Videography as a Media Outlet

It’s not difficult to see why video has become such a popular form of media today. It’s an easy to digest option that allows us to take a break from the excessive amount of textual information. This can be supported by the 1 billion hours of YouTube that the world reportedly watches every day!

Video is an incredibly powerful form of media that has the power to influence people and their habits. Although there are a number of other media content including emails, blogs, infographics, presentations, podcasts, etc., video is a form of media that should be at the top of the list when considering what type of content to create. Video is not just a tool for marketers, it can be leveraged as a key tool for sales, training and supporting teams.

Why Video is Important

Video may seem like a hassle, but the demand from consumers makes it a worthwhile project to undertake. Approximately 68% of people say that they would like to learn about a new product or service through a short video. It outperforms every other category by more than 50%. But why has video become such a popular option?

Why Video?

When comparing video to other types of content, there are four qualities that really helps video stand out. Powerful videos typically have these qualities:

1. Engaging – We are naturally drawn to storytelling and video is a great way to tell a story and engage an audience. This is why the best communicators are often the best storytellers. People are naturally captivated by a good story and the better your storytelling is, the better your video will be received.
2. Emotional – A video provides context that can never be achieved with just text. Even if it’s just a voice over a screen recording, video helps you establish authority and a more personal tone to your message. You’ll be much more likely to connect with your audience on an emotional level if you use video rather than any other type of content.
3. Educational – We tend to process visual information much faster than text. This makes video a great educational medium as it can be much more memorable than text. For organizations or companies, putting an emphasis on educational videos for employees can yield greater results than using text. Employees are 75% more likely to watch a video than they are to read documents, emails or articles. For an effective form of communication in an organization, video is the best option.
4. Empathetic – When an audience can see a human face and relate to the person who’s talking about solving real problems, it creates a greater sense of empathy. When creating a video, you not only want to help your audience, but you also want to show that you truly care about the problem they have and how you can help to solve it. The more authentic you are with your audience, the more likely they are to trust you and the information you’re presenting.

Video is a Necessity

Whether you are apart of a large organization, small business or education institute, video has become unavoidable. Regardless of your industry, video has become an integral part of advertising, marketing and educating. There are a number of videos that marketers are choosing to invest in such as webinars, demos, social media videos, product videos, customer videos, vlogs, live streams, educational videos, etc. There is an endless list of possibilities when it comes to videos, but one thing that is essential for a good video is a professional videographer.

Benefits of Videography

1. Boosts SEO – Google loves video content and it is 50 times more likely than a webpage to be listed in the first page of search results. Once Google acquire YouTube, videos started to become a higher priority in their algorithms. Video content has shown an incredible amount of consumer engagement that has not been seen in the past. Videos tend to have more than double the number of likes, shares and comments than the typical social media post.
2. Builds Trust – A company is built on the trust it has with its consumers. Without this trust, consumers are less likely to engage with a company. Video has a way of impacting targeted consumers and there are two types in particular that have the greatest effect on trust building:
3. Promotional Videos – These videos show consumers why they need a certain product or service in their life. This could be a video that promotes a skincare product or an instructional video for the newest camera. Videos help consumers become excited about experiencing the product or services themselves.
4. Rhetorical Appeal Videos – When companies use videos to target the rhetorical appeals – logos (logical), pathos (emotional) and ethos (credibility), they are building a connection with their audience. This type of strategy works best for non-profit organizations or companies that have a strong mission behind their brand.
5. Share-ability – Since videos have been added to Facebook feeds, the spread of videos has increased significantly. Many consumers find textual content time-consuming and laborious and older consumers tend to have a more difficult time reading text. The introduction of video on social media allows content to spread rapidly and more widely than any other form of content. Companies that embrace the power of video marketing on social media tend to experience much more traffic.

Conversions and Sales – Videos lead directly to sales. Companies who use videos to explain the details of a product or service get better sales than those who solely rely on other forms of content. Consumers depend on what they see to inform their purchasing decisions which is why videos lead to higher conversion rates.

