Ok, so I’m watching a webinar about how to use video to better engage with customers – pretty appropriate for me, right? The presenters hit a lot of topics, and one of them was how long should your video be?  The consensus was two to three minutes, which I totally agree with.  They talked about the “drop-off rate” that’s the point at which your video stops being interesting to whoever it is watching it.

The webinar was an hour long.  I stopped watching at about 20 minutes. Why?

Reason #1:
Camera movement for the sake of movement.  There was one camera and two people. The camera would zoom in to one of the presenters, then pan over to the other presenter before zooming back out again. There was no purpose to the movement. And it didn’t keep me from getting bored.

Reason #2:
The presenters didn’t plan out what they were going to say. There were a lot of Ums and You Knows, and when the host asked a direct question, the guest could not give a direct answer.

Isn’t it funny that when people like this talk about the need for video to be compelling, that they fail to be compelling themselves.

I once had a jewelry store owner tell me why she started her business. She was not only compelling, she was spellbinding. That kind of story edited to the right images will keep people watching.

How long should YOUR video be? When Blendtec did the “Will It Blend Iphone 4” video, it ran almost 4 minutes, and has grabbed over 3 million views.  But after 60 seconds of a talking head, some folks can’t click away fast enough.

How do you want to tell your story? Consulting with a professional may be one way to make that story something your visitors will want to watch.

That’s a wrap.