Business BLAB 2023 Trend Series - How to Use Video to Grow

Welcome back to Business Blab with me, Megan. We are back with our 2023 Business Trend Predictions series, and today we are talking all about video. Video is still going to be where it's at this year, especially. You guessed it. Short form video. Yes. I'm talking about Reels and TikTok, and YouTube shorts and basically every platform has its own version to be able to do these short form videos.

Now. This doesn't contradict what I was talking about with social media in one of our earlier trend talks. Don't get me wrong, social media is still going to be part of your strategy, just not as in the spotlight as it used to be. And video is going to be the star of that social media strategy this year.

Don’t Panic!

And before you hit the panic button, when I'm talking about these videos, you know we've talked about this before, the answer is no. You don't have to dance!. These short form videos are a fun way to get creative and use trending sounds in your own way, that work for you and your brand and what it is that you offer.

These are also a great way to implement being vulnerable and storytelling, which if you haven't yet, make sure you go back and listen to the earlier episodes in this series. On both of those things, vulnerability and storytelling go hand in hand with the video piece. You pair these with videos and go live and share on igs stories, and you've got yourself a great video strategy.

Let’s Get Reel

A lot of people are afraid of video because they want to come off looking perfect, and unlike a photo, video shows all the little stuff, right? It is a lot harder to create a curated video that hides all of your flaws or the things you don't like about yourself or the things in your background. So,

This is your permission to just stop worrying about it.

You don't have to look perfect. Your home or your background doesn't have to be perfect. Your content doesn't have to be perfect, and even your editing doesn't have to be perfect. Don't let these things intimidate you when you're thinking about creating videos. I've seen a lot of. People do what they're calling raw reels, where they are intentionally showing up without any editing on their video or retaking several takes of their content in an effort to make this type of video content more comfortable and.

Have you heard that trending sound on TikTok that's going around? That's saying something along the lines of who cares if they cringe? Do the thing. Make it ready with a video. Post your day in the live video. Just show up. Or it's something like that, right? It's a really inspiring sound that's like, who cares if they cringe?

Just basically do the thing. This is exactly what I'm trying to say here. It doesn't have to be perfect to work and make an impact. It just has to be you. It doesn't matter if it's going to make other people cringe or judge you in any way as long as it's true to who you are. So if you go into making videos with that mindset first, first off, it's going to make making videos a lot easier.

Just Start

Okay? So then we're gonna get into short versus long-form content. As I mentioned before, short form video really is where it's at these days, for better or worse. We all love consuming it, but do you love creating it? I personally do not, and I've talked about this before, it is not my favorite thing to do.

It helped a lot when I started following my first tip of taking off the pressure. But it's still not my favorite thing to create because for me, as a not so tech savvy, elder, millennial, these short form videos take too long to create and they just, I just feel like, I don't know if they're worth it, but in the grand scheme, they are worth it and they are.

Something I dabble in, even if I don't want to. And even if you don't love this type of video, it isn't going anywhere. And so it really is time to figure out how to embrace it, which is something that I'm working on. Is it going to be the main thing that I do? No, but it is the way that. The marketing world is working right now, and so it is something that you want to at least dabble in and start to embrace.

Repurpose Your Content

So a great way to do this is to take your long form content and break it apart to create the shorter form. So podcasts, video, interviews, and live from your IG in the past. Even a video that you have from, you know, just a day in your life on the camera. These longer pieces of content can all be turned into shorter pieces of content and can actually give you several short form videos from this one longer piece.

And there still is a place for long form video content. It just depends on your audience and the platform that you're sharing it on and what it is that you're trying to really do. Do with your content, right? And so you don't have to only focus on the short form, you can do a mixture of short and long. And again, using that long form content to create shorter forms is really going to be helpful.

What’s Trending?

Next, let's get into trending sounds. So when you're creating a reel or a TikTok, there are thousands of trending sounds that can help get more eyes on your stuff. I even follow a couple people on TikTok that will post videos specifically to share trending sounds and tips on how to use them for your niche.

So it's like this sound is trending, hop on it right now. Here's some ideas on what you can do, and that's really what it's all about. Using a trending sound for your niche. It might be a super popular dance, but you can take that sound and use it for something that you have got going on and just ditch the dancing.

You're still getting the benefit of the trending sound. You're still, you know, getting the eyes on there because it is a trending sound, but you're making it your own. Now, that's one of the other things I don't personally love about TikToks or Reels. I always felt like, you know, it's just a bunch of people doing the same thing to the same sounds like copying each other, but you can actually use the trends to just get inspired and then again, turn it into your own.

Organize Your Life!

