AKRON — During the recent Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA) Show in Las Vegas, I had a chance to stop by Eric the Car Guy's session, where he spoke about posting automotive and automotive aftermarket videos online, especially in regards to YouTube.
Since he has 680,000-plus YouTube subscribers with more than 111 million views, it's clear he knows a thing or two about success.
There are some social media sites that are visual-based, and much of your audience on these channels tune in for visual content. Whether that is posting photos to Instagram or videos to YouTube, visual-based content can drive success for your company's social media success. From Eric the Car Guy's session, I pulled five big takeaways about posting videos online.
- Respect your viewers' time: We live in a fast-paced world. People have a lot going on at one time and can only give a certain amount of time to one thing. Because of this, short videos are better than long ones. If it takes too long to get to the point, it's possible your viewer has already clicked out and onto something else. Keep that in mind when editing a video. Eric the Car Guy also said to think about whether the video is understandable — even without sound. Say you were doing a demonstration on changing your oil. What if a person watching didn't have access to sound, but still wanted tips?
- Entertain your viewers: In these blogs, I always talk about how social media is about engaging your customer. Just because you are creating a video, doesn't mean that element should fall off. Eric the Car Guy said when you are trying to grow your business with video, avoid making a commercial — unless it's funny. People are not checking into your tire shop's YouTube page to see the commercial they just saw on television. They are there for something different, so give them just that. If you entertain your viewers, then they won't realize you sold them something, Eric the Car Guy added.