We’ve written a lot in the past about the importance of writing meaty content with a personal angle if we want to do well in search. Search traffic is 100% passive and the best type of traffic for monetization purposes.
Longer articles do better in search because length is generally correlated with quality. The idea is that a longer article is usually more thorough with much better data points to buttress an argument. There are more keywords and related keywords to help search robots as well, even though Google says keyword density doesn’t matter. Yes, you certainly shouldn’t be stuffing keywords into the article just to increase density. But you will naturally have more relevant keywords the long your article.
When I’m searching for an answer online, I want to land on the most comprehensive post possible that looks at various points of view. If an article can provide an argument and a counterargument, all the better for me to make an informed decision. The same thing goes with instructional videos about how to fix anything.
But what about for marketing purposes? Shorter is better in my opinion.
ZERO ATTENTION SPAN WORLD
For everything other than instructional posts and videos, unless you are an amazing story teller or incredibly good looking, shorter is better. The internet and social media have caused our attention spans to shrink from the size of melons to peas.
Video is a great branding tool if used properly. But video is also highly dangerous in the hands of anybody with a big ego. What we see on TV are people who have been selected not only for their communication skills, but also their attractiveness. If you have a big ego, it is more than likely you will think you are much more attractive, eloquent, or funnier than you really are.
Video is probably perfect for everyone who wants to promote. The main issue is with videos that are just too long. Any video longer than 3 minutes seems like an eternity. With the invention of Vine, now we’ve become programmed to seeing videos in only 7 second clips!
THE SHORTER THE VIDEO, THE MORE EFFECTIVE
When I was approached to manage a Capital One Spark business credit card video campaign, I was pleasantly surprised by the length of their videos. The first video which I thought was the main video lasted only 16 seconds. The video featured a play on words about a female entrepreneur no longer wanting to “break her back” thanks to the help of the Spark business card. Take a look.
What I didn’t realize is that the video script runs on an algorithm that shows the most watched videos first. After three weeks, the most watched Capital One video is of a claymation figure breakdancing. It’s a 7 second Vine video. If you want to watch the other sponsored videos just click the Capital One logo on the top left of the video box to see a drop down menu.
Because these are marketing videos using fun and humor to get the message across, shorter is much more effective than longer. By hosting a series of 7 second videos with the claymation figures, the campaign allows prospective card users to click more at their own leisure. There is no negative association of sitting through a long, boring video and the product.
How many times have we seen a commercial and said to ourselves, “That doesn’t look appealing!” The commercials actually serve to turn off the consumer to the product instead of enhance the association. Negative association can be managed through shorter, more frequent videos at the consumer’s discretion.
By coming away with a positive association, consumers will click through to discover the Spark business card offers an attractive 2% cash back on all business expenditures among other benefits. That’s much better than the standard 1% cash back for personal credit cards. When you’re an entrepreneur, you can use all the help you can get! Take a look at the claymation Vine videos and let me know what you think.
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Personally, I think using blogs to promote video campaigns will achieve poor results. There is a mental barrier to clicking a video when you are expecting text. Similar to a link opening a pdf when the user expects another page.
And if the blogger uses sneaky techniques like auto playing videos, it will only result in turning away readers.
If you must, keep the videos really, really short and have a clever picture for the video thumbnail. No one wants to click on a video with a blank thumbnail.
Sam, I think short sentences, short video is better. Three minutes is usually just right for me.
I don’t watch any video if I can avoid it. For instructional/informational content, my rule is that I can read a lot faster than you can talk, so forcing me to listen to you is wasting my time.
I GOT to watch videos for instructions. When my toilet stopped working, the youtube video on how to repair the flapper and ball and cock helped tremendously.
The key, I think, is.to provide both video and text to accommodate both styles of learners.
Sam, I’m a little disappointed in the readers here. You just used the phrase “ball and cock” and no one made a wise ass remark.
Seriously though, quick, to the point youtube vids are great. Whether it’s fixing things (toilet, washer, dryer, stove, car) or learning a new skill in a software package or a new financial trick, watching something that is 3 to 5 minutes long is usually adequate to demonstrate how to do whatever it is you’re explaining. I hate those unedited 10 minute amateur videos where 80% of the time they are doing something pointless.
Ah yes, all about the ball and cock! These are real names for real things. Maybe if I posted this on FS more readers would have taken notice :)
I know some people who are totally addicted to videos. I watch some on occasion, but typically I’m much more a reader than video watcher. I like GIFs though b/c they tend to be super short and are usually funny. Claymation is cool though. My nephew is into making his own videos and I could see him making his own claymation movies one of these days.
And GIFs are super short! It’s an inevitability that our attention spans shrink to nothing. Good for advertisers as it costs less to buy and produce shorter time spots!
I am thinking three to five minutes. I took part in a video debate about investor confidence. This was about 20 minutes long and interesting as it was, it was too long. Even for me who was one of the people in the video.
I’ve been thinking to record 5 minutes videos on different topics for my undergraduate class next year; complement those with bloggy write up of difficult texts (half house intellectual space) and finish with fun quizes. My hope is this will be closer to the way kids focus these days. What do you thing? Mad or a potential winner.
Could be a winner! Especially if the kids are forced to watch :)
3-5 minutes in a class room setting is a great way to break up the hour.
I think videos need to be entertaining and be under 1 minute nowadays to catch people’s attention. Get’s too boring afterward.
I teach leadership to high school students and use short video clips that connect with certain principles. Usually 3-5 minutes works great for those.
Personally, I would rather read content than listen. For me the attractiveness of the speaker is not a huge issue, rather it’s their eloquence. As someone who speaks in front of students everyday, it’s not easy to learn to present thoughts properly and then also not to stumble over them. And it’s not easy to hold someone’s attention while you speak. If someone is going to promote themselves through video, they need to spend time practicing and training themselves to be a polished speaker. I don’t want to listen to someone talk about a topic who can’t put their thoughts together well or is throwing in an “um” during all the sentence breaks. Um…know what I mean? :)
I might be a part of that ADD culture that you mentioned. I cringe every time I open a video or podcast that lasts any longer than 10 minutes. Usually that’s because they are filled with a lot of banter and fluff that really doesn’t get to the point, and about only 25% of it is useful. Sometimes less is more!
10 minutes is way too long! Don’t worry, we all cringe at that length!