And I have a Trello board where I keep any TikTok or reel that inspires me or that I want to use to make into my own so that I can go back and look at it when I have time to create. And that helps me be as efficient as I can with these because again, Not tech savvy, older millennials really make it hard for me to create these in an efficient manner.

So anything I could do to make it more efficient, I'm going to do. Speaking of making it more efficient, having the time to create. Let's talk about batching. I love the idea of batching content. It doesn't always work out because I'm the kind of person who gets a creative idea. They just drop into my mind like in the most inconvenient times, usually when I'm in the shower or on a run.

But that's what my Trello board ideas are for, right when I'm creating a video. I do try to choose a day and a time to batch as much as I can, and here's a few reasons why. One, you can just get fully camera ready, whatever that means to you. And remember, you don't even have to be camera ready, but you only have to do that once to create a ton of video content for me.

I do like to get a little camera ready if I'm going to be on video. Four things like this. If I'm just doing like a quick IG story, I don't really feel like I need to get ready, but I like to have a little makeup on my hair done. At least a cute top on right, so you really only have to do that one time to create a ton of video content.

Two, you can just let the creative juices flow and have fun, start creating, get into the zone. More ideas might start popping in. You can actually make it really fun and exit. Three, you're giving yourself dedicated time to create so you don't have to feel guilty or like you should be doing something else.

Batch Your Content

You have set aside this time specifically to create four. You'll have a library of stuff to pull from when you need to post, so. I like to batch my podcast content, my email content, and a lot of that actually does end up turning into my video content that I also batch. It's setting yourself up for success for the days when things are too busy to record a video, and you know that you need to be showing up in video, so you can just pop in there, grab something from your batch content and go.

Tell Your Story

Now let's shift gears a little bit and talk about stories on Instagram and story highlights. Now, we've been talking a lot about turning long form videos into short form, but I wanna talk about a couple other things that are great for your business when it comes to video. So first is stories, which you can do.

Pretty much every platform. Now, some type of version of this similar to reels and every platform is adapting and stories are a great way for you to keep it real, to remove that fourth wall and give people a solid behind the scenes, offer many trainings in your stories, flex your expertise, and really just to connect with your audience on a deeper and more casual level.

I love stories. In fact, I tend to get cut off every time I show up and talk on stories because I end up chatting so much. But it just is so, it's so fun for me. I just feel so organic and it's just something I really enjoy doing. So if you have time to do nothing else on your social media platforms, Try and show up on stories, and then specifically on Instagram, turn your stories into highlights.

Now, your highlights are super powerful and probably the thing I'm most upset about losing when my IG got deactivated. because they collect your stories and house them in categories that make it easier for your audience to binge your content. So I love a good start here. Highlight so that my audience has some direction, they know where to start.

They can get to know me a little bit, and then they can go on and binge the rest of my content, and then I break. everything down from the behind the scenes to testimonials to things I've been featured on, details about my offers, et cetera, et cetera, so that it can all be stored in one place and easy for my audience to see.

You can kind of catch the drift here. The idea is you want to optimize all of your content to be. Easy for your audience to consume. You don't want them to be confused. You don't want them to be clicking around a bunch. You're feeling like they have to jump through a bunch of hoops to get to know you.

And so the highlight feature, especially on Instagram, is a really good way to do this because if they're a new follower, they can easily go check it out, start here, get to know you, and then make their way down to see all the things that you've been doing. And it's like they've been following you from the beginning.

Going Live!

So there's a lot of power in it. And the last thing I wanna talk about is live video. Now, there definitely still is a place for live video and it can be super impactful. Plus you can always take your live video content and repurpose it into shorter video content like we talked about earlier. My favorite way to use live and what seems to be the most popular and impactful right now is to use it to collaborate with others who offer similar things to what you do.

This is a great way to meet new people, build new relationships, you know, collaborate and get in front of new audiences. To share your expertise. Plus, it's super fun and it just is a great way to put yourself out there. Now, video itself can be intimidating. Live video can be even more intimidating. So when that little sense of panic creeps in, Go back to tip number one about being real and being yourself and taking off that pressure and just showing up.

I promise you people are going to be more excited to see you as a human being than a super filter filtered perfect everything. Put together a version of yourself that they might just end up comparing themselves to and not even hear what it is that you have to really say. I know video can be a. I know live video can be a lot, but you've got this.

I cannot wait to see what you do. Video doesn't have to be scary. It can be an impactful and fun way to grow your audience and to increase your visibility by showing off who you are. So let me know how you feel about these video trends. Send me a message at megan@bossladiesandbabies.com and until next time, stay bossy.