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THE DETAILS
These slides contain the speaking points I detailed in my presentation so you
can reference it after the hangover subsides.
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VIDEO FOR PEOPLE
Social media is no longer a trend. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, LinkedIn, and YouTube are proven
advertising platforms that have given marketers the tools to drive messages directly to consumers in a way that no
marketers have been able to take advantage of before. No one can argue that. As marketers, we have to move beyond
the concept of just having a presence on social media to being hyper focused on exactly what we’re putting there.
Because just being there is no longer a marketing advantage. Just having a branded Snapchat account with 27
followers is no longer an automatic win. And, because 1/3rd of all online activity is spent watching video according to our
good friends at Hubspot, video should be what we’re doing.
We’re going to discuss the worldwide epidemic of marketers forgetting about people. So, just for this presentation, let’s
consider dropping the term “social media strategy” and focus on “video for people strategy”. If you take one thing away
from this presentation, it has to be that we must create content that people want to see where they’re seeing it.
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GHOSTS OF VIDEO PAST
Within the last 3 to 5 years, video on social media has become huge. With Facebook Instagram, joining YouTube in
allowing you to incorporate video into their organic and paid product, the running theme was video everywhere all the
time. With this came the age of content crap. Which means we were all encouraged to post as much video as we
possibly could on every platform.
The goal was to be seen everywhere as often as possible with little thought to quality. Even huge brands like Proctor
and Gamble fell into the trap. We were arming our marketers will cell phones and telling them that video mattered more
than anything.
Then, the consumer obviously kicked back. They were tired of seeing crappy video that didn’t entertain or educate
them. And then the platforms kicked back, limiting what was seen on their news feeds by algorithms because the
consumer wasn't happy. They started rewarding quality.
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YOUR TRUE COMPETITION
Our customers kicked back for the same reason they don't watch bad TV shows. They don't want to be marketed to for
the sake of marketing. They wanted to follow brands with marketing that was memorable.
Because let's face the facts. When you release a video (any video) on social media, you’re not competing with other
real estate brands. We love to think that consumers are watching our videos and only comparing them to videos
produced by other real estate companies. When we stop to think about people behavior, that’s simply not the case.
Village River Oak Hill Apartments isn’t competing for brand attention with Pine Stream Cliff Lofts. People are comparing
your video to the Nike video they saw right above it on their news feeds. They’re comparing you to the H&M holiday
video that was directed by Wes Anderson.
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THE PREVAILING QUESTION
Video is for people. People must be at the forefront of our process whether we’re creating or releasing it. Our video
must be high-quality because you’re competing against Nissan, and it must tell a story because it’s competing for the
attention of people just like ourselves who want to be entertained instead of just sold to.
So we saw the past of video marketing. What's the future? Quality over quantity. Taking huge strides to create and post
incredible and competitive video instead of a lot of video. But making video needs to be a huge part of our marketing
mix.
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VIDEO IS POWERFUL
YouTube videos reach more 18 – 34 year olds than any cable network in the country. And the average user duration
time is 40 minutes!
Facebook is generating more than 8 billion video views per day.
Social media video generates 1200% more shares than text and images combined.
Companies using video see 41% more web traffic from search than companies who don’t.
Video is incredibly powerful. We need to use that to our advantage. But only good video is powerful because those are
people actions. Sharing, viewing, visiting your website. Those are things people do because they love your marketing.
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SOCIAL MEDIA ADS
You created a great video. Now how am I supposed to compete with Google’s million dollar media buy budget?
Target locally instead of globally
Target specifically to serve ads to qualified leads
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ADS ARE THE BEST OUTREACH
No one wants to see print. I speak to a lot of real estate marketers. We always talk about flyers. I always ask what their purpose is.
