You’ve probably heard the old adage “Content is king.” This is just as true now as it always has been, but we like to take it a step further.

Story is king.

Last year seemed to be the year of video.  Instagram increased their video length to 60 seconds and added another video aspect within their Stories.  After years of giving priority to video posts, Mark Zuckerberg stated he “wouldn’t be surprised if you fast-forward five years and most of the content that people see on Facebook and are sharing on a day-to-day basis is video.”

Scroll down your Facebook feed and count how many of the first dozen posts are videos.  Then look at the stats on those posts, check out how often they are shared and commented on.  This kind of engagement is why you want video content for your feed.

While Facebook Live is lots of fun (and great if you know how to use it), don’t underestimate the power of quality content.  Most viewers decide within the first few seconds if they are even going to finish watching your video much less engage with it.  Bad audio, bad video….or even really good audio and really good video fall short if it lacks quality content.

Now that Facebook owns Instagram, the exposure there is much the same.  Video content gets better engagement (and therefore, better reach) than photos. A quick scroll down my feed shows that 2/3 of the sponsored posts are videos.  The people who are paying money to be in your feed, the big names; they are putting video in it, because they know it works.

Lastly, check out the websites of some of your mentors.  What about the products and services you love?  Notice how many of them have video content.  Well placed video content can give you a leg up in your SEO.  In a market where everyone has great photos on a well designed pages, where everyone is using keywords and adwords and optimizing their linkage, where everyone is blogging on a regular basis, adding video to your page gives Google one more thing to crawl to add to the collection of things that may place you a few points higher in your local search rankings.

You’ve probably heard the old adage “Content is king.” This is just as true now as it always has been, but we like to take it a step further.

Story is king.

That’s not an idea original to MotionWorks. It’s been talked about in marketing meetings, in Ted Talks, in YouTube videos, and anywhere content is created.  In a world where people are constantly being marketed to, where everyone is selling something, you need to do more than just market a product or service.

You need to share your story.

Story is something that has tied humans together before words were ever penned to paper.  It’s often our first way of communicating with our children, as we cuddle them close and read stories from a book or recount family tales to put them to sleep.  Story is how we begin to teach them, lessons and parables wrapped up in tales they can connect with and understand.  Story is how we connect with each other, how we draw close, how we cultivate empathy and understand.

Story is an innately human form of communication, the construct with which we share the meaning and purpose to everything we do. Story is what captures our hearts and engages our minds.

What does that mean for you as a business owner, an artist, or a creator?  Your clients want to know your story.  They want to know what sets you apart from all the other talented creators that they are exposed to on a daily basis; they need to see why you are a better fit for them, as a person. The connection they make with you adds value to your product and service.

Story is the reason we got into this whole video thing in the first place.  It’s what we love doing. It’s more than just showing up, shooting some pretty video clips, slapping them over some music and throwing them up on the internet.  We research you.  We check out your website and current media.  We meet with you and talk about your history with your business, what you love about it, and your vision for the future.  Take all of that information and craft a clear, concise idea of what we need to capture to share your story with the world, and that’s what we aim to create.

It has to be more than just a tagline on a webpage – there’s a very intentional process involved with every filmmaking decision when those choices revolve around story.

We also know that marketing dollars are often hard to come by for creatives and small businesses, and that you need to make every dollar count.  That’s why our packages provide you video content for both your website and your social media accounts.

Ready to talk about how the 304 Collective can help to tell your unique story? Contact us today to start the conversation.