(By Loyd Ford) People believe what they see with their own eyes. That is the power of adding video to your overall mix of social media and digital tools. Radio stations are uniquely positioned to share its values, thanks to the connection we have with our audiences, and bring more listeners back to our own brands from social media. We can also use video to drive revenue by creating unique content that is helpful and entertaining to our audience.
Most everyone already knows that visuals in social media are sticky and can be productive for effective sharing. But what about your strategy? If video can be powerful, it’s worth planning to make the most of your creativity. Here are five questions (and a few more, actually) that can help.
1. Who is the target audience for my video? Is this for listeners? Potential clients? Who is likely to view this video? More importantly, who do I want to attract, inform, entertain, and engage?
2. What is the real value of this video to the people I want to attract and impact? Always think about the true value of the content of your video to the viewer and be honest with yourself about building that value into your plan. If your content isn’t really valuable, it isn’t worth doing. Busy work is the same as it was in 3rd grade – pointless.
3. What is my goal for using video? Without a goal, you are again just doing busy work, and that isn’t fun for anyone. Have a strong goal in mind and build your content plan around accomplishing this goal. This will make a huge difference in your effectiveness.
4. Where is this video going to be seen, shared? As usage is important for radio, where your video will be seen and shared is critical and important. Your content will be competing for eyes among the other elements in the environment where it will be viewed. Think about that as you plan your content.
5. How will I judge the success or failure of this video? Have a measurable way to identify and chart the success you can achieve with this video. Without a way to judge success, you may be lost on how effective (or not) your efforts are in creating this content to begin with.
I will always encourage you to think about your brand before you create and share anything. Being consistent with your brand is critical.
Video can be a great way to communicate the fun of radio, the vision we want to share about our brands, or to communicate emotion, connection, and opportunity about a product you are marketing on behalf of a client.
Whatever you do with video, try to think about these things in the planning stages of creating your content.
Loyd Ford has worked as a programmer in markets across the U.S. and spent over a decade working as a ratings strategist for Americalist Direct Marketing. He runs his own pure play digital platform and has a podcast. Reach him at Rainmaker Pathway; 864.448.4169 or [email protected].
