For many businesses, coming up with ideas for regular content can be painstaking. I’ve been there. That’s why I always like to default to these 6 kinds of videos as a way for brands to break out of their shells and connect to their communities.
• How it’s made or How we do it
• Employee Profiles
• Vlogging
• How to Use
• Quick Tips
• Deep Dives
You’ll often hear me set the groundwork for ideation with the question: “How will this make someone’s day better?” And to answer that, you can always rely on the three tenets of engaging content:
• Make it educational • Make it inspirational • Make it personal
If you can achieve all three of these, then you’re more likely to build the kind of rapport it takes to win the internet these days. Let’s see how these 6 kinds of videos would do that.
Most B2C and some B2B brands have some kind of unique angle to their procurement and manufacturing. Maybe your ingredients are ethically sourced, or your products are handmade. Or you’re a service provider then maybe there’s a unique perspective that makes your service stand apart from others.
People are keen to see this kind of stuff.
So if you’re a product maker, then a serialized “how it’s made” or “how we do it” or “how it works” playlist would do wonders for your YouTube channel.
When I was a videographer for Lush Cosmetics, we had launched a “How It’s Made” series to highlight the unique processes involved in creating handmade personal care products. We invited real employees to serve as hosts to guide the audience through the process while peppering in stories about the ingredients. The series blew up to earning hundreds of thousands of subscribers for Lush’s YouTube channel. Individual videos would reach views in the millions, while Lush employees would wear these videos as a badge of honour. A win, win, win.
New employee announcement emails are boring. There’s such a better opportunity to “meet” and get to know the personality of new employees through engaging videos. Quite often, specialized roles can seem too technical to be of interest to mainstream audiences. But on the contrary, we’ve seen that people love to learn new things so long as it’s delivered in a way that can be digested easily.
When HCMA wanted to introduce their new sustainability officer to the business and to their peers in the industry, they came to us for ideas to make the announcement exciting. Realizing that sustainability in architecture and civic design can be a tad overwhelming to the laymen, we asked, “how would you describe your job to a kid?” That turned into this video, which sets precedence for an ongoing series to introduce new personalities to the business.
I’ll admit that when I was first introduced to vlogging I found it to be rather pedestrian. There’s no creativity to it… Or so I thought.
Vlogging has become a standard format for sharing ideas and experiences in a wholly authentic, and often vulnerable way. Most young people are now familiar, if not completely used to the idea of vlogging as a legitimate stream of communication with their favourite personalities. But you don’t have to be young to play this game. Take a page from Ralph Kison’s book, who has been dominating LinkedIn with weekly vlogs to share from his decades of experience in personal and professional development.
Sometimes we think that the use-cases for our products are obvious, too obvious to even worth mentioning. You’re in for a surprise. Every use-case is a potential video for your content stream.
If you’re a maker or service provider then you can be blowing up your social channels with useful scenarios in which your products are put to task.
Similar to vlogging, if you’re not there yet to share vulnerable and personal stories, you can still offer advice and perspective on your industry in the form of short and concise tips. A great way to do this might be via presentation, animation and or voice over sourced materials.
This is a great format for camera-shy creators who still have value to give. Even a static graphic with a voice over quick tip can quickly become a familiar expression of your brand. Think about doing daily quick tips for Twitter and Instagram.
On the other side of the spectrum; deep and meaningful conversations, reflection and introspective can be a great way to build rapport with your audience. Unlike stream-of-consciousness vlogging, your deep dives can take the form of essay-like dissertations recorded either on camera, or in a Podcast, or by bringing someone like us on board to create whimsical animations; in effect, creating documentary like deep dives into your world.