They say they're for brand awareness and brand impressions. When I ask how they perform, no one can give me an accurate
answer. When I tell them I can take the money they spent on printing flyers and create a social advertising campaign with the
same objectives and achieve ten times the return all while showing them the exact results, the conversation changes. And this is a
people based marketing presentation. How many of us love to accept a flyer? How many of us would see a guy standing in the
middle of the sidewalk tonight and walk up to him and grab the flyer out of his hands and read it right then and there? None of us!
Marketers are supposed to make people fall in love with brands! How are we supposed to do that when we're resorting to doing
things to our customers that they hate?
People look at their phones 110 times a day. Picture that. 110 times. Another big rebuttal I address is, "How am I supposed to
reach them on campus or around the market without flyers and t-shirts?". What are they looking at when they're trying to ignore
your flyer and walk past you?! Their phone! And I challenge you to pay attention to people sitting in passenger seats next time you
drive. Count how many of them are on their phones instead of looking up at billboards. People!
According to MarketingCharts, fewer people are watching live TV and listening to radio than ever.
Recent Facebook algorithm changes have given a priority to content created by your friends and family. Simply posting a video to
your Facebook page is getting seen by fewer people than ever.
Search ads don’t allow you to build a brand following. They’re great for customers shopping at the end of your funnel with their
wallets out, but nobody’s ever remembered or followed a brand because of a Google search ad. Our goal as marketers should be
to create a long term brand following. Even if you're short term holding a property, long term is 6 months in today's consumer
mind.
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HOW THEY LOOK & WHERE
THEY SHOULD GO
Now that we know we should definitely be using video on social media and we should definitely be considering social
media advertising for our videos, let's talk about what’s important TO PEOPLE when we’re thinking about creating video
and how important it is to consider people when you decide where on social media should it go.
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EMPATHETIC THOUGHT
Focus on people. That’s the first part. When faced with an issue that marketing can solve, don’t go to the easy solution.
Go to the solution people care about and recognize. Don’t advertise a value play option as cheap or “look how many
tacos you can buy with the money you save”. Advertise it for why people purchase low priced items. Because there are
more important things to spend their money on.
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QUALITY MATTERS
There’s a difference between a video shot on a cell phone or DSLR camera and a video shot on a cinematic camera.
There’s a difference between a video shot with a crew considering all lighting possibilities and one shot with one guy.
There’s a difference between professional actors and residents appearing in videos. There’s a difference. And the
consumer can tell. Every brand viral marketing video you’ve ever seen has utilized all of those things and more. Pay
more for quality videos that your audience will love by paying less for the quantity of your video.
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STORIES MATTER
If we asked everyone in the room what their favorite ads of all time are, they would mention ads with stories. I’d go out
on a limb to say not a single one of us would mention that video of the gym from that apartment community in Atlanta. I
would also say that it’s probably not the video from the pool party. We are inclined to want to hear stories from the time
we’re children. Make your brand one that tells stories and you’ll have people lining up to hear them.
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BEING DIFFERENT MATTERS
MORE
The cardinal sin of marketing is to do what your competitors are doing. But, in real estate, we seem to often be
continuously checking the same boxes everyone else is. Every single one of us in this room needs to achieve brand
awareness. Real estate brands are not exempt from branding. We do significantly less of it. But it’s also why we have
significantly less of a long term brand following than consumer products. Right now, a lot of us are spending money on
t-shirts, events, flyers, and emails to build brand awareness. Guess what? So is every one of your competitors in this
room. Do you know what many real estate brands aren’t doing? Telling great brand stories through great video. If we’re
marketers, we’re intended to solve problems differently than anyone else. When you’re solving for a lack of brand
awareness, competitive advantage awareness, location awareness, or self-awareness, place your priority on the quality
of your creative, how it tells your story differently than anyone else your competing with, and how people will WANT to
interact with it.
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MY BIGGEST PET PEEVE
Is on the next slide.
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LAZY DISTRIBUTION THAT’S
NOT PEOPLE FOCUSED
Great video is great. But great video is not great on all platforms. Again, we have to think about making a person’s day
better because they saw our video. And where you put your video is more than half the battle.
