The New SEO: Video

Yesterday evening I sat in a nice country club on the upper side of Dallas, TX learning from Chris Yates about video SEO.  Chris Yates owns Huddle Productions and for those of you that don’t know, Chris is an Emmy award-winner who has 20 years of Broadcast TV experience – 12 of which was working for FOX network.  His creative approach to video production is the driving force behind Anheuser-Busch‘s successful social video marketing efforts.  Chris Yates is a true pioneer in online video marketing.

What I learned from Chris was invaluable and helped me reintroduce video production- a service that I had shifted away from.  In this article I’m going to share with you some of the highlights of our time together and some of Chris’ predictions for 2012 marketing, and most importantly — how to dominate that marketing segment.

I don’t know about you, but 2011 just flew by!  But that’s true for the past 5-6 years, and not just for me but for the entire online world.   Consider: it was in 2006 that Google announced that it would buy out Youtube for $1.65 billion.  Ever since then video has gone viral and those that I know at news stations are slowly letting employees go.  Who wants to wait for “news at 9″ when you can watch what happened almost live on Youtube or any other video platform?

Media is changing.

The problem is, small companies are having a hard time wrapping their minds around this change and how they can take advantage of it.  They don’t understand how to leverage social media or how it can contribute to their bottom dollar.  Little do they know, it can be the best form of advertisement that they’ll ever have… and it can also be the worst.  More on that later…

Predictions

Chris made a few predictions but prefaced them by stating that the “writing is on the wall” and others are seeing it too.

2012 will be the year of video, mobile and content creation.

As Chris pointed out, according to Cisco Systems – 90% of web traffic will come from video by the year 2013.  All the while, Google is pushing for better content and has enforced it with the Panda update.  And we already know that in 2010, 59% of adult Americans went online wirelessly, according to The Pew Research Center.

But with those three categories, which is the best to focus on for 2012?  Call me biased but my money is on video, and Chris would agree.  Quality content will always be a cornerstone of online marketing… there’s just no way around it, you have to put out something that people want to read and that SEs will reward you for.  And mobile browsing is something that is changing so fast that most smart phones can view content in such a way that it doesn’t need to be adjusted for it.  But video driven social media is like an undiscovered oil field.

Forrester Research has found that videos are 53 times more likely than
traditional web pages to receive an organic first-page ranking.

So where should your SEO marketing efforts be going?

Video

Remember earlier when I said that video can be the best form of advertisement or it could be the worst?  Well, the beautiful thing about video driven social media is that it engages the viewer at least twice as much as text based media.  Not only is the viewer required to hit the play button, but the they also have the opportunity to thumb up/down, to like the video, as well as embed, comment and link to it.

But that same blessing can be a curse.  If you put out something that doesn’t resonate with your viewers, you can expect a hostile reception.

Quality = Engaged Viewer

According to Chris Yates, your video should be less than 90 seconds.  Ideally 30 seconds.  It doesn’t matter if you have 5 minutes of great content.  Split it up into 5 videos 1 minute long… whatever you do, keep it under 90 seconds.

Here is an example of a video I created with a business partner I use to work with:

As you can see, the video is only 45 seconds long but it only retained 26% of it’s viewer to the end… most viewers dropped off around 27 seconds.  According to Youtube Analytics, this is considered average.  So keep it short.  (Tomorrow I will have an article on in-depth video SEO and I will use a lot of case studies so you can see the numbers… stay tuned).

Content needs to be very focuses, if you think you’ve niched it down enough… do it more.

According to Chris Yates, there are 5 major categories for your video content.  Pick one and stick with it through your entire video.

1. Business Profiles
2. Tips & Information
3. Event Marketing
4. Testimonials
5. Fun & Creative

Most clients want to go to #5 right away… it seems like the kind of content that will make a video go viral the easiest.  But according to Chris Yates, this can very easily turn into your Frankenstein.  Unless you’ve been on SNL, hold off on this one.

Chris had two very important points that should be incorporated in every video that you do.  First is– include the community.  If you have a community of followers, clients, etc.  put them on camera and let them talk about why they like your company/product.  This can be the greatest method for social approval and will have a strong impact upon the video’s viewers.  Instead of you talking over the video in a “voice of G-d” style that screams big corporate conglomerate, make it feel more authentic, more… raw.

And that introduces the second point– don’t over produce it.  Why do you not trust that glossy, perfect corporate video anymore?  Because it doesn’t portray the reality of life.  We connect with someone when they are real and raw about their life.  Let a little of that into your production and your viewers will love you for it.

Tie it all together

Now that you know where 2012 is going, let’s look at how you can get ahead of the curve.

According to a word from a Google executive that Chris Yates talked with (off the record), if you want to get to the top of your niche in video you’ll provide relevant content based upon customer search match.

What does that mean?

Start with the question: “What do my customers need”?

Simple enough, and we often think the same thing… but how often do we implement it as a core practice?  As an example, Chris showed a video he made for Michael Craft Stores.  I did some searching and found it on Youtube:

Within 2 weeks this video garnered over 44,000 views on Youtube.  While its not millions, it is definitely considered viral.  Why?  They looked to see what their customer was searching for and then filmed one of their customers *unscripted* telling what they like to do with the product, in this case a shutter box frame.

And that brings up one more point that Chris mentioned: ditch the scripts.  Scripts diverge from the rawness of life, so don’t use ‘em.  You might have to shoot more video to get a clean take, but its well worth it.

Video Quality

Chris left me with one last great point that we can all appreciate.  His top 3 must haves in a video:

1. Audio Quality
2. Lighting
3. 15-30 seconds.

Chris was adamant that audio quality was more important than video quality.  Viewers will tolerate a little bit of shaking on the part of the videographer, but indistinguishable audio is not cool.  And always make sure that lighting is good and there’s not bright back lighting.  Last but not least, keep it short.

I got to say, I was super glad to spend my evening with Chris.  It reminded me of all the great stuff I did while running UnbreakableWarrior.com and reminded me that I really need to help small businesses with their video production.  So with that in mind, if you want to produce a video but don’t want to buy all the equipment, setup production, and learn editing… fill out the contact form at the top of this page on the right and let me know about your ideas.  This is the moment to get ahead of the curve for 2012 and to dominate the top of Google’s first page quickly, and I am here to help you fulfill your dreams!

 

If you liked what I have here, subscribe to the RSS feed or come back soon as this week I will be covering analytics for video with some key case studies.  I will also be putting together a video that will show you how to become your own video producer for under $400!  Also, on Jan. 12th (tomorrow!) Youtube will be turning the rankings upside down by restructuring subscriber counts.  Come back and I will show you how to leverage that to your advantage.

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