What Are Web Videos?

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WEB VIDEO
The quickest, easiest and cheapest way to dominate.
Ben: Hi guys, my name is Quentin Tarantino.
I’ll be your web video guy for today. I’m
going to start by telling you a story. There is
this guy I know, and if you guys had met
him you’d probably call him Fraser but I call
him Dad. You know Dads are very hard to
shop for. Buying a present for a Dad is
pretty much the hardest thing: socks, ties, golf tees whatever. So I had this Dad and he was
turning seventy and I was thinking what do you get for your Dad for his seventieth
birthday?
He’s got a car, he’s got a nice place to live, he’s got gadgets, he plays the piano, so he’s got
a piano and keyboards and all that kind of thing. I though, what am I going to do for this
guy? I want to show him that I love him and that he’s been a big influence in my life. So I
thought, the one thing I could do is make a documentary about him, about his life, so I did.
The Man Who Had Everything
That’s my Dad there. I went and
interviewed about twenty people from his
life in Melbourne and Sydney, I’m from
Sydney. I went up there, I drove around like
crazy. I turned up with a little Handycam, a
little lapel mike, I had a bunch of questions
I was going to ask all these people, and I just interviewed all these people, from his past,
from his present, people he’d either taught or known.
I got to meet all these amazing people and learn about them and learn about my Dad
through them. You guys know Solomon Lew, one of the richest men in Australia. I
interviewed him in his top floor office in the middle of Collins Street. I walked in there with
a little Handycam and a little lapel mike and did an interview with that guy as well. I pieced
it all together and then on my Dad’s seventieth birthday I presented him with this video
and he had no idea that it was happening.

For the first time in my life I saw him stumped, he didn’t have anything to say. He didn’t
really realize what was going on. It was at that moment that I realized how powerful a
video could be. The reason I tell you this story, that’s how I started out with my production
company. I thought, I’ve got a feel for this work, I like this, I like doing this. Hence the light
bulb moment, the frenzy which was going and interviewing all these people. What
happened next, all these people came up to me and said, you should be doing this for a
living. I said, yes, I should be doing this for a living.
The lab Was Born
That’s now what I do for a living. I make
videos, I’ve got a video production
company. I work with Dave. It’s called
Storylab and thus the lab was born. It
started out as a home business. I was
working at home on my little MacBook
and editing videos in iMovie and then I
just figured it out along the way. Prior to that, I’m a trained actor as well, I did three years
of acting school. So I’ve had a lot of experience on the other side of the camera as well and
on stage and things like that.
I had a feel for it, I’ve been involved in shows and theatre productions and radio shows and
things like that. So I knew what was going on in front of the camera but I’ve become more
passionate about what’s going on behind the camera. So today I’m going to be talking to
you all about that, about making videos either for yourself, your business, to promote
yourself, to promote others. As you can see we’ve got the showroom here, we’re going to
go through a whole bunch of tools and fortunately you’re going to have a bit of fun, so I
hope you’re prepared for that.
I’ll just show you quickly what I’ve been up to. This is what I’ve been doing over the past
two years or so. There’s the first lesson, what can go wrong, will go wrong. We’re going to
be talking about MacGyver a lot today, about using things like cable ties to hold a focus
thing together or a paper clip to build a light. It all happens.
[Ben McEwing, Director, Showreel 2010 video]

The reason I showed you that is there are
a whole lot of things in there, tools and
techniques that I’ve picked up along the
way that I want to share with you today.
They are things that you can do,
resources that you can use to help you
make your videos go from that very
YouTube look, that about eighty percent of them are, to something that is professional and
something that you can be proud of as well, that will obviously net you sales and promote
you and give you credibility. That’s really what it’s about.
Welcome to the Future
First I just want to talk about video in
general. TV and web are becoming one,
there’s no doubt about it. You can buy
televisions now that are web ready,
screens on computers are getting bigger,
everything is converging, so it’s a great
time to be getting into making videos. YouTube as we know is the king, fourth biggest site
on the internet, second biggest search engine after Google and the largest video site on
the web.
David: Further to the merging of TV and the web. You know how Google TV has come out
now and there have been a whole lot of announcements from Sony and Dell bringing out
televisions with Google TV integrated into it. We already saw Blockbuster go bust just over
in the States recently because they’re old school. When you compare that to a new school
business like Netflix which is all done online and people are downloading the video, that’s
the way things are going. I think it’s only a matter of time before it’s one and the same.
Ben: Further to that, big companies like the National Australia Bank are taking all their
documentation, all their training manuals, everything and making videos with them.
They’ve got an in house team, that’s all they‘re doing. So everything is becoming more
easily accessed through video. So again, it’s a fantastic time to be involved with it.

