When You Don't Want Your Video To Go Viral

You're an attorney, a Pizzeria owner or perhaps you run the local bike shop, doesn't matter what your market is, you're looking for new customers.

Your Social Media Guru has told you that you need to “get into video” so you’ve bought your flip camera, a gorilla stand, you have a basic understanding of lighting and editing and you’re ready to go viral

Stop for a second and consider

There are 35 hours of video loaded to YouTube every minute - the competition for eyeballs is insane.  People latch onto the latest meme: Evian babies, the Old Spice dude, Rebecca Black’s dignity, that amazing VW super bowl ad.

Viral videos are funny, surprising, unorthodox and generally entertaining.  They’re passed around by people as little gifts of humor and interest to one another; when they’re good the views go through the roof.

What if your business is inherently unfunny?

What if you're the best personal injury attorney in the State, what if you know more about accident re-construction than anybody else?  Should you try and inject a little humor as you jokily relate how that poorly constructed armature sheared off your previous client’s arm?

We’d advise against this – sure you might go viral but you’re unlikely to land any new clients.

Non-viral content

When you’re landing a new client you want to present video content that is not funny, not surprising and often times not terribly entertaining.  We’re not saying it should be boring but when people are making decisions about their well being, their wallets and their future, they prefer to get their information served straight up.

Video on your website should actually be the exact opposite of what makes up a viral video.  Once you get your head round this it is a huge relief and makes the job of producing video content for your business a thousand times easier.

Yes, you should get into video

A video of you explaining, with compassion and brutal competence how you do what you do, is worth a thousand images (and remember – they’re worth a thousand words so you just saved yourself a crap load of writing!)

Video content is not about you being a YouTube superstar; it is about you representing your business in the stickiest way possible.

If you’re not sure where to start with a Video content strategy, give us a shout and we’ll show you how to get started

Image Credit: Alone at the Taj - Stuck In Customs - Flickr