Sometimes your children really can teach you meaningful things about how to be more successful in your life. In our case the lesson of the power of telling your story via video came from our daughter Alexandra AKA “Sparkles” Lund. As many of you know “Sparkles” is engaged in the entertainment industry in Los Angeles. About four months ago, she set out on a path to build her following among casting directors, agents, choreographers and producers. She deployed three powerful tools. First, she blogs regularly so her voice is being heard. Second, she creates “vlogs” or video stories talking about stretching, interviews with famous choreographers and dance clips from her many dance events. Third, she is working with an amazing video production team that has brought her to talent to the forefront by choreographing “concept videos” that tell the story of the song through dance.
Back when we began this adventure in November last year she had just 140 subscribers on her YouTube channel, many of which were our friends in the real estate industry! Today, just four months later, she has nearly 3,000 subscribers, an increase of over 2000% and nearly 350,000 views of her video stories. One of her dance concept videos has nearly 70,000 views and grows every day! The other good news? Views on all of her videos increase every time she launches a new one.
Why do I tell you all of this? Of course, I’m a proud mom, but more than that I have an insatiable appetite for finding better ways to find marketing tools that break through to customers.
Since she has begun this work, we have brought the video idea to our business and to several of our customers. Our video production team has a depth of experience with corporate work like McDonald’s and Walgreens commercials as well as compelling TV like Mythbusters. They bring the innovation that comes from working in the entertainment industry to corporate work. That’s what makes their videos so engaging.
One of our MLS Clients, TheMLS located in the Beverly Hills/Malibu area is expanding its footprint by partnering with neighboring MLSs to offer them their proprietary MLS system. They have extremely satisfied customers, which I have written about before. What’s their secret sauce? Customer Service. So what’s the best way to talk about the quality of a company’s customer support: Their customers of course. WAV Group partnered with TheMLS and brought them the same well-heeled video production team used for Sparkles to tell an important business story. Using video, TheMLS was able to share the power of their system, support and responsiveness told through the lens of their extremely satisfied customers.
Click here to view the video
Just think of the many possibilities how an MLS or brokerage can use video.
How about product recommendations from Top Producers that can be shared with the rest of your subscribers? How about promotion of your new Board of Directors? What about a way to bring your customer satisfaction survey to life? How about video demonstrations that can be embedded inside the MLS system? Or a welcome video from the Board President and/or CEO to new members?
Isn’t it more powerful to solicit video opinions or even shoot full commercials of your MLSs products and services rather than just let your members read about them? Video can highlight suggestions for improvement that can be shared with the staff, board and committees. An impassioned plea from a member might be a lot more powerful than simply words on a page. The opportunities are endless. Any story that can be told in print can probably be more compelling on video.
So here are five key tips when you think about how to integrate video stories into your communications programs:
- Consistency, consistency, consistency – What type of video you do, be sure you do it regularly. Don’t worry about perfection. Just get yourself in the game and start getting on camera. The more you do, the better you will get at it
- Be Genuine – If there isn’t really a compelling story that those on the screen are excited about, don’t do it
- Know your limitations – There are some types of videos that are better done in social media “vlogging” style – they look more real and they can be more engaging. If you have a story that really requires more of a set and orchestration, then don’t be afraid to hire the professionals. While high quality cameras are not expensive today, knowing how to use them effectively to keep them in focus and moving at a manageable pace so that your viewers can keep up, can be challenging
- Editing is the Key – While you might be able to shoot some interesting footage on your own, editing is where it all comes together. You can work with video production companies that will teach you how to shoot great content and then edit it on the back end for you to make it really powerful
Traffic Building with Video – Anybody can shoot video, but not everybody can find ways to use it to generate traffic to your site. Choose a video production team that knows how to maximize the exposure of your video online and use it to build your brand and subscribers to your YouTube channel.
If you have any questions about how to get started using video in your MLS, brokerage or technology company, feel free to contact me at Marilyn@wavgroup.com
Good to-the-point post. Thank you.