For years it’s been known that in order to really establish a trusted personal brand, you need to have an online presence. Websites, professional social media accounts and blogs are integral to establishing your expertise in your industry and helping you reach audiences that are impossible to engage with in person.
Evolving consumer technology has added another layer to the face of brands, whether they are big-names, small business owners or individuals building up personal credibility.
The new face of branding success? Video. Particularly video that can be accessed from mobile devices. Consider these stats:
• A recent Google and Ipsos study found that 98% of Millennials with smartphones watch at least one video per day on mobile devices.
• Just over half of the videos watched by that group were short-form, and only 28% were actual programs or TV shows.
• Mobile video ad impressions have more than tripled in 2014 alone, according to an Opera Mediaworks study.
People are not only becoming more comfortable with watching videos on the go, but they have come to expect a video presence from the brands with which they interact.
So what does all of that mean for your personal brand?
For starters, it means that you should really seek out ways to have yourself on video, establishing your expertise in the right ways, whatever that looks like for you. This could mean a tutorial or other how-to videos on YouTube or even hosted on your own website, or just a weekly rundown of news in your industry. If you have a brick-and-mortar location, you may want some stock videos that show your store, your staff or behind-the-scenes footage that give your business a human face. Even if you work for a large corporation, you can create professional videos on your own that boost your expertise and add some credibility to your employer too.
Chances are you don’t have a big budget for creating highly-produced, professional videos but the good news is that you need it. You can create basic videos that are easy to edit with features that are likely already on your smartphone or through mobile applications you can download. You can even create videos on digital camcorders and then upload them to the platform of your choice. Whatever way you create, save and upload them, make sure you can share them easily through your social media accounts.
Take a look at your current online branding strategies and consider seamless ways to incorporate at least some video content. You will reach audiences in new ways and be able to meet the expectations of mobile users at the same time.
