Coming Soon: Skillman Video’s Newest Social Marketing Video

I have been an Intern here at Skillman Video Group since November, and in that time I have learned a lot about online marketing, and in particular the benefits of a successful Social Video Marketing campaign. Now, it’s time for me to put these skills to use, producing a short video for online distribution. I have written a script and made some design and costume choices already, and I will be starring in the video when we shoot it. I’m very excited to see this video come to fruition, and to talk about some of the stylistic and technical choices I made to maximize the videos success online. I wanted to share these tips with you when thinking about your own Social Video Marketing strategies.

1. Keep it short: The final video will be around two minutes in length, which is a good length for what I wanted to do with the video; introduce SVG as a company. While it can sometimes be frustrating to limit yourself to a short video, in the long run it will be beneficial to the success of the campaign. People are more likely to retain the information from a short video and seek out more about the company on their own, rather than get lost or bored while watching a long, in-depth video showcasing every detail of a company.

2. Make it engaging: It is important you find a way to keep viewers interested and leave them wanting to know more. For my video, I decided to capitalize on something very relevant and almost universally recognized; superheroes. The central character of my video will be “Skillman Video Girl” a crime fighter with the capacity to fix any business online marketing blunders.  Superhero movies have dominated movie theaters for the last decade or so, with reboots of Spiderman, X-Men, Batman, and a ton of others. By working with this pop culture phenomenon, viewers online will recognize the motifs and can automatically associate with the video.

Also, the piece doesn’t take itself too seriously, with a few tongue-in-cheek jokes aimed at the major themes present in these movies. By playing with comedy within the superhero genre, the video is engaging and entertaining, keeping viewers tuned in an interested in learning more about Skillman Video Group.

3. Focus on what you want to say: Since you only have a few minutes, you need to know exactly what elements of your company you want to focus on. SVG offers a variety of different video marketing ideas, from how-to-videos to videomercials, and each of these categories has its benefits. Pay close attention to what you want customers to come away with. Do you want them to have a better sense of what your company does? Or do you want to showcase your beautifully crafted products? Once you figured out what your focus is, SVG can help you choose what style of Social Video Marketing best supports your goals.

For my video, I wanted something that would draw prospective customers in, and give them the tools to learn more about the company. The video provides enough information for clients to understand what Skillman Video Group does and who would benefit from their services, along with highlighting the name of the company to increase customer retention.  Video is an entertaining form of information gathering, and so rather than bog down the video with a lot of detailed specifics of what the company does, I decided it would be better to emphasize the most important things, to peak interest and lead people to our website.

4. Have some fun!: Remember, this is your chance to engage with potential customers. So no matter what type of video you decide to make, keeping it light and fun will help you enjoy the process, and improve the final video.

Check in soon to see the final video, and to hear more about the production!

Print It!

In the days of film — real celluloid with images stored as silver shadows — it was too expensive to print every take from the camera negative. When the director saw a take he liked he would shout “Print it!” and the script supervisor would circle the take in her notes. The printers would then only print the circled take saving huge money for the production.

Now that celluloid film is largely a thing of the past and video is so cheap, filmmakers can make economical use of nearly every take. Normally a whole take would be rejected if just one thing goes wrong, but now filmmakers keep shots if only one thing goes right.

In these days it’s not about what you “print,” but how you “print it.” Do you host it locally or on you tube (or vimeo)? Can viewers comment and share? Do you distribute DVD’s to your clients? Does it need to be High Def? If so, which file format? Do you need a teaser? Do you want to build a website around your video?

This is where a company like Skillman Video can really help you. We can build your website, kickstart your social media campaign, and use SEO to boost your video’s exposure. We integrate video, social media, web design, and SEO to gain our clients the highest return possible on their investment.

Cut!