Overall video has seen an emergence in recent years, and it comes as no surprise due to the many facets of video content. Video can be used in many different ways in order to influence a number of different consumer actions. Video is one of the best ways modern companies can engage their audience, solidify their brand identity and increase sales.

Finding the Right Photographer

The first port of call for most people – when searching for a photographer for an event, for business or for anything else – is to complete a quick Google search along the lines of ‘photographers near me’ or ‘photographers in [blank]’.

Often times you will find what you are looking for quickly. However there may also be conflicts such as availability or pricing. Below we list some additional routes you can take in a search for the right photographer.

You can find photographers through Instagram.

By using hashtags specific to the kind of photography you want – and the approximate location of your desired photographer, if geographical closeness is something that’s important to you – you can find a range of photographers.

You can find photographers through Facebook.

Facebook can be difficult to navigate to find the services you’re interested in – for example, if you type in ‘photographers’ in the Facebook search bar, it’s likely that you’ll be presented with groups for those photographers, rather than finding a photographer for yourself.

To remedy this, click on ‘pages’, displayed on the left hand of the search results, then click through to ‘businesses’, ‘local service’, ‘photography and videography’ and finally to ‘photographer’. Facebook will then present you with a number of photographers, including the option to specialize your search even further by choosing options such as ‘amateur photography’, ‘camera shop’ or ‘event photographer’.

You can find photographers through Pinterest.

Pinterest is a great place to find photographers, and the easiest way to begin your search is to browse photos relating to the kind of event or project you want photographed, and hope that the photos you find are linked to the source, and the photographers who shot them.

With events such as weddings, it should be fairly easy to come across photographers that you like in this way, since wedding-themed searches are some of the most popular searches on Pinterest across the whole platform, whether it’s for a venue, dress, DIY decoration ideas or even the photographer specifically – and photographers swarm to the site, accordingly, linking their website in their aesthetic pins.

When it comes down to it, however, finding a selection of photographers that have the potential to shoot your event well is the easy part – the crucial steps come after you’ve clicked through to their website or social media page.

Figure out your budget.

Depending on your event or project, you’ll want to figure out how much the photos are worth – and you need to keep in mind any hidden costs, such as travel expenses, if you’re thinking of hiring a photographer that isn’t local to your area.

Is it a once in a lifetime event? Will you want to repeatedly flick through the photos to incite your nostalgia? Or is it for a work event? Or do you need pictures of products for your business’ website?

Based on the answers to these questions, you need to weigh up how much these photos are worth to you. Or, if it’s a business expense, weighing up the potential worth of these photos vs the cost to your business.

Look through your photographers’ portfolios.

Whether you’ve found a photographer on social media, or you’ve happened upon their website, the first thing you should do is to check out their portfolio.

While this won’t give you a full overview of their work, it will give you the chance to see if the photographs they shoot are of a high enough quality to suit your needs.

On the other hand, the quality of the photos might be great, but the personality and style of the photos might not be what you have in mind for your event, and browsing a photographer’s portfolio will allow you to decide if this is the case.

But a portfolio alone isn’t enough.

A portfolio is meant to be seen. It’s a collection of photos in the photographer’s possession which they feel represents the best of what they’re able to produce. A portfolio’s purpose is to help photographers sell their services to new clients – it doesn’t paint the whole picture.

To overcome this problem as a client – and to obtain a more accurate view of what your own event photos are going to turn out like – you can ask your chosen photographer to show you the photos for a complete event or project, so that you can see everything they photographed from the event. There could be many photos that aren’t displayed on their portfolio that you like.

Meet the photographer.

Or at the very least, speak to them on the phone.

An underrated, under-accomplished step of the photographer-finding process, is the part where the client meets the photographer, before the booking is made.

In short, you need to make sure that some sort of in-person (or over the phone) communication happens before you book a photographer, to make sure that you both gel, and that they’re willing to complete the shoot in the way that you want. Plus, any questions you have for each other can be easily resolved.

So, if you need a photographer for a big event, for your business, or for anything else, then be sure to follow these steps, to ensure you hire a photographer that’s perfect for you.