How to Get Exposure

When producing branded content for your brand and you need to stretch your dollar to the maximum, consider making multiple deliverables for different networks and audiences. Although this may cost more than a single video, you?ll get to use your material in?multiple ways. Consider your audience and how you?re going to reach them on each network. Is your audience the same everywhere? Most likely not, but possibly so. Are all social networks the same? Definitely not. What works on Facebook might now work on Twitter or Instagram. You probably don?t want to post something to Instagram and share it via?Instagram to all your other social networks for a couple of reasons. 1). Your audience will get tired of seeing duplicate content where it?s obvious that you just hit one button and hoped for more engagement and 2). you?re not playing up each networks strength. Having your fans share your content has intrinsic value. They’re putting their name behind your brand and sharing it among their peers.?Read X X?s blog post on what this is important.

If you?re creating any kind of branded content or a campaign, first define your audience and how you’re going to reach them on each network. This may take some trial and error on your end but I?ve found that people on your website will watch a longer video (meaning 2 minutes). Facebook is next in terms on time allowance. Instagram tops out at 15 seconds and Vine at 6 seconds. Let?s say you want edits of the following length: 2:00, :30, :15 for your campaign and how you can create value from each of these.

Deliverable Options
The 2:00 edit is going to be your most thorough of them all and should live where you have the most captive audience, which is most likely your website. Your audience either went straight to your website or was interested enough to click their way there. You clearly have someone who is eager to consume your brand’s content, and this is the perfect opportunity to tell them everything they need to know. However, 2 minutes is still pretty quick, so you need to decide exactly what material makes the cut and what doesn?t. I recommend keeping this video top level and not getting too granular. The stats don?t lie?on how we interact with video online. You have a much greater chance of keeping and converting that visitor once they?ve engaged in your video. Let your audience?search your site and read for all the little details, or find your contact info and have them reach out directly. Your 2 minutes is still very precious, so use it wisely.

The 2:00 edit can be shared on Facebook, but there are many other distractions on Facebook. Your audience will be getting chat and other notifications that can immediately take their undivided attention and then you?ve lost them for good. This is where I recommend a :30(ish) edit. It?s short enough that you have a much better chance at getting them interested in clicking through to your site and can still let them know there more good stuff if they follow your call to action.

The :15 edit is pretty much made for Instagram. It can, too, be shared on Facebook (more on this later) but you really don?t have a lot of time. It?s quick, direct, in and out without any fat or sides. :15 edits most likely are not going to drive sales directly but they?re great for branding and awareness. No one will buy from you if you?re not present and top of mind. The advantages here are that you can create a few :15 second edits without being redundant. If your campaign was produced properly all your material will look & feel the same and your audience will be cognizant of this fact.

One thing to watch out for with any branded content is redundancy. If someone watches 4 different :15 edits and ultimately end up at your site, will the 2:00 edit offer anything new? It should. You need to let them know this material is related, and they?ve come to the right place for more, without boring them or turning them off. You need to continue to offer more and lure them in with new visuals and information. You need to give them a reason to share a video and buy a product from you. This will encourage your audience to share to their network of trusted friends and potential brand ambassadors. Having them watch 4 :15 videos allows for 4x the sharing opportunities.

Shooting on very high production cameras, such as the RED Dragon, will allow you to pull 19 megapixel stills from the video files. These are very high resolution and this technique is becoming increasingly popular. Using stills from video is nothing new, but there have always been limitations as to what you can use them for due to the relatively low resolution. The RED Dragon was recently rated as the best still camera by DxOMark, surpassing dedicated professional stills cameras from industry leaders such as Nikon and Canon. These still can not only be used as part of your digital social media campaign, but also in print applications if you have a need for that as well. Remember, there are several perfect cameras out there for the specific need.

This all comes back to the beginning, pre-production. If you plan it right you shouldn?t have a problem. But shooting vast amounts of material hoping that your editor will come up with something good is a waste of your precious resources. You can do better!

Be sure to make it clear with your production company beforehand that you?ll be using this material in multiple ways. It?s standard practice to keep your content deliverables to the intended usage. Since video is a work of art, it often times can?t be altered or edited without permission. Any professional and reasonable production company will understand your need for additional usage, but there may be additional fees. Production companies, photographers and designers typically charge on value, not time.