Welcome to the Future – Part 2
Just some more material about YouTube.
It’s great to get an idea of the numbers.
Twenty hours of content every minute are
uploaded to YouTube. If you’ve been to
one of our other workshops, that equates
to, if Hollywood were to create feature
films, put out feature films, they’d have to
be putting out 86,000 of them every week, that’s how much content is coming out of there.
A billion videos served every day, twelve billion videos every month just in the US and 82%
of internet users are looking for video online. So really, to be totally honest, there is no
excuse not to be making videos, because people are going to watch them.
Again, Dave and I will go into great detail about how to get them up there and get people
to see them. It’s one thing to make them and then if no one’s looking at them, then it’s a
bit of a waste of time.
But Wait, There’s More
But wait there’s more. Now YouTube,
everyone knows about YouTube and you
might know about some other sites like
Vimeo or Viddler and so on. But there are
seventy plus video sites and there are
more and more that are hosting content.
Some of them are very specific.
You might have gone onto howto.com, where you can get tutorials on things. There are
ones that are just about comedy, there are ones that are just about promoting your
business as well. For people like yourselves who have your own businesses, who want to
promote yourselves, there are specific areas that you can go and put your material on, not
just YouTube. We’ll mainly be focusing on YouTube because that’s what everyone knows,
that’s the lowest common denominator. There are ways to get all this material out there
and distribute it in ways that you might not have imagined. Why video for business, Dave
is going to step up on this one.

Why Video for Business?
David: I’ll just talk a little bit about why
video for business. Firstly, what’s the
biggest hurdle people have with doing any
sort of business with a business online? It’s
believing what it is that they are saying is
correct. If you make a purchase from
somebody’s website, you’re worried that
they’re going to take your money and run away with it or they’re not going to deliver on
the promises that they make. So I think the biggest hurdle that people have to overcome is
believing what it is that you have to say. That’s why, with all of my work, I try to be as open
and honest and transparent as I can, so that way that really comes across.
I feel like video is perhaps one of the best ways to do that because you can connect with
people at a new level. It enables you to become the salesman in front of their eyes, rather
than them reading text. It’s a fantastic way, you can get across that personality.
I have clients who call me from Melbourne SEO Services and before I even chat with them
on the phone, they tell me that they feel like they already know me. I’ve already answered
their frequently asked questions before I even pick up the phone and it saves a lot of time
for me. It positions me as the expert. All they have to do is look on my YouTube channel.
It’s almost like having written a book. You know when someone writes a book, you don’t
have to be an expert to write a book, but once you write a book it’s like you become
instantaneously credible because you have a book. Similarly online, by doing web video, it
positions you as the expert. If you’re making video, you’re the expert.
The other thing as well, it is the lowest hanging fruit online. I’m doing more and more
video, I’m trying to do as much video as I can. This is from Forrester Research, there’s a
research company and they talked about this in 2009. You’ve got a fifty percent better
chance of appearing on the first page of the results using video when compared to others.
All it is, is the amount of competition you’re going up against. If you think about all of the
pages that are in the Google index, you’re competing against billions and billions of pages,
whereas when it’s on video, it’s a lot less.

They’re a lot less educated because it’s a newer technology, it hasn’t advanced and it’s not
as competitive. People don’t necessarily build back links back to their videos, they don’t do
appropriate on page optimization or keyword research, so it really is the lowest hanging
fruit out there. So if you’re going to do anything online, video needs to be a core part of
that strategy.
Dave's Story
As far as me, how I got started in video and
even marketing online, I created a product
called the Metastock Programming Study
Guide with another friend, a colleague in a
trading education space and we had a really
good product. What we found is, you can
have an excellent product but unless people
know that product exists, the product isn’t going to sell. So it’s all about trying to get your
message and your good product in front of as many people as possible. That’s why I
started to lean towards YouTube.
I got on YouTube about three or four years ago, I put my first video up. That’s the screen
shot right there of my first video. I’m sitting in my bedroom, there is a Bruce Lee picture
over to the right and on the top left that’s my little dresser and there’s a little money thing
up there and then I had my computer. I had my office, it was my home office which was
my bedroom office. A small tip as well, when you can get to a point where you can move
your office outside of your bedroom, that’s a good thing because it means you don’t feel
like you’re always working. That’s one thing, by having your office in your bedroom, you
can never switch off. That’s another little side thing.
That’s how I got started and that was a good few years ago. Now on my core business sites,
we’ve got over four hundred and fifty videos on YouTube. We’ve had over a million views
on the different channels that we’ve got. It started in my bedroom. The other thing to keep
in mind, the first video that you do, it is going to be clumsy, it is going to be awkward. It
takes time and practice. The first video that you do will be the worst video you ever do and
then everything else will get better from there.

