If you work in marketing chances are you keep hearing 2018 is the year of video content. For many brands, video has a very formidable entry barrier. It can be costly and time consuming to create videos with high production value and many small business owners are a little fearful of appearing in the video themselves which means they will have to hire an actor too. The challenges are large, but the marketing prognosticators promise us that the opportunities and rewards are numerous.

Recently, Business Insider did a study and discovered YouTube may be artificially suppressing organic reach on their platform.  Some of the largest influencers on YouTube have seen tremendous growth year over year, but recently viewership and subscriber numbers have drastically slowed. Does that mean video is no longer a lucrative medium for marketers? Not at all.

What’s the alternative? Other channels! Facebook Live, Instagram Stories, Twitter. Hey, even LinkedIn is getting in on video marketing. Each of these channels have an app that allows you to film within the app from your phone. The drawback is that most of these channels are really encouraging LIVE video. It’s raw, unedited, and, often, lower than normal production value, but it’s also authentic and that’s what the “social” in social media is all about. Besides, Instagram allows you to put fun filters in place. There are also supporting apps like BeLive that will help you engage your audience on Facebook with live broadcasting (and it has a free trial!)

Going live is daunting for most brands. You don’t get to reshoot and the audience sees every mistake. How do you make sure you are going to reach your target audience? When are most of your audience members going to be online? The biggest thing to remember is that you are not alone in your fears. Those same fears are holding back a lot of your competitors from doing live video too. That very fact should give you the courage to do it. There’s plenty of help available if you need it, whether you are a large brand or a small business owner (contact HF Marketing & Design, LLC here).

Now is the time to get in on video content creation. It’s never been easier to do a live broadcast and most of your competitors aren’t there yet. The first brand to capture market share is the one that everyone else has to catch. Sure you will make mistakes, but you will learn from them and the next time will be even easier. You will definitely get better as you go.  Get out there and do it.  Show the world what makes you and your brand unique! We can’t wait to see it.