Let’s all agree to never just “put something on social media” again.
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MARKETERS NOT ARTISTS
Artists can make something beautiful, 12 people see it, and still be considered a great artist. If my work is seen by 12
people, I might have to start looking for artist jobs. Where and how our content is engaged with is just as important as
what it is. Make sure you notice that I said engaged with and not seen. Anyone can buy impressions. You can’t buy
recall. That's where quality storytelling comes into play.
Creating a video and just throwing it on every platform you can imagine is a disgrace to people and their platform
behavior.
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PEOPLE BEHAVIOR:
YOUTUBE
One of my biggest pet peeves in marketing is when I see a great spot, one I love to watch in its entirety, as a pre roll ad
on YouTube. I recently watched a great video ad with an incredible story. It was shot beautifully, and I probably watched
it 12 times. A few days later, I was listening to a podcast on YouTube and heard the same ad start. And I almost lost it.
The first 5 seconds of this video are a background song building up, a fade in from black, and a shot of feet walking!
There was literally no adjustment to the story to fit the people behavior of the platform! It was a wasted dollar and a
wasted impression.
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PEOPLE BEHAVIOR:
FACEBOOK
According to an article by Digiday in May of 2016, 85% of users won’t hear the audio from your video on Facebook.
Facebook only plays audio when a user clicks on the video. That means we have to create video knowing that it has to
be visually appealing. We have to attempt to create video that could share our message without audio. Or we have to
create video that can easily be transcribed into captions.
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PEOPLE BEHAVIOR:
INSTAGRAM
Instagram has an interesting stat about faces. Georgia Tech posted a study that claimed that Instagram content that
featured faces get 38% more likes than content without faces.
Instagram is another platform where audio isn't automatically played. It's also a platform where video engagement lags
behind picture engagement. That's good to know! Maybe Instagram ads shouldn't be a part of your distribution plan if
you don't have a lot of money to spend. Knowing people's behavior can help you save money.
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MAKE PEOPLE WANT TO SEE
YOUR MARKETING
Create great marketing that people wait to see and talk about. That’s how you secure yourself from the ebbs and flows
of a market. A long term brand following is a security blanket.
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KEY TAKEAWAYS
Have a video for people strategy. Not a social media strategy. Have a YouTube campaign instead of a video campaign that’s also
on YouTube because people want to watch different videos there than on LinkedIn. One valuable message is great. But
communicating it differently with people in mind is necessary. Consider how your high quality video could be adjusted to perform
best on different platforms.
Get your hands dirty with social media advertising. Spend $50 on experimental campaigns on Facebook/Instagram, LinkedIn,
Twitter, YouTube, Snapchat Geo Filters, etc. The only way to let data drive your content is to see it happen yourself. If you’re a
creator, go to great lengths to understand how your creative performs. That’s why we’re marketers and not artists. The best
creative in the world is being created with analytics in mind. Know how to write better scripts, film better action, and come up with
better concepts because you personally saw their performance. And don’t worry about whether or not you can trust your vendors
because you know what they’re doing.
The key! Because you’re now creating based off of what your friends, family, colleagues, and the guy walking down the street
desperately WANT to see, quality matters more than anything. According to Adelie Studios, 62% of consumers are more likely to
have a negative perception of a brand that published a poor quality video.
Know who you’re competing against for attention and only produce work that people want to see just as much as they want to see
Wes Anderson’s. Work with whoever you have to in order to do that and be efficient by waiting to produce great content instead of
just a lot of it. I’d rather not produce a video for 3 months than produce 100 average cell phone videos that are competing with
Nike, Dove, and Geico every day on my audience’s News Feed. Everyone in the room wants to watch great video. Anything less
is a negative experience with your brand. We’re not competing for attention on social media with the apartment down the street.
We’re competing with the big boys. And you can beat them because you’re focused on a local audience as opposed to their global
one.
Do your part to make people like us!
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