Oh no! I was listening to audios about marketing developments in the coaching industry when I heard the most distressing trend: more videos. Specifically, more free online videos.
Yes, I know that videos satisfy the greatest need of online marketers: higher Google rankings.
But they frustrate my greatest need in running a business, which is learning as much as possible while managing my time effectively.
Here’s how I manage the info deluge.
I spend a substantial amount of time on email as a whole but very little time on each single message. I review my emails in the preview pane on Outlook so I can quickly delete them.
At the same time, I frequently open free PDFs because I can look them over quickly. I print for my paper files those that are valuable. (Sorry, but I like paper files because they are fun to review.)
I receive a few blogs as emails and read them immediately. I automatically save the rest to an RSS reader that I only look at when I am adding yet another blog to it. For me, it’s that big stack of papers that I’ll get to some year, but I feel virtuous that it resides only in an electronic format. (For you environmentalists, this atones for my paper files.)
I sign up for every free teleseminar, including the thinly disguised sales messages, but I rarely sit in on them live. I save them for listening in the car.
Now back to this video thing.
Here’s what I hate most about video: it demands both my ears and my eyeballs. Full attention required. No multitasking allowed.
Elsewhere on the internet I read that some info providers are—get this!—proud that they shoot the breeze off the cuff while pointing a cheap video camera at their own face and then post to YouTube with no editing. Scripting and production values are so last year!
Video people rig the system so they spend as little of their own time as possible on production but make us invest substantial time in viewing.
Is someone going to invent a way to speed up video viewing? Minnie Mouse voices combined with flashing photos as we fast forward?
Are you more sanguine than I am about the prospect of more video?
Are you even happy about it? Do you have a more effective way of managing the video storm that is turning from a light mist to a full-scale downpour?
Note: I should include a link to the specific NCC audio alerting me to this trend, but once a file is no longer tethered to my computer, I’m not going back to research the link. Sorry, but that’s not my job. Nor did I write down the name of the individual who mentioned video. After all, I was driving, with both eyes on the road and both hands on the steering wheel.
Summary:
The electronic marketplace is exploding with free videos. Online marketers rig the system so they spend as little of their own time as possible on production but make us invest substantial time in viewing. PDFs and audio-only use the audience’s time more efficiently.
Originally posted 3-2-09