You're Probably Doing Video Marketing Wrong With Sivan Felder
This podcast episode started because I couldn’t stop watching a video I saw on Facebook. I hate social media videos, hate autoplay, hate wasting time on it, and followed through.
Because Sivan Felder and her business partner (and brother!), Barak, have creating social videos down to a formula.
So very much unlike my 8th grade math class self, I actually wanted to know what the formula was.
In this episode, we dive into the fundamentals of how creating video for social is different, how (and why) social videos need to start different, the importance of the distribution strategy’s context, and more.
Also, Harry Potter.
Listen. Because you can’t watch it.
Episode Transcript
Eytan Buchman: Today, I’m using audio to talk video. See, I was researching this episode – and by that I mean scrolling through my Facebook feed – when I came across a video that caught my eye. I was not alone. It also caught the eye of over 150,000 people on LinkedIn, and had over a 50% engagement rate on Facebook. As a video marketing professional would say from a technical perspective, it totally killed it. And in this episode, I’m going to unpack how. We’re going to talk the basics of what a modern video needs to look like, how videos need to start, why fancy videos are totally unnecessary, and the importance of creating a loot of videos. But let’s go back to how this started. I had seen videos from the creator before. But this video proved to me it wasn’t a fluke. And I wanted to get her on but to hear her, you have to go through me. And me? My name is Eytan Buchman, you’re probably staring at your Facebook feed while listening to this episode of Marketers in Capes and today we’re on with someone who gets video….**
Sivan Felder: I’m Sivan and I want to change the face of video. But that’s not what I do on a daily basis, I help companies create valuable video content.
Eytan: So if you remember my episode about Wistia, you remember that video is not about the wrapper, it’s about what’s inside. Right? The Crunch. And according to Sivan, what’s inside – that crunch – is all about the context too.**
Sivan: Well, I think the way that we tell stories has to change because we have to understand how people consume stories, right? It used to be that, for example, video, people were consuming it as a captive audience. They were sitting on their couch, and they were with their family with their TV dinner, and they were ready.
So you could take your time telling a story because people wanted it to take time because they had a lot of time. What’s changed is now over saturated, you know, we’re using our mobile all the time. So it’s a much smaller experience, even the way that we film has to be thought differently. And like I don’t have any time, I’m never a captive audience. Like I’m constantly doing four things at once. So if you don’t trigger some sort of emotional response right away, when you’re trying to tell me a story, I’m not going to pay attention, which is why I always tell people, if you’re making a video include a face in the first three seconds, because it triggers emotion and people are twice as likely to stick around if they see a face.
Eytan: This, this, is worth flagging. The context – busy people – sets the stage for the fact that you need to literally fight for attention tooth and nail. That’s more than just showing a face. Sivan pointed out something to me that seems obvious in retrospect – that since we’er all busy everyone from Nas Daily to the morning news has shifted away to spoiling the ending. They teasing the upcoming value. They don’t let you watch and then show you what happens, from day 1, they talk about it.**
Sivan: Telling a story doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t make it interesting or enticing or creative, it means that the way that you present information has to be put in a context of how people are consuming it. So if I’m running around, and I’m not giving you 20 minutes of my time, don’t take 20 minutes of your time of my time to tell me a story, tell it in the first second …And surprisingly, people are much more willing to stick around if they know what’s happening at the end. They want to read the last page first.
Eytan: But, let’s talk about that context again – the platform where your video shows up. Because, by definition, it needs to inform the type of content you create.**
Sivan: If you post, you know a video in your stories of like, hey, whatever, and then you try to post that on YouTube people will be pissed off, like why did you do that. It’s so important to understand the rules of each context and understand that it’s not necessarily about the funnel as it is about the person and them coming into contact with your content in the right context with a serious tongue twister. So when you distribute it, it can’t just be here. I have one video, let me post it in 100 different places. It has to be super strategized and specific of like this is going on YouTube. So how are people searching? It’s just going on Facebook? What do people want to see? How are they consuming? This is going on our website? Okay, what do people want to know? And like the Netflix generation really wants things to be personalized. They want to know that when I come to a certain place the content I get is going to be specific to that place.
