Something interesting happened to me yesterday. I got more information watching a video than I did from detailed text.

It sounds ridiculous. Everyone knows text offers an opportunity to deliver more information than a video. I often tell clients their video is the hook to get people to further explore their website for more information.

So what happened?

I went to the my health care provider’s website to get some information regarding my plan and chronic back pain. I’ve been having some serious back issues, so I wanted to find out what sort of treatments are available.

I scanned through some text, but it wasn’t very helpful. Then, I discovered a video. It was all graphics and text, but the video walked me through potential issues surrounding back pain and the various methods to treat it. After watching, I felt pretty good about what I had learned.

The takeaway

Sometimes the video will have all the information someone needs and will provide it in a more straight forward way.

None of the text I scanned through was helpful. If that’s all that was there, I probably would have given-up. In other words, I wouldn’t have gotten any information if the video hadn’t been at the site.

Thanks to the video, I got what I needed to know and left the site happy.

I blog a lot about storytelling and how important it is to producing a good video. I mean, I blog about it A LOT! That doesn’t mean your video will be a fluff piece without any meat.

Video is a terrific way to deliver information.

–Tony Gnau

I try to read spinsucks.com everyday. There are tons of PR/marketing blogs, but Gini Dietrich and her team of guest writers consistently churn out some great content.

Guess what… she’s even better in person.

After having read hundreds of her blog posts, yesterday was the first time I’ve watched her speak to a group. It was the blog come to life… really good stuff.

Gini and I met… what… a couple of years ago? She has become a client, and I’m proud that she’s recommended T60 to her clients. One of them was hosting an internal town hall meeting yesterday and Gini was presenting. I was shooting the town hall for a webcast, so I got to see her in action.

She basically gave a social media lesson to the company’s employees. Some of it was business-related, but she talked a lot about the dangers facing all of them as parents. I’ll tell you, I was pretty impressed with the company for bringing her in to do this.

Anyway, if you want to know more about the direction PR and marketing are going, you need to start listening to her. She has a book, and apparently another one coming soon. At the very least, you should read spinsucks.com.

And if you ever have a chance to see her do her thing in person, buy that ticket. You won’t be disappointed.

–Tony Gnau

You can’t be wish-washy and be a video producer. You have to take charge. If something isn’t working, you have to speak up.

Take this video from @Properties. Can you spot the lack of control?

First off… I like the company. I have a friend who is a very successful agent for them. I subscribe to their newsletter and look forward to seeing the videos that accompany each edition. The videos aren’t anything special, but they typically have a professional feel.

This one… not so much. Some of the videography is sloppy, and my biggest irritation is watching one of the partners answer to someone off-camera while the other speaks into the camera.

I don’t blame them. They’re just answering the questions they’re being asked by the video’s producer. That’s who I blame. They’re making their clients look bad.

If you’re on a shoot and see something like this happening, you have to stop the whole thing, and explain what’s not working. Start from scratch if you have to.

It can be uncomfortable coaching a client. I get it, but you know what’s more uncomfortable? Handing over a video that makes the client look bad.

–Tony Gnau

EntreLeadership podcast host Chris LoCurto got me thinking yesterday. He blogged about how he shifted his leadership mentality from customer-first to team-first and the benefits that followed.

It got me thinking about how T60 does things. See… I’m a solo-preneur. I pretty much do it all. I occasionally get help from freelancers, my wife certainly, but something really stands out for all of us.

Our standards

Everyone who works for T60 has high standards. Our videographers and editors… take their craft seriously. My wife… wants perfection. And I comb through every frame of the videos we produce.

I’m sure a lot of this is lost on our customers. In many cases, we’re looking at details they don’t see or even think about, but that’s okay.

Influenced by college football legend

My college football coach John Robinson used to tell us, “Just do your stuff.” What he meant was if everyone focuses on their job, the team will succeed.

That’s what we do. Each of us takes pride in our performance, and the customer gets a great video.

Does pride play a role in your job performance?

–Tony Gnau

I guess this is a good week for b-roll. I started the week by blogging about how you can shoot b-roll, provide it as free content and get some publicity from it. Today, it’s how b-roll can save your butt!

I’m sure most of you know what b-roll is, but if you don’t… here’s a descent definition.

Now, back to my story. We produce a monthly vlog for a large trade organization. This month the CEO talked about the outlook for 2013, and he spent a lot of time on what last November’s election is going to mean for them.

