“Tricks” of the trade

June 4th, 2010


Mark Goodman

What was the editing trick on this video? We got a number of comments, but no one caught it.

So, here is what we did. I asked Ken the question “How can SCORE help me be successful?” As it turned out, Ken answered the question first for someone starting a business, then for some one who is in business. In a normal conversation, you as the listener would make the connection. No problem. But with internet video, viewers tend to click off once the first answer is finished. So rather than one clip, we made two clips using the same question. Check it out….



How do we know viewer behavior?
You Tube supplies graphs on selected videos as to how well a video holds a viewer’s attention. The line in the middle is average attention compared with other videos of the same length. A higher line is better. The graph on the left is typical of a “two answer” questions. You will note that after the first answer is given viewers drop off. The graph on the right is what you want to achieve. Capture your viewer’s attention and keep them.
Two Answer Question


Goal- Start High –End Higher


Why is it important to hold a viewer’s attention? First, your goal is to be a trusted source. If people don’t watch, you lose. Second, you may put a link at the end of the video to another video, if people click off, they don’t get that link. Third, YouTube recommends other videos at the end, if viewers click off, your lose a chance for one of your other videos to be found. Lastly, Google uses this data to determine if they want to rank a video higher in a search. Their assumption is that if people watch it more all the way through, it must be more valuable.

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