I remember my college days sitting for forty hours at a Steenbeck cutting and splicing a five minute short, getting to know every frame intimately. Today the same short would probably take a quarter of the time to edit, but I think I would know the project half as well. There’s something about the tactile act of physically cutting film by hand and splicing it with tape that makes one appreciate their own work as well as the work of master editors and directors.

Nowadays it is so easy to edit video digitally on their home computer, that nearly everyone can do it. An entire generation of filmmakers has never actually “cut” film.

But don’t think good editing is not still an art. Editing is where the story comes together and takes a certain level of experience and expertise to take the most jumbled of raw footage, and turn it into a concise and powerful video. Professional editors not only use the best practices and technology, but they also use years of experience solving problems, shaping story, and most importantly, following the technological changes. They also know how to create graphics and polish audio — integral to creating professional looking and sounding video. They know how to compress video for the web just enough to make it load quickly without losing quality. It might take“do-it-yourself” home editor hours to read printed manuals and scan online help forums; only to end up no better than when they started. When you have a deadline, time can’t be wasted finding answers. That’s why the editors at Skillman Video Group keep up-to-date and well practiced in the latest editing techniques and usually can end up editing the project in a fraction of the time as a novice, and with far superior results!

Save iMovie for your home videos.

Action!

When a director says “Action” that exactly what he wants to see: Characters with an objective doing things to each other to achieve their objective. Actors think in these terms. What am I trying to do in this scene? What is my obstacle? Who am I working with or against? Why?

It works the same way in marketing. What are you trying sell? To Whom? Why?  We help answer these questions by developing your content and writing marketing copy – essentially scripting your lines. We also prepare you so that when the camera roles you sound and look confident and natural.

I talked about preparation on our blog. We had one interviewee struggling to get through her prepared lines. We suggested that she imagine that she was meeting Christina Skillman, our director, at a networking event, and that the client had to convince her to join the company in under a minute. It was a familiar scenario for the interviewee. When she thought in those objective-based terms her delivery was so natural and convincing Christina was ready to submit her resume.

That’s the kind of performance tweak we can suggest to take your video to the next level. Skillman Video Group can also develop content, allowing you to focus on your day-to-day work.

Camera!

How much do you know about: HD, DV, 4-4-4, 7D, 4K, 3300º, 3-2 pulldown, DVX 100, DigiBeta,1080i, 1080p, DSLR, f5.6, hyperfocal distance, 640×480, SECAM and NTSC? It’s not a quiz so you won’t be graded. Luckily professional cameramen do know these things and more.

Cameramen and cinematographers live for technology. I have had lunch with camera departments on film sets and been completely lost in shop talk. I sometimes think camera technology is all they talk about. But that’s exactly what camera operators and cinemetographers have to do: discuss and test new equipment every day. There are at least a dozen magazines for cinematographers and videographers and limitless forums and websites.

Digital video technology changes so often that it’s nearly impossible to keep up, unless it’s your full time job. That’s why production houses like Skillman Video Group exist: so you don’t have to purchase and learn new technology every week. Video experts can choose the most appropriate camera equipment to use for your shoot. Do you want a cinematic look or a TV look? Will you be distributing solely on the web or do you need DVD’s? Skillman Video’s cameramen know their craft and how best to apply their knowledge to your video.

Lights!

This week I thought I would share a little insight about video production that I gained from working for Hollywood and Madison Avenue for a number of years. Lights! Camera! Action!

The difference between the cinema and YouTube is lighting. Okay, there are other differences like wardrobe and make-up and set decoration, but good lighting is the most noticeable. Film cinematographers will spend hours lighting a scene. Watch the night scenes in almost any film and notice how the trees and buildings are all brilliantly lit against the night sky. Every interior light is on. Also notice how shiny the ground is. That’s because the crew wets it down with firehouses, even when there is no rain in the scene. Why? It just looks prettier reflecting the lights.

Most social videos on youtube are lit by the glow of a laptop screen. That’s good enough for amateur purposes. What if your company needs to look professional? You’ll need more lights than just a desk lamp, but not so many that you need to hire a 500KW generator and a crew of 20.

