Video: Does It Matter? Yes!

Have you been ignoring the video, hoping it will just go away? Or worse, thinking you can accomplish the same goals without it?

I’m here to tell you, the video is going nowhere. YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world, and thousands of hours of video are uploaded each and every day. Video clips on social platforms such as Facebook and Twitter enjoy far more engagement than do plain text or even image-based updates. And when it comes to training programs, most people prefer video to text—or at least a combination of the two.

And now with streaming video, this new marketing channel has become even more important.

• Live video lets viewers get to know you better
• Your personality and brand shine through in ways written words or pre-recorded video simply cannot manage
• A built-in sense of urgency makes it easy to connect with your action takers
• Repurposing video for other channels is easy and super productive
• Facebook and other social networks appear to give more weight to video, showing it in more newsfeeds than other post formats

In addition to all of that, video is easy to produce—especially the new streaming services. Simply prop up your smartphone, log into your preferred app and voila! You’re live.

And because it’s a live, streaming video, your viewers likely have less expectation of perfection. For example, with a scripted webinar, they expect a certain polish. But with streaming video, you can get away with a much more lighthearted, go-with-the-flow style. It’s perfect for Q&A sessions, special announcements, group coaching, or anything else where you simply want to connect with your audience, and there’s no agenda.

Don’t Abandon Your Other Marketing Channels

We see this happen a lot—a hot new marketing tool or strategy comes along, and all of a sudden everyone is on board—much to the detriment of his or her tried-and-true methods.

Remember, you have loyal fans on many platforms: Twitter, Facebook, Snapchat, your blog, even Google+. And these fans won’t always be quick to move to a new site just to stay in touch. You owe it to them to maintain your presence on other social sites as well.

So while Facebook Live (and other streaming video services) definitely matters when it comes to your overall marketing efforts, it’s not the end-all, be-all tool that will outshine all others.