Did you know that you can make your very own Search Story video like Google’s Parisian Love that played as an ad during the Super Bowl?
They are a lot of fun, and it’s not hard at all. Think of how you might make one to highlight an upcoming event or cool attraction in your town.
Here’s what I learned while making one:
- Be already logged into the YouTube account that you’re going to upload it to (I used our Tourism Currents YouTube channel) and be ready with your password again when it’s time to upload.
- Try to use more than one of the available search options (Web, blogs, images, maps, etc.) It makes the video much more interesting visually.
- Use fewer words in the search box. They’re easier to read at the rapid speed of the Search Story.
- Pick those words carefully and know ahead of time what search results will come in (there’s a Preview button for you; I think I wore mine out.) I had one innocuous search term bring back something to do with strippers (don’t need people seeing that in my video, thanks very much.)
- Listen to at least a snippet of all of the available “soundtrack” music. Some might be a surprisingly good fit.
- Don’t be afraid to go back and edit if you aren’t happy with the final result. We won’t say how many times I re-did the video below, or I’d have to put up an “Anal-Retentive” warning sign on the blog.
- Once it is uploaded to your YouTube channel (done automatically and FAST by Google) go back into the Edit function on your channel and make sure the video is titled, tagged and described, which helps with SEO (Search Engine Optimization.)
Here is the 35 second Search Story that I made in support of our upcoming Tourism Track October 14 at BlogWorld and New Media Expo….
….and here’s a direct link to “Tourism and Bloggers: How Can They Connect?” on our YouTube channel in case you can’