Documentary crews get by with a few small lights and bounce cards. But they still make their work look better than what you see on the web. That’s the kind of lighting we do at Skillman Video Group: simple, elegant, and fast. A simple three or four point lighting scheme not only makes your marketing video look professional, but you have to know how to get it just right. That can only come with practice. Check out some of our behind the scenes pictures on flickr to see our lighting setups in operation.

Health and Fitness Videos from Skillman Video Group

Skillman Video Group is currently in the midst of preparing a multi-video shoot for an acupuncture and Chinese herb company. In the past, SVG has worked with other health and fitness businesses and has found video to be an extremely beneficial service for that industry. Video is an easily adaptable service and can be used in a variety of forms from instructional (or “how to”), marketing, instructional, demonstration, client testimonial or other.

Instructional videos can be very useful in both securing and retaining clients. Skillman Video Group worked with About.com to create “how to” videos on common house cleaning methods  using “every day” products found around the house .  SVG also produced several Alternative Health videos about chiropractors and spas around Boston etc.

Skillman Video Group is now working with HolliBalance, the acupuncture and Chinese herb company mentioned above, to produce a marketing video and several client testimonial videos. Like many health and fitness companies, HolliBalance offers an extremely unique service: custom-formulated Chinese herbs – made by hand! A marketing video is a spectacular opportunity to introduce a revolutionary service such as this because unlike print, a video can thoroughly explain the process and ingredients behind the product(s).

A demonstration video could go a step further and allow a potential client to experience a service or product almost like being there in person. A demonstration video can work effectively for niche services such as herbs or acupuncture. A viewer may be unfamiliar with these services and accordingly have many questions that could easily be answered via a demonstration video. Reading about acupuncture is nothing in comparison to actually witnessing the service.

Another variety of video that can aid a health and fitness company is client testimonial videos, especially when distinctive products are involved. As mentioned before, SVG will also be producing a series of client testimonial videos for HolliBalance. Client testimonial videos are a very powerful tool when produced professionally. Hearing and seeing a positive review on a service you are interested is more personal than reading a review by an anonymous user. Putting a face to a review is reassuring and creates a sense of trust between the viewer and company.

Video can be employed in a myriad of ways for health and fitness companies. To learn more about how video can benefit your company or organization, contact Skillman Video Group.

Video Blogs: A Growing Trend

Skillman Video Group has taken note of a growing trend that even though it may not apply to many companies still offers some good insight into video marketing and social media. First came the blog. Now the video blog is spreading across the Internet. A video blog achieves the same purpose of a standard blog: concise, focused messages covering practically any topic. Only video blog, or “vlog,” is delivered purely through video, not text. Many vlogs exist as channels on YouTube, where users submit videos dedicated to one subject area on a regular basis.

Part of what makes SVG take note of vlogs is that many vlog creators are launching careers from their video. More and more frequently, I notice “vloggers” featured in magazine detailing a future book deal or clothing line. Many of these vloggers focus on health and beauty topics, such as make-up application or style guides.

Even if your company does not offer a service on how to re-create Lady Gaga’s latest hairstyle, there are a few things to be learned from video blogs. First off, vlogs show us just how important video has become in the 21^st century. People are building their careers and lives around video; millions of others are watching. Now it

is essential and almost expected to incorporate video into your company marketing strategy. Video allows you much more freedom than other mediums. It can take on all sorts of purposes: marketing, demonstration, educational, instructional and more. Video connects you with potential clients in ways that other mediums cannot.  Viewers can actually see (and hear) your company, your work, who you are!

Another technique successful video blogs demonstrate is consistency. The people now profiting from their vlogs achieved this partially by updating their vlogs on a regular basis. They continued to offer new material every few days. Social media is a wonderful tool for many companies when properly used. Part of using social media to your benefit means updating! Starting a Facebook page will offer your business very little unless you are  updating your “status” regularly  and interacting with other users.

