Hitviews Pro: Four Ways to Protect Your Brand: FIRST Throw Away the Script. - Walter Sabo - MediaBizBloggers

To grow a product online requires new rules of engagement. The online video environment is not TV. Treating it like a long TV spot is a waste of money.

Here are 4 ways to manage your brand’s reputation online.

1. Encourage feedback.Videos that work have one component: They solicit feedback. The keyboard begs to be used. Don’t be afraid of people talking. You can talk too. It’s America. Newsflash: No company has ever had control of a brand’s image once the product is on the shelf. Two users talking about the product is out of your control.

2. You used to pay for focus groups---months after the conversation had started---to have a tiny glimpse of what people were saying about your product. Now online you can instantly see how people feel about your product or message.

You can also have instant participation in the conversation. Write your own responses and directly contact posters who are hostile. It always humbles a critic to hear directly from a brand executive. The critics often become allies.

3. Listen and learn.For over 100 years brands have tried to shape public thought about their products with catchy phrases, jingles and imagery. A one way process. Now you get to hear thousands of people describe your product and you may find that they do a better job than you do.

Watch for patterns of phrases used by responders. (There are companies that are in business of collecting these verbatims and making sense of them).

4. Cleo’s don’t apply.This is a new medium. If something doesn’t work hit “refresh.” Nothing is on your permanent record. The MORE messages you put out, the more space you own. Online video is not about making a perfect “spot.” It’s about creating a river of messages that could motivate a consumer to dive in and try it.

Traditional creative teams agonize for MONTHS over the wording of each TV spot. They should. Those spots cost $1-2 Million to produce and the media can cost half a million for a :30 in prime time. Agonize over that. DO NOT agonize over your messaging in online videos. Just keep pumping them out. Online video is a frequency medium. Its relationship with the audience and its “media” dynamics are similar to radio rather than to TV.

5. Lighten up. I’ve labored for other ways to say it, but, lighten up. People just don’t think about your brand that much. When an online webstar agrees to make a video about your product and tells his fans to buy it, that’s good. If they joke about the product, that’s good. ANYTHING that’s memorable related to your product---is good. All recall of a product is a miracle because of the challenge of becoming top of mind.

The natural tendency is to write a tight script, vet it, rehearse, rehearse, edit and shoot again and again. That has not worked. Online video creation is virtually free. The computer you’re reading this on can probably shoot and edit video right now. Right now. That means the creators of online video have a script-free freedom in their minds that allows them to relate to their audience in ways that are actually destroyed by a traditional script.

Pay close attention to how the web savvy people in your company talk and relate to Internet content. It is lighter and more matter-of-fact than the way traditional media creators and buyers relate to their media. Allow your product to breathe in the new online environment and it will thrive.

Walter Sabo is the Founder and Creator of the business concept. He is an experienced leader of new organizations and is currently CEO of Hitviews. Walter can be reached at walter@hitviews.com.