The content produced by an individual (or business) is rapidly becoming the most effective means of engaging with your audience. Adding value to someone else by giving them something to take-away from it is in my opinion, a brilliant way to get someone’s attention and make them think positively about you and/or your brand.
In doing this, I really think it helps others learn something you’ve found from your experiences, that they can make use of in their future. Why keep things a secret? What exactly do you need to protect? They may even interpret your experience in a different way than you intended and that’s the beauty of it.
With social media obviously being the key platform that this content gets distributed, it’s often the fight for attention time that really needs to make your content stand out. My personal thoughts are that video is one of the criminally underrated and underutilised mediums for this.
What do you mean Alex? Videos are everywhere! Yes they are, but do they convey the message you want effectively? Are you using them to inform people? Tell a short story? Make people laugh? I think there’s a lot of wriggle room to use them for unleashing creativity that goes over the top of many heads.
Over the past year, I’ve created two cover videos whereby I did my own versions of the opening number from La La Land, and Shape of You by Ed Sheeran respectively.
I’ve also edited together some stunning drone shots (I didn’t film), showcasing the Marlborough Sounds for the Cruise Guide.
Finally, I made an instructional video to explain the aspects of a complicated process to the team of Velocity (the University of Auckland’s entrepreneurship club).
Throughout this, I learned a lot about editing software such as Adobe’s Premiere Pro and Apple’s Final Cut Pro. Also, because each video served a different purpose, it made me realise how each one can be modified for a different audience and for a unique objective.
I also introduced video entries to Velocity’s Innovation Challenge, encouraging people with fresh venture ideas to demonstrate their ideas in new ways rather than the bog standard 'write a 1,000 words'.
I believe this is quickly becoming outdated and unappealing to university students who already get frustrated being forced to write out countless, compulsory essays for classes.
I think opening video up to more people really helps make your content become more diverse. Obviously it can be paired with images and your usual text as well but giving value to someone can make the difference between how you’re perceived compared to someone else.
Sure it’s not always easy to understand what your audience yearns for off-the-bat but that’s why trying something new is so crucial.
In a world full of outlets trying to beat you over the head with their content, how are you going to best optimise the way you deliver to people?