of it! A lot of people may struggle to get questions asked via Facebook so another suggestion may be to answer questions asked on LinkedIn in your video and then link to your YouTube channel in the discussion. I need to dabble in more video myself!
This was great. Except for the part where you had my question under the "silly" category. Come on! I know you better than that. I really do like how you use video, and keep it short and real. I have not done one since that Hay House contest... but it did get me a finalist spot and free advice from their CEO, without buying him a latte. Maybe I'll do another soon. There's a nice, intimate quality to video that makes you feel like you know the person. Thanks for the nudge.
@Katjaib I remember, when I started doing videos, you made fun of me because if I had to scratch my nose while recording, I did it and didn't edit it out. Truth be told, I didn't know how to edit it out so you got me in all my glory.
It really does make one feel like a mini rock star, especially when their video is used in a post about how great videos are! :) For us, we use videos to show what we have going on in our fabrication shop. We also have clips from conferences at which we've spoken and TV programs that have featured @TSIExhibits on our YouTube channel. I'd like to get a weekly video with a similar FBQOTW format up and running, too.
Hi @ginidietrich - I think I may borrow that idea for my student's question of the week. Not sure I'll be doing video, but it should be good for a blog post. Thanks for making your idea Creative Commons-worthy.
Gini, sweet Gini, you know I adore video! It's how you and I met. Remember? I found you on video and then became inspired to make my very first one. You were kind enough to respond and share it, going so far as to say I had great cheek bones or something to that effect, and that was it. We were fast friends from there.
I continue to use video in my business - via blog posts, email newsletters (it tends to make the click through go WAY up), and for client services. I preach it to almost all of our clients and we have developed quite the video suite now to help them use it.
Like you said, it gives people - potential clients in particular - an up close and personal view of you and helps them decide "will I like working with this person or not?" It's a perfect form of speed dating for clients. ;)
Just last week I asked the @BigIdeasBlog team to study what you've been doing with Facebook engagement/visual content integration and then shamelessly copy you.
I used to use video a lot, but, I got out of the habit for some odd reason. Now I'm all skeered again. That's just dumb. I have a great idea for hubby's biz page, I believe. Still thinking on my sites.
I've gotten all kinds of positive feedback from my KateUpdates videos but this post has encouraged me to start thinking through how to use this for my business. Hmm ... There's another opportunity to be a creative PR person. Two birds ...
Great point... if they hate you, you'll save a ton of time and hassle finding out that you hate them too!! I'm pretty excited because I was booked on a webcast later this month, hopefully I'll be a small screen star just like you!
I don't have to steal - I work here :) Seriously, the FBQOTW is a huge success. So many people are visual and a video is the way to get their attention. Plus the added bonus of seeing the famous Jack Bauer; he makes occasional guest appearances.
@katskrieger@ginidietrich That's the beauty of today's world. Vids don't have to be professionally produced. People are used to on the fly snippets. I say do it!
@belllindsay@ginidietrich Brian used to do them. We had someone film them professionally and I don't think he was really comfortable going from that to a flip cam. But I could do the intros I suppose, since I write the posts.
You are a genius (or at least hire geniuses and then LISTEN to them - which of course makes you a genius!) I also love FBQOTW and realize what an amazing value it is for all of us who can't afford to buy you a latte...hehe ;) Seriously though, I'm planning to integrate video into my newest venture thanks to you (ok, and a couple others) who use it so effectively.
You know me (sort of)... I prefer to sing the praises of video. Yours inspired me to launch #SocialSong Saturday, my weekly Twitter Love Song video, dedicated to the folks tweeting the really good stuff (at least a couple people in this conversation, including you, have been featured). It's still just a content baby, but is gaining some traction, starting interesting conversations with people (who are also starting to ask if I can do similar things for them... I hope they don' t mean for a cup of coffee) and, perhaps most importantly, helping me be me online. And as I said, it's really all your fault!
@ginidietrich Thanks. Now I'm looking for a sing-along video from you, too, you know. Be fearless (or even more fearless)! Check that demo from a couple weeks back that Andrew Davis did. And Lindsay... you too. (Hey,there's not such thing as a free mention,right? Well,wrong, but do it anyway).
[...] great idea is to solicit questions from social networks as Gini Dietrich does with her Facebook Question of the Week. Then, she creates a short video with the answer. This allows people to pick Gini’s brain and [...]
[...] Or, integrate video into your website content by interviewing members of your team, offering how-to guides answer questions as Gini Dietrich does with Facebook Question of the Week. [...]
[...] Or, integrate video into your website content by interviewing members of your team, offering how-to guides answer questions as Gini Dietrich does with Facebook Question of the Week. [...]
Inside PR 3.34 with Gini Dietrich, Joe Thornley, and Martin Waxman
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[...] great idea is to solicit questions from social networks as Gini Dietrich does with her Facebook Question of the Week. Then, she creates a short video with the answer. This allows people to pick Gini’s brain and [...]
[...] and videos are taking center-stage as the most shared and talked about forms of [...]
[...] Or, integrate video into your website content by interviewing members of your team, offering how-to guides answer questions as Gini Dietrich does with Facebook Question of the Week. [...]
[...] Or, integrate video into your website content by interviewing members of your team, offering how-to guides answer questions as Gini Dietrich does with Facebook Question of the Week. [...]