Human beings love stories. We cannot escape them. From birth we long for stories. Narrative is an intricate part of all cultures around the world; it influences everything. We create narratives for use in advertising and PR, news, politics, and in education. Narrative is also highly popular.
Its not hard to understand why YouTube is one of the most used search engines online. That's why you should incorporate narrative video into your campaigns.
Web series and web videos should be a key part of strategies. It might not seem obvious because search engine robots do not crawl videos but it's still possible to optimize video content.
The majority of successful video web series find an audience through word of mouth, sharing, and other forms of talking about the story. Word of mouth is more effective than a link building campaign and gets click through and results. Exciting narrative will get shared. It will get results. And it will build links.
So, how do you create a successful web series that gets high word of mouth search results?
Be Engaging
You dont need to go viral to have an impact; you just need to engage.
This is the key ingredient. Without engagement theres no benefit.
With engagement between fans and creators you get something memorable, satisfying and exciting. You create community (The Guild web series is a great example of this).
The positive press and brand association here is not easily earned but it is powerful. So whatever you do, create something engaging, preferably targeted to a niche market, and entertain, entertain, entertain!
Always Leave Them Wanting More
Keep episodes short and succinct.
Ensure you tell full, exciting stories but dont wrap up every episode fully.
Always end each episode with an exciting dangling narrative thread that will make your audience want to come back to see the next episode.
This is important for television but even more so for the web where attention spans are much shorter and the next page is just a click away.
Be Consistent
Make sure you post videos regularly, or at least when you say you will. If you promise something, deliver.
Many web series fail because they simply dont keep promises. If you do, youll reap the rewards of a devoted fan base.
Have No Limits
You can create a series about anything, even washing machines. It just takes a little creativity and invention.
If youre looking to use video to help create something different for a company that specializes in washing machines you just have to be innovative.
Think outside the box or hire someone who can.
Have A Dedicated Creative (Team)
Be organized and specific about how you approach scripting, production, development, and editing.
You dont have to be professional, though having someone on your team who is trained in any aspect of video production will be useful.
Optimize!
Make sure you tag, optimize your titles and descriptions, and include backlinks to your client site where possible. Also remember to share! After all, someone has to start talking about before it spreads