More Video Stories Equals More Success

I’ve travelled to several industry conferences this year and I’ve heard a variation of this quote at each of them:

“If you don’t show up and tell your story, then your opposition, enemy or competitor will do it for you.”

It honestly made a pretty big impact on me as I’ve come to observe this industry is one that desperately wants to be understood. The meat industry is rich with stories. It is filled with people who are authentic at their core. It is also an industry that faces many challenges (think climate and animal activists). And even though it is aware that it needs to constantly work to be transparent, it’s also an industry that can easily revert back to its old ways. And one of those ways is not leveraging storytelling, especially through video, as a way to define itself.

The Importance of Telling Your Story

Telling your company or brand story is absolutely critical in today’s professional landscape. People want to know who they are buying from and as the saying goes, “people don’t buy your product, they buy the ‘why’ behind your product.”

Often the “why” or the story behind any given brand is closely related to a founder’s personal “why”: the driving passion that fuels them. And throughout time, we’ve fallen in love with the personal “why” of people like Steve Jobs, Sarah Blakely, Gary Vaynerchuck and more, who have taken their personal mission and storytelling to the next level. By consistently getting in front of their audience, telling their stories, often in the form of personal video content, they have helped generate incredible success for their companies.

It doesn’t matter if you’re a producer, a packer, a retailer or a restaurant – there are an endless number of stories for you to tell. And there’s one way to tell those stories better than anything else – and that’s through video.

You Can Tell Your Story Better Than Anyone Else

While it’s most effective to have video in a variety of applications throughout your marketing strategy, the point I really want to drive home is this – people want to hear from you. Yes, you: the decision-maker in your company, the executive, the leader. People want to know your “why.” They want to be informed, entertained, educated and trained by you. They want to see, hear and get to know you through video. And by getting to know you, they will believe in you, and in turn, they will believe in your company and its purpose. Because there is no one better to tell your story – than you. And you can do all of this with the cell phone in your hand or the camera inside of your laptop.

Believe In Yourself and Start Small

To this you may say “But what about quality? Won’t people think I’m an amateur?”

There has never been a better time than right now to showcase your true authenticity. Audiences are more focused on you and your authentic message than they are the “quality” of the video itself.

You might be scared to be on camera, you might think you’re not good enough, you may say you don’t have enough time – trust me, I get it. But the truth is you can do it. And you NEED to do it. As a leader in this industry, your presence through video will inspire confidence and provide a strong basis to build relationships with consumers, partners, your employees and even people who have opposing views.

The simple truth is… people engage more with video than any other type of content and people want to hear from YOU. To get started telling your story on video, check out my tips below:

5 Easy Steps to Effective Video Storytelling

1. Create simple content daily. Record yourself on your phone for five minutes a day on an important topic you want to tell your audience about. Post it to the place your audience hangs out the most. Do that consistently for six months and watch what happens.
2. Reserve time to create batch content. Take that a step further and take one hour a week to talk about topics that are important to you and your business. If you can speak for an hour, you’ll have enough content to have someone on your team cut it down into videos you can post daily for two-week blocks. This technique is called batch content creation and it’s the solution for those who can’t commit to creating every day.
3. Start a virtual podcast. Consider using easy platforms like Riverside.fm and it will be the best storytelling tool you invested in this year. It hits multiple modalities for your audience, can be broken into shorter content, supports and enhances your website and social content, and you will continue to hone your public speaking ability even more. Try the Riverside.Fm Platform!
4. Invest in a video content creator. If you are really ready to commit, invest in a video content creator – one who can shoot video, edit video, write scripts and publish your messaging consistently. For some companies this is an eight-person team, but I’ve seen one-man-bands produce enough content that blows bigger organizations’ output out of the water. This resource, if utilized correctly, will allow you to be more flexible, more agile and more consistent in your storytelling.
5. Leverage your subject matter experts. If you simply just do not want to be “the face” of your brand or organization, that is okay. But enlist your subject matter experts to step in and fill those roles for you.

Hear Will share his best tip to tell your story effectively on video

Use more video to define yourself and your mission before anyone else does. It’s critical to your company and your brands’ success. If you stay consistent and commit to the long game, video storytelling is the key to helping you separate your business from the rest of the pack.