Eytan: Okay, so you have the context, you know the platform, you know how it informs the video…now what does the video actually need to look like? According to Sivan, it’s about just making a simple connection. Forget the Redbull skydiving forgot the $60K on post production – how are you connecting to your viewer?**
Sivan: Well, I think instead of being irritated that everyone with the phone now is a filmmaker, you have to realize that you have to give people what they want . So if people are used to consuming content that way, and that’s what works for them and you can see on social media stories on YouTube, any any type of platform that exists has some form of video content that people are watching on it. And if you try to be different, if you try to be fancy, if you try to stand out, people don’t actually want to see that …So now we kind of have to appeal to audiences through a story that’s told in a very, very different way. And I think companies need to stop thinking about how can I make an ad that talks about my product? And it’s more it’s like, how can I use video to connect with an audience of people who are happy to listen and to pay attention, if I do it in the right way?
Eytan: There’s a reason that video is uniquely suited for creating connections.**
Sivan: …think about when you read a book, it’s actually a really individualized experience because what how you’re envisioning Harry Potter is not how I envisioned them. But when you watch a movie, it’s a connecting experience, because we all see the same thing….
Because you can trigger emotion so quickly, it’s really the most powerful. not to say that words aren’t awesome, and pictures aren’t great, too. But if you’re looking for the quickest, cheap and dirty and you know straight to the point, then video wins hands down every time. Eytan: During the conversation, I voiced one of the things that seems to me s the biggest blocker. If you’re working at a legit company, your video needs to look legit. That doesn’t mean Spielberg but still, quality is hard, right?**
Sivan: When I first was starting out and I was trying to like create these videos. And I would ask people like what’s really what are you struggling with? Like, really, I want to make high quality videos. And I realized what did they think that meant? I meant that they thought it meant that I need to have 4k footage, I need to have the DSLR, I need to have proper lighting equipment, and I need to have a beautiful actress on screen. But if I tell you the quality is in the eye of the beholder, and if quality means that I’m going to spend my time watching this, then it doesn’t have to be 4k, because it’s not about the most beautiful image. It’s about I’m giving you the most value. So if you look at quality, as I’m giving value and being consistent, and I’m showing up in the right way, and in the right context, that trumps 4k footage, high quality production .
Eytan: And if you want proof? Look no further than Dollar Shave Club – which also happens to be one of my favorite videos. And the lesson there isn’t just lo-fi budget.*
Sivan: it took $5,000 and it was shot in one day in a warehouse. The guy who’s in it is the CEO and he also wrote the script. And you know, they did it like in a few times to get it in one take. But he basically tells you a story with very minimal effects, very minimal lighting, it’s super basic, having worked in production, I can tell you, you know, like they used a nice camera and like some good audio equipment and you know, whatever. But it was, he told you a story. Like he connected with you as a person. And I remember watching that and being like, I want to be his friend. …
Eytan: There’s a deeper truth here – DSC invested a ton in promoting and I’ll drop some more information on that in the show links…But they also didn’t make it about one video. You might have seen that one video but The CEO, Michael Dubin, kept it up. There were more videos, more ads, more….communication…**
Sivan: You know, think about your best friend. You didn’t become best friends overnight, you had to prove yourself over and over again. You had to you know, show up you had to work hard you had to invest in that relationship. So if you post one video that’s awesome. You think suddenly I was gonna be your best friend. You’re sorely mistaken.
Eytan: Truth be told, for Sivan, this worked. I saw Sivan’s videos and didn’t click. Kept scrolling. Then I saw one that worked. And it worked enough to create that relationship. So, just to bring this home, if you’re working on videos, understand where it will show up, figure out how you’re grabbing attention, use that attention to create a friend…and profit. And another thing, and this is something that’s helped me at every stage of this podcast, if you see another marketer doing something awesome, a CEO, a marketer, doesn’t matter how senior they are, reach out to them and ask them questions. It’s the best way to learn. And, since I’m already giving out directives, please head over to Apple Podcast and leave a glowing review about this podcast; it’s the best way to ensure that more people find this. Ill be here, trying to remember what I thought Ron Weasely looked like before the Harry Potter movies came out.**