Blog #8 or I’m doing it: #ERB2013
Recently I was given the chance to make a series of videos leading up to the inaugural Entrepreneur Roadshow Basingstoke. I met Mike Peates at 4Networking and it was probably the second time that we’d spoken that he asked me to make a video of the day. I asked if he wanted a video leading up to the event to advertise it, and before I knew it I was making a video to promote the event plus 5 more videos in the 5 days before the event oh and the video of the actual day itself. So quite a lot of videos…cracking.
When I set out to start up a business I researched quite a lot into video and one of the biggest things I took out of it was that video is a great way to promote a business. I learnt early on that that Google (the most popular search engine) loves video, especially videos on YouTube (the second most popular search engine) and why is this? Well mainly because Google owns YouTube. But it wasn’t until making these videos for ERB that I properly understood what video can really do.
After releasing the first video on YouTube sometime early in the year I was genuinely excited to hear any feedback from people who might see it, particularly the people who got involved in the creation of the first video (some very willingly, others had to be cajoled and even bribed into helping me out) but from the moment the first video went up the reaction the videos got was beyond anything I had imagined. The way they were shared and commented on really helped spread word about ERB and John Rebholz from Dream Idea UK commented about waiting for the next video:
Ok I’m no Alfred Hitchcock, but to show that the video helped create a buzz about ERB and lead to a lot more people getting involved in the show. I’m glad that I played my part in it being a great success, and have just found out that it will be returning in May, where hopefully I can make some more videos (hint hint).
What I think helped the first video become quite popular was that it was different to what you’d expect from a business video, more than one person has described it as ‘quirky’ which is good in this context because it definitely helped it stand out and make people want to share it and talk about it.
Most of the talk about the videos occurred primarily on Twitter; something else I thought I had cracked but it took ERB to make me realise its full potential. The conversation wasn’t only the about the videos leading up to the day, but the day itself. I remember there was a huge uproar when Will.i.am (William: I know clever right?!) was seen tweeting during ‘The Voice’ on BBC when he was meant to be judging, firstly he appeared rude. But he came back saying that soon this would be considered the norm. This kind of thing was happening on the day at ERB, and was something that I was part of. There was a huge on-going online conversation throughout the day, Linda Cheung (Big Cube) was rarely seen away from her iPad. And there were a large number of people sharing their views on the speakers and pictures of the day. It was exciting. Genuinely exciting. What a brilliant use of social media, and not being rude at all.
Mark