Leveraging Online Video for Business (Part 1)
It’s not the future of the web … it’s the NOW
Internet users (that’s you) are watching an average of 186 videos per month¹ … 186! … per month!
A friend called me and said, “I was researching something today, and I just visited about 6 web sites. I’m at the point now where if I don’t see a video on someone’s home page, I’m gone!”
Is he alone? Absolutely not.
If a picture is worth a thousand words, then what about a video?
Recently, I was hired by a great company to present and train at their national sales meeting. Although referred to me by another client, the vice president of sales listed her primary reason for hiring me as a 93-second video she saw on YouTube.
T.M.I. = A.D.D.
As the hours and minutes in our days seem to lessen, the amount of available information and often distracting messaging continues to grow. How many times have you gone to your computer to do one specific, quick task only to find that 30 minutes or more have passed in a flash? It’s almost as if many of us have A.D.D. when we’re sitting at our computers – quickly losing focus and easily becoming diverted, distracted or sidetracked. There’s just too much information out there.
Here are 2 compelling reasons why I believe you should be using video:
1. Three Paragraphs of Text Can’t Compete with a Play Button
Given the choice, most people will watch a 90-second video rather than read 90 seconds worth of text. Did you know reading just one book a year places you in the top 20% of readers the U.S.? In other words, 80% of our population doesn’t even read one book a year². In fact, if just 15% of the people that receive this article in the form of an eNewsletter actually click through to this blog post – and then read it – experts will consider that a “good return.”
And while our society may have lost interest in reading, we’re really good at watching online videos. How good?
• 2 billion videos are viewed each day on YouTube alone
• 24 hours of video is uploaded to YouTube every single minute
• YouTube is now the 2nd most-used search engine in the world (Google is #1 … but you already knew that)
• And, as stated earlier, Internet users are watching an average of 186 videos per month¹
Bottom line: Given the option between 90 seconds of reading text on a screen vs. clicking Play on a 90-second video … people are much more likely to watch the video.
If you’re a regular Facebook user, do you notice how much more appealing those [Read more…]
