Beware Video Bubblegum If You Are Struggling Making Business Videos

Video skills are now essential business skills. Without them, you will find yourself at a disadvantage but learning video skills is not easy.

Video has never been technically simpler and easier to do yet making sense of it all has never been harder. There's a lot of noise. Hosting services, editing apps, captions, gizmos and widgets galore, production is done for you, done by you or done with you.

The hype and marketing manipulation targeting first-time video users is intimidating. 

No matter the technology you buy, you’ll be told it’s out of date before it’s out of the box.

You’ll be told ‘likes’ don’t matter yet every ad that pops into your social feed advocates, with urgency, that you need bigger numbers of viewers interacting with your videos for video success (whatever that is). It’s easy to be overwhelmed.

If you’re overwhelmed you find it hard to start.

That’s a problem for new video professionals, like yourself.

You'll be told you need videos that get attention. More and more apps offer automated AI-generated videos that only require you to enter your business name and few key phrases and voila! out pops a catchy 30-second video. Used cleverly, they work. Used as a shortcut to creating content they are video bubblegum machines. Video spam really. Perfect if you treat your customers like one of the herd. A waste of time if building relationships matter to you.

There's some truth that you need to grab attention. It's also fundamentally flawed.

More and more people vying for attention don't get more attention, they get less. The maths doesn't add up.

You'll be told that high production value is everything by an army of cinematic warriors armed with DSLR cameras, table trucks, drones, gizmos galore and a lot of enthusiasm. There's a saying when you have a hammer, everything looks like a nail. When you have all this gear then every video project looks like a Hollywood production. I admire their skill. Check out their Youtube tutorials. Amazing. These days I have no idea why anyone would pay for film school again.

But new video professionals should question their advice.

Has it been tested in the pressure cooker that you need for the daily grind of typical business videos?

Do you need a Hollywood production for 99% of the commercial videos you intend to make? I argue you don't. Is this simply distracting you from what's important? I suggest it is. Be aware that technology talks louder and can drown out the importance of getting in front of a lens straight away and connecting with customers - in a less than perfect way.

I advocate that, over time, authentic content that builds trust matters more, much much more.