The organization’s communications chief usually provides us with photos we can use to cover a lot of what he talks about, but she was at a loss for what to do about the election stuff. He kept mentioning, “what’s going on in Washington,” and talking about Congress.

The initial thought was buying some royalty-free photos, but I told her not to worry about it… we’d take care of it.

Little did she know, we have stock b-roll of Washington, DC. I shot it four years ago when I was there on vacation. My college roommate and I met in DC for one of our baseball trips… we saw the Dodgers play the Nationals in DC and the White Sox against the Orioles in Baltimore.

He thought I was crazy when I showed up at the hotel with my video camera and tripod, and I told him I was getting up at 7 a.m. the next morning to shoot some DC b-roll.

His natural question, “Why?”

My answer, “because you never know when you might need some. I’m here and it’s just an hour or two of my time.”

That video sat on the shelf for four years until last week. Our client was super excited after seeing it in the finished video. She even forwarded me the email the CEO sent complimenting her on this month’s vlog.

Think we just earned some customer loyalty? Think she’d be willing to refer us?

Going the extra mile for something as simple as b-roll can pay off big time.

How has b-roll save your butt?

–Tony Gnau

Here’s a new one… I accidentally “liked” Online Pet Depot on Facebook, and now I’m being treated to all sorts of fun pet videos.

I don’t know when I “liked” it. Once I realized I was getting their posts in my feed, I was going to click “unlike” but a funny thing happened.

I started watching the videos. Nothing spectacular, just fun pet videos that people have posted on YouTube and now Online Pet Depot was sharing them with me.

It’s brilliant marketing when you think about it. Pet videos are some of the most popular on the web. Online Pet Depot has access to a ton of free content via YouTube and they take full advantage.

They’re providing me with something I’m enjoying, now when they tell me about a sale I might actually pay attention. Whether or not I’m converted into a customer is still up for grabs, but “their” videos keep their brand in front of me.

What sort of free video content is out there that applies to your industry? You might want to consider sharing it with your followers.

–Tony Gnau

Holy cow! That was a break. I took two weeks off from blogging and most business activities, but now I’m ready to go.

Hope you had a great New Year’s because we’ll start with an observation I made that night.

If you watched any TV news coverage on New Year’s Eve, you probably saw video of people celebrating around the world. Sydney, Hong Kong, Dubai all checking in, but it wasn’t news outlets providing the video.

All three of those cities’ tourism bureaus shot the video, in some cases streaming live feeds, and provided it to news outlets.

This is something more and more businesses and organizations are doing. Shooting their own video and providing it to media, bloggers, etc. It’s a good idea because many of these content creators are looking for… well… content. The better the stuff you provide them, the more likely you’ll get covered.

Enter video… the best kind of contact out there. Why? People watch, that’s why.

Providing quality video is a great way to entice coverage.

–Tony Gnau

Taking the next week off. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

VIDEO– Seasons Greetings

–Tony Gnau

All hail the power of video! Last week, I blogged about how my wife has finally bought-in. She received a holiday video last december from her alma mater, this year just a standard email.

She was disappointed, but the disappointment didn’t last long because guess what showed up this week?

I promised her not to be too brutal with my criticism in the previous post, she LOVES her school, so I didn’t even mention it by name. Well, looks like I can now because Monmouth College redeemed itself by sending out a 2012 holiday video.

Now, it’s no great achievement. I kind of like the concept, but it’s a pretty basic video. The big question I have is about their PR/marketing/fundraising strategy.

Was this planned all along… text email followed by video email? Or did they get negative feedback when there wasn’t a video this year? Were there lots of people like my wife who were disappointed they didn’t produce a video this year, so they quickly put something together?

I don’t know the answer to that, but either way it’s clear video is a power communications tool.

–Tony Gnau

I received a call yesterday from a potential customer. No surprise I was happy about that, but the project is especially interesting.

It’s an internal communications video for a major brand and company… something I’m surprised more leaders don’t do.

Video is a great way to communicate with team members, especially if there are lots of them and they work different shifts. This particular company’s leadership wants to share their vision for their factory with the staff.

I love it! Business leaders in the C-Suite wanting to make sure the front line workers understand the mission. That’s good stuff, and if this particular video goes well they’re thinking about producing one a month.

Communication… it’s a good thing.

–Tony Gnau