How To Freely* Give Yourself** A Working Knowledge Of Any Media Channel***

The good news? Published material on any subject has never been more readily available at your fingertips.

The bad news? Published material on any subject has never been more readily available at your fingertips.

By using this technique, you can develop a basic working knowledge of any media channel to either decide whether—and how best—your team should use it, or decide whether those aforementioned media vendors have your company’s—and your company money’s—best interest at heart.

While we don’t buy media for our clients (we have two vendors we’d trust with our lives and clients’ money if they so desire), we regularly help our clients evaluate media deals in any number of channels.

You, too, can use this technique.

Teach yourself how to use—or not use—any media channel:

You’re going to use your favorite search engine to research a media channel. For purposes of this section, I’m going to use Google and research using internet video.

Set your search limits to find only results published in the last year. While there are dozens of wonderful articles available discussing proper internet video fundamentals from previous years, it’s best to stick to sources accounting for the latest advances in technology and media. If you don’t know how to do this, guess where you can learn? Google it!

Only choose organic search results—not paid. Nothing against the folks who pay Google to have their articles clicked, but we want those sources that other visitors have found naturally for two reasons:

1. The majority rules: People regularly found these articles for a reason, and that reason is most likely that the article contains relevant information.
2. The author rules: Chances are good the author, or the author’s SEO firm, knows that Google rewards helpful information in a readable format. Those articles are most likely to show up at the top of Google’s organic search engines. Your time is valuable. Leverage the fact that the best Internet writers know this.

Skim the first ten results for each search term below. Compile into either a binder or digital file. See what overlaps. See what patterns emerge. Put these in your notebook.

Here are your searches:

Google “internet video Dictionary/Terminology” (many poor choices come simply from a lack of understanding of definitions)

Google “how to do great internet video”

Google “unique ways internet video business”

Google “internet video case studies”

Google “internet video mistakes”

Google “internet video pitfalls”

Google “internet video myths”

Google “everything you think you know about internet video is wrong”

Google “why you need to rethink your internet video strategy”

Google “best tools for internet video”

Google “internet video FAQ”

Google “how to pick an internet video company”

Google “your industry and internet video”

After Google, go to YouTube (owned by Google) and do the same.

You’ll be amazed at just how few proper fundamentals there are to each media channel and how regularly those few fundamentals appear in each result.

Before long, you’ll have a terrific brief on using internet video! Well done. Breathe. Take a nap.

* When I say freely, I’m referring to your financial budget. It will take some time.

** You can assign this to someone else on your team.

*** As you might suspect, this works with just about anything—not just media channels