How should you go about gathering videos from your community? Here are a few key steps that have worked well for other clients:
1. Send a dedicated email requesting videos contributions. You know your community's best time for opening and clickthroughs, but we've found that emails sent on Tuesday or Wednesday morning, followed up by a second request on Saturday morning, are the best times to schedule email solicitations.
2. Be sure to provide an example video for your customers, members, or fans to see. It's always helpful to see what you're being asked to do!
3. Offer an incentive. Great examples of incentives are $10 Visa or Amazon gift cards, coupons for free products, or even the offer of winning a bigger overall prize, such as an iPad.
4. Post example videos to your Facebook fan page wall, with a link to see more videos and record your own. Be sure to give a "shout-out" to the contributor of the video you post!
A few other suggestions to encourage new videos:
Review and publish videos promptly, ideally within 1-2 days. Contributors like to see their video live, and -- if you send them an approval email with the link -- will often share it with friends and family. This in turn encourages others to contribute!
Include a link to the recorder in emails to customers. Confirmation emails are very good for this, but also consider including the recorder link in newsletters, or even birthday notes. One big advantage: if your emails are automated, you'll attract a steady stream of videos with very little effort.
Try new approaches on questions, especially those that encourage stories. If you offer an online tax service, you might ask, "What's the worst thing about preparing your own taxes", or "What will you do with your refund?"
Appreciation. If you have a handful of great videos - ones you like a lot, and have excellent stats in the Analytics section of the dashboard - consider sending a small gift card or discount card to the contributor. For example:
"We just wanted to thank you for the video you sent us. It's one of our best, people love it! Here's a $20 Amazon Gift Card. Enjoy!"
They will probably tell their friends, and you may see more videos. IMPORTANT: Don't ask them to do anything. It's simply a gesture of thanks. Otherwise it will appear that you are paying them, which will very quickly generate negative word of mouth. Honesty and appreciation are the name of the game!