That’s the total number of views that my videos have received as of today, February 16, 2010. That’s not a misprint. That’s not my mother-in-law clicking on the same video 10,000 times either.
Just imagine if that number of viewers saw your videos. Would you have more callers to your office?
When you do a YouTube search, they now offer ‘promoted’ videos in the yellow space at the very top, very bottom and right side of the page. To get those spots, you must pay to advertise your videos there. How much you pay depends on what you’re willing to pay, similar to Google’s pay-per-click campaigns.
Anytime I see a video being ‘promoted’ it tells me:
It’s true. 99% of attorney video truly stinks. It’s boring. It’s unimaginative. It lacks useful information. It’s stuffy. It continues to personify lawyers as inaccessible and unapproachable. Many lawyer videos do nothing but talk about themselves.
Guess what? In case you haven’t noticed, viewers don’t care about you. They only care about themselves. Until lawyers and their video producers recognize this, lawyers will continue to make video that stinks.
Ever hear of Blip.tv or Dailymotion.com? You should have.
These are free video sharing sites. Naturally, I upload my videos there, among many others. I only post original content. I only post useful and educational material in my videos. I never violate terms of service. I respect others, and expect others to respect me. I always respond to comments on my videos. I’m always considerate of someone else’s comments even though I may not agree with them. Well, guess what?
Do you?
You know how to press “Record” on your flip camera, right? You know not to shoot in low-level light, right? You know not to use your on-board microphone, right? You know how to set your white balance, even on your little handy video camera like your Kodak Zi8, right?
Excellent. Then why aren’t you creating video to market your law practice? If you are, why aren’t those viewers calling your office? What are they waiting for, a personal invitation? Are your viewers really expecting you to reach through the computer screen and physically pull them into your office? Get real.
I opened up my e-mail today and noticed an interesting headline in my Google alerts. The headline read “When Black Ice Strikes, Who’s to Blame?”
I was even more curious because it had my name and website listed under the headline. I knew that I didn’t write a blog post with that name or a video with that title. I was intrigued.
The website URL was the New York Times online blog. I clicked on the link which took me to the New York Times online site. The blog post was all about black ice and how dangerous it is in New York City. Further into the article the writer mentioned a video I made titled “Slip and fall on snow and ice-who is at fault?” and some of the comments I made in my video.
Video production for lawyers cost either time or money. Often, it costs both.
Creating a quality-driven educational message is not as simple as standing in front of your Flip video camera and simply pressing the big red “record” button. Same goes for using your Kodak Zi8 with an external microphone. Maybe you’ve had your eye on that Sony Webbie or one of the other handheld pocket-camcorders. Regardless of what camera you use, don’t just press that ‘record’ button and upload right to YouTube.
Video is the future of all things online. You can’t just create one or two videos. You need five, ten, fifteen and more educational videos to attract new clients to your website for more information.
Your goal is to dominate the online video world.
The title is the same for each.
The background is the same for each and
They’re even looking at the same place off-camera.
YouTube shows they each have less than 20 views even though they were uploaded over seven months ago.
But there’s a bigger problem here.
When I sat down with Mark Merenda, CEO of SmartMarketingNow.com to interview him recently, he graciously provided a personal endorsement of me without even asking him!
Mark is a well-known marketing expert who helps lawyers across the country create their marketing message. In this video testimonial he talks about me (which is something I never get to do).