Video blogs reinforce the power of video, as well as social media. While a video blog may or may not be in the future for your company, video in general definitely should be. To discuss the many ways video can help grow your presence in the online market place, contact Skillman Video Group today!

Online Marketing Videos

At Skillman Video Group we believe, when used correctly, online marketing videos are of the most successful and cost effective way to market your company on-line. We will soon be releasing a case study on our new service, Social Video Marketing. Social Video Marketing combines the use of high quality video marketing with Internet marketing technology to convert web visitors into new leads.  As we have mentioned before, Internet Marketing works in two ways.  1) getting people to first come to your site through SEO and social media and then 2) once on your site, the content must be engaging enough to compel the casual visitors into a valuable lead.  This is what we call at Skillman Video Group the “video conversion point” .  Combining the power of the video medium with the power of the Internet gets our clients the best return on investment possible!   We focus not just on producing the highest quality video, but also  on the importance of routing as many viewers as possible to that video thereby expanding your presence in the marketplace. By using the right keywords and tags, we make sure your videos can be found on the web. Also, by incorporating a  blog posts and web announcements on your site, you can keep your content fresh and Google relevant.

We started implementing these techniques ourselves in October 2009. Google ranks website traffic and searches on a scale of zero to ten, with nines and tens being the Facebooks of the world. When our new site launched in October 2009, our website was ranked a zero by Google. Our old html site was static and we weren’t generating leads from the web. In October 2009 we started an agressive Internet marketing plan using the services outlined in our soon to be published Case Study.  By the time our case study had concluded, we were coming up as #1 in 9 targeted key words.  Within 6 months of us launching our new program, our paged jumped to a number four ranking on Google, a very impressive feat for a company of our size. The results of this online marketing effort is that our traffic is up, our content is fresh, and it’s helping our business grow. For example, our recent blog post on Video Legal Depositions was the direct source for Duane Morris LLP locating our services (please read about that job below) though a Google search and booking us just a day later. Our Social Video Marketing program is the most efficient way to market on the web. Our online efficiency techniques direct maximum traffic to your site, and our quality videos tell your story in the most effective and dynamic way possible. Call us today about your Online Marketing Video!

Parker Scheer Web Marketing Video Shoot

Parker Scheer LLP hired Skillman Video Group to do a series of marketing videos for their new updated website.  They decided adding web marketing videos would be a great way to enhance their website and demonstrate to prospective clients their commitment to quality and to their clients’ cases.  By utilizing the medium of video on the web, Parker Scheer LLP is helping establish a rapport and trust with their audience – before a potential client even picks up the phone!  It’s amazing what technology can do today.

We got to Charlestown for the video shoot bright and early, and immediately worked on transforming a conference room into a studio.  Our lighting expert, Andrew, came and set up a black background, lights, and white boards to get the lighting just right for the shoot.   The clients had decided they wanted their video done in Standard Definition format, which will still look great on the web when done with a high quality professional camera.  The client and the producers collaborated on every thing from the lighting angles to the camera angles to make sure the final product was exactly what they had in mind.  When everything was set up, we invited lawyers Susan Bourque and Eric Parker to come in one by one to speak on camera.     A wireless microphone was placed on their jackets to capture the best audio possible, and we were ready to go!

During their interviews, Skillman Video Group producers asked the two lawyers a number of questions about client service, their approach to handling cases, and how they differ from their competition.

The goal was for the speakers to say a number of “soundbites”, or brief statements on each topic.  It’s not always as easy as it sounds!  A great soundbite is both clear and concise, and may require more than one take.  Speaking on camera requires a lot of patience but it’s all a part of the filming process!  Skillman Video Group producers were there every step of the way to make sure the speakers felt comfortable, and offered suggestions as needed to make each clip clear and to the point.  In the end, it was a very successful shoot and Parker Scheer LLP will soon have some new marketing videos to add to their website!

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