When I started my geological engineering degree years ago, YouTube wasn’t even a thing yet. It came out while I was in my undergrad. And I was pretty shy my whole life: I never would have thought I would be in a viral video one day (the term viral video or influencer wasn’t on anyone’s radar back then either!).
Flash forward to 2014 and I was asked to “star” in a video for my employer, explaining how to use one of their top selling products. I joked about wanting catering and all the things movie stars get, but in the end I got to hang out with our marketing director, a friend of mine, behind the building for a few days, learn I can’t recite a paragraph word for word with out messing up and have to cut every time a dump truck drove out of the yard next door. G-L-A-M-O-U-R-O-U-S!
Anyways, the end result was pretty good and we posted it to the company YouTube channel for a) marketing our product and b) helping users learn how to use it. Here is the video:
As someone who works in sales, I often was on the receiving end of customers questions on some of the finer aspects of to use the system. I could either send them a 30+ page text-heavy manual OR a link to the video which explains everything in an easily digestible format. It was obvious the value in the tool for this purpose.
Geotechnical engineering is a niche industry and the subindustry of geotechnical instrumentation is even smaller. We got a few thousand views in the first few years and thought that was pretty good.
But it wasn’t until 2016, when I was on a trip to Southeast Asia to visit potential customers, that I started to understand its value. In a meeting, someone came up to me and said,
“I know you from that video!” – a prospective customer in SE Asia
I was taken a back at first: Which video? (oh yeah the one I’m talking about in this article but it wasn’t top of mind at the time), oh you recognize me, oh I’m half way around the world, I’m a little jet lagged and you recognize me. This is really weird!
This experience has repeated more times than I can count in the 8 years that have followed, even though I don’t even work for the same company anymore. Now, when someone says they have seen me, I know exactly what they are talking about. I’ve had people from 5 continents tell me they’ve seen the video. Competitors have told me they use it to train their new staff on how to use their similar product. At the company I recently joined, a bunch of people already knew who I was from this 10 year old video.
At 1000-2000 views, we though that was pretty great – job well done. Currently, it’s over 43,000 views now! Think of the impact this video has created for the company, the product and my own reputation as a thought leader in the industry.
Since then, I’ve been in many more videos and the process of being on camera does get easier with time – trust me. I also quickly learned that I can do 1-2 sentences in a shot quite well but don’t ask me to do more. Take a look at my portfolio to see a sample of the videos I’ve been involved with in various functions including behind the scenes.
Think about the impacts a similar video could have on your business. There is no better time than the present to put your story out into the world. And if you are ready to get started, contact me to get started!
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