Thinking about creating a web series for your campaign or your business?

Want to use the power of video to share your message?

This presentation will address the three keys to creating a successful web series

- Creating Content that Connects
- Deciding What to Post Where
- Leverage: Building on your Video

First off, I see a web series as a vehicle to connect to your audience and inspire action. Action, in this case might be to click through to your website, to leave a comment, to share with their friends, or to change their behavior.

To do this, you have to add value.

Share information that your audience needs/wants to know.

Or share information that is surprising and unexpected and relates to how they view the world.

ADD VALUE:
HOW TO VIDEOS

One easy way to share value is to create a how to video.

This could be how to use your product, giving someone online a preview of what they can experience if they purchase your product.

Many businesses are frustrated by the fact that their customers come to them with knowledge gaps.

I often hear "they always do this wrong" or "they always assume this."

Addressing these roadblocks is a good way to offer value and help smooth the customer acquisition process.

ADD VALUE:
TIPS VIDEOS

People love tips and best practices.

If you can provide them well thought out and well articulated tips or best practices, they will love you.

I created a series on tips for urban cycling for my documentary about sustainable urban transit. I want people to think about alternatives to the car. This series answers the questions I had when I started cycling in the city. These videos get a lot of love.

Many entrepreneurs are offering tips in terms of vlog content. If you don't want to commit to a weekly or monthly program, you can still provide great content through a contained web series.

ADD VALUE:
INSPIRATION VIDEOS

By inspiration I am not thinking of cheer leading and flash. You can inspire by sharing shocking content. You can inspire by sharing new and innovative content.

The Institute for Transportation and Development Policy has created a series of videos on cities that implement award winning sustainable transportation. We hear from the people responsible for the changes, how they overcame challenges, and the positive impact of these developments.

Earthworks started a series on the impacts of fracking. By contrast, they inspire action by showcasing the volatile organic compounds being leaked into the air and the health impact it has on the people living near these operations.

The common link between these two series is the personal story. Personal stories have the ability to touch people's hearts and change their minds.

YOUR TURN

Do you know what type of content you'd like to share with your audience?

Are there questions they keep asking that you can address in a web series?

Are there myths that you want to bust that you can address through video?

Should all of your video content go out to YouTube? Is there some content you should hold back? What can you do to your post to get the most reach?

WHERE TO POST:
YOUTUBE

These days on YouTube you are not just posting videos, you are curating your own channels. Especially when you are creating a series, or a collection of series, you want to make sure people subscribe and come back to your channel to view more of your content.

Putting up content that is less than professional or less than valuable can put people off from subscribing.

What you want to curate on YouTube is your high value content. That means you might want to leave advertisements, short clips, non-essential content as unlisted or somehow tag those as behind-the-scenes.

WHRE TO POST:
VIMEO

Vimeo is a platform allows for high resolution video content.

These days I use Vimeo for content that I'm not sure has an audience on YouTube. I can test content and see if it resonates. If not, I avoid posting it on YouTube in order to keep the integrity of my channel.

But I can still keep my content live on Vimeo and embed it on my website where given context, people might be more likely to click and share.

Vimeo is also a great place to put password protected content so you can make certain videos available on a limited basis.

WHERE TO POST:
MICRO CONTENT

I still get requests to make 30 second videos. Rarely can you add a lot of value in a 30 second video. In fact, I've heard people say they won't watch content on YouTube that is less than two minutes because they feel it will not provide anything of value.

So are short videos done?

No, but they are more suited to other platforms and are ideal as gateway content. That is short content that after viewing will drive people to watch the full version of your key content on YouTube. Think of it as a trailer.

Places to add your micro content include Facebook, Vine and Twitter.

LEVERAGE

Build it they will come doesn't work for video, either.

To get viewers, you have to market your content.

YOUTUBE MARKETING 101

People are now searching for content directly on YouTube.

So you want your video to be stumble-on-able.

By that I mean, you want people to be able to discover you and be inspired to click to watch.

The next three slides give you some best practices.

YOUTUBE: BEST PRACTICE #1

THUMBNAILS MATTER

Pick a compelling image.

If you can, add an attention grabbing title.

YOUTUBE: BEST PRACTICE #2

TITLES THAT SIZZLE

Not all titles are created equal.

Titles do better if they:

- Outline the benefits of watching.
Example: 4 Tips for Achieving X

- Ask a question.
Example: Have this issue? Watch now

- Be provocative

YOUTUBE: BEST PRACTICE #3

DESCRIPTIONS

So many people leave out the description.

Descriptions are important for two reasons.

1. If you have a longer video, people might go to the description to see if this is something they want to watch.

2. After watching the video, people will go to the description looking for links to your website, to more information about the content your provided, and ways to connect.

So if you have amazing stats, include them in the description. People will still watch.

YOUTUBE: BEST PRACTICE #4

YOUR CHANNEL

It is important to make your channel inviting, especially if you are creating a series.

Create a channel image (Don't have Photoshop, try using the free online photo tool Canva.)

Clean up your content. If you have content that isn't key content and you can't remove it, then at least make it private. That way if it is embedded somewhere, people will be able to still view the video but it won't come up on your channel.

Think about going back to old key content and updating your thumbnails, titles and descriptions.

These little things matter when you are looking to build your subscriber base.

LEVERAGE

MAKE AN IMPRESSION

People are busy.

They may not click to watch your video the first time they see the embed or link.

So give them more opportunities to run across your video.

Wondering where to link?

FACEBOOK & INSTAGRAM
* including making of photos to get people interested before you launch your video
* once the video is live, post photos from the video with interesting quotes or tips

BLOGS
* Write up behind the scenes or include an epilogue in your blog
* Send your video to other bloggers who are looking for content (having a good description can help them with their write-up)

NEWSLETTERS
* Let your community know about the series in your newsletter.
* Include extra video material for your subscribers

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