I know sometimes I’ve had clients, and we’re working with a particular client at the
moment, who, he watches some of my videos and then he’s thinking, oh, how easy it looks,
I’m going to go ahead and replicate this in my business. He’s gone and spent $5000,
purchased all the fantastic equipment and set himself up with teleprompter cues and all
that type of thing and it’s just not flowing as well. I say, be patient, just getting started and
then you’ll improve over time. Really when it comes to web video, you just need to get
started.
That’s why Ben was talking at the start about why there’s such an opportunity here for
video and YouTube being the second biggest search engine, it’s to hook you guys, to make
you realize, this is something where I need to be focusing my attention. It needs to be a
core strategy. For those of you who have seen some of the other things that I do in
outsourcing, you want to build systems around creating web video. It’s all about systems
to pump it out as quickly as you can.
For me, I figure the more videos I’ve got on YouTube, the more tickets in that search
engine lottery I’ve got. It’s a John Reese line, he talks about the idea that every piece of
content that you create is another ticket in the search engine lottery and you’ve got a
greater chance of winning that search engine lottery.
So I started far from being perfect, it was just about getting started. Now I use video in
everything I do. Then along came Ben and Ben is a shining example of an A player, an
absolute star in my business. He’s brought so much to the team and doesn’t realize how
much I appreciate what it is that he does.
If you look at my videos when I started and you look at where they are now, they’re worlds
apart. He’s got me wearing different coloured t-shirts that match the colour of my logo so
I’m branded right. He’s got me doing a whole lot of things that I just hadn’t thought about.
Along comes Ben and then I’ll handball back to you.

Quality Vs. Quantity
Ben: That’s the thing, Dave and I have
had lots of discussions about quality
versus quantity because Dave is so
prolific, he’s got so many things going on.
He’s making so many videos and wants
to get them out, get them out, which I
absolutely agree with. The thing is
though, you do need to find that balance with the quality of it. If you’re presenting yourself
and this is your business and you are the face of that business in any way, even if you’re
selling a product but you’re going to use yourself to promote it, how you come across,
people will make a judgment within the first thirty seconds.
I’ve stood up here and you’ve already decided some things about me, you can’t help it, it’s
just the way we’re wired. So that’s what I’ve really been working with Dave on, is about
balancing, yes, let’s get out ten videos at a time but it doesn’t take too long to set it up
nicely and get the lighting right and get good audio and things like that. People will
appreciate it more and they won’t switch off as quickly. I’m just going to play you some
very quick examples. This first one is an example of one Dave has done.
[Video]
Now have a look at the views. Good content, it says 36,000 views. He’s created some great
content there that people obviously come to see. The only thing is it looks like it’s done in
a bedroom. That’s ok if that’s the level you’re starting at, then that’s ok but there are things
you can do just to tweak it a little bit. We want to make the most of it. Look at this guy’s
face, we’ve got to make the most of this guy.
Here’s where I came in and when I started working with Dave he had lights and things like
that, so I just set them up and showed him what they’re about, why you use them and how
you use them. It’s exactly what we’re going to do today. If you see here, we’ve changed it
and I’ll go into this in more detail. It’s framed differently, it’s more like what you’d see on TV
or on films and things like that. We’ve got a nice lower third there so it’s starting to brand
him already. He’s lit differently so he looks a lot brighter. I just want to go back one. There’s
that.
[Video]

Then this one.
[Video]
So what’s happening? You can already see
there’s a certain kind of strength, credibility and
confidence as well that comes across. That’s
really important when presenting a video. You
want to be confident, you want people to say,
yes, I trust this person.
This next one has just got a bit of a longer intro, it’s a similar set up. We’ll just watch this
one. Now do you want to find out what those answers are? Yes. Now we had a bit more of
a budget there, we went into space, we shot some footage, which was pretty good, just
direct link to the Hubble telescope. No but
again, that was an intro that we bought, a
stock intro that we put in. We set it up
differently, we created a thirst for what this was
going to be about. These are things you can do,
you’ll know how to do them by the end of
today.
Later on in this video we had the camera set up, Dave’s camera there. I also did some
filming from another angle with a Flip camera and we moved back and forth between
them which was a nice little technique. It just builds a certain level of credibility as well.
So what does that all mean? It’s all about balance.
You guys, by the end of today, we’re going to
have you get started. We’re not going to actually
shoot any videos with you, but we’re going to
have you start to devise three that you might
want to make. Just to start thinking about the
kind of content you can create. When you do, it’s about getting them out there, but also
presenting yourself in the best light because you have an audience ultimately, that’s who
you’re trying to connect with, potential customers or existing customers and you want to
take them to the next level.

With that, you need to think about what they expect. If you were here yesterday, Dave
talked about finding out who your avatar is. You float out of your own head and go into
your avatar’s body and think about exactly what they want to see. What information do
they want, what’s it going to take for them to trust you and to feel connected to your
brand? That’s about finding that balance.
As well, you might not have considered this but use videos to promote yourself at all levels.
You’ve got a new product coming out, you’ve just done an amazing wedding you want to
talk about. Anything like that, use it. If there’s some great news, you just went traveling,
you’ve just come back and you’ve just found out this amazing piece of information, make a
video about it. It’s a really powerful thing. Dave does it all the time, Pete does it all the time,
it’s a really powerful tool.
David: I’ll jump back in on this one. A couple of things, when it comes to the quantity
versus quality, especially when you’re first getting started, just get out whatever you can.
It’s that hurdle of getting over getting started, you need to start doing more video. As you
can, just start to improve it as you go. Just get started.
What's Your Goal?
As far as the goal of today, I just want to
make sure we pre frame this right,
because if you aim at nothing, you’re
sure to hit. What we’re trying to do right
at the start, we talk about opening your
mind to what it is you can do with video.
We’re going to introduce you to the
different tools, we’re going to introduce you to equipment, show you how to set it up,
show you then how to get that video out there and distributed. At the end of the day,
probably one of the sessions you’ll look forward to most is then, well, how do we take the
knowledge that we learned today and then convert that straight into cash?
So we’ve got that and then the other thing as well, which Ben is really good at, is then
bringing it all back down to, well, let’s create an action plan. So at the end of the day, in
one of the last sessions, we’ll talk about planning out, as he was saying, what videos are
you going to work on, how we’re going to do the scripting. Scripting is an area, I know Ben
is going to go into more detail, that most people just skim over, yet it’s probably the most
important thing when it comes to writing video.

Question: Dave, I was just wondering, what’s your outcome when you’re doing the video.
Is it a blend of branding yourself as a person and also selling the services you offer?
What’s your mix of both of those?
David: Good question. It depends on where the video is being distributed. For me, you
need to set up that outcome first and Ben is going to talk all about that in the scripting
area. We’ll talk about some different styles of video. You might have a testimonial video,
you might have a video that’s selling a particular product or service, you might have a
tutorial type video. There is a whole host of videos. Each video is going to have its own
outcome.
Part of it will also be related to where it’s distributed to. If you’re distributing to YouTube,
or you’re distributing to Facebook, Facebook is a completely different kettle of fish. If you
jump into my Facebook account, what are you going to see? You’re going to see photos
and videos of Caz and I on our last holiday. I made a little video of us on our Europe trip
and I put it on there.
The reason I do that is when my clients, I know some people use fan pages. I’m still
building under my own personal profile and accepting everyone. I will shift to the fan page
model, but at the moment I’m accepting everybody in. It’s so the clients can connect with
me and say, Dave’s a real guy, Dave’s out there, my friends call it Brand Dave. It’s the brand
that goes onto Facebook and I put things there which allow people to connect with me at
a different level. So it depends where the video is going.
Ben: I’ll just add to that. One thing to remember is that every single company on earth is
made up of people. It’s people who are running these things. Dave is an entrepreneur, he’s
talking about his products, he’s the brand. Even if you’ve got the driest product, if you’re
selling wheat biscuits or whatever it is, it doesn’t matter, if you bring a face to it, then all of
a sudden it changes it, it brings that human connection which ultimately is what you’re
trying to do. Regardless of whether it’s building a personal brand or for the company itself,
being the face of it or the voice behind it or whatever will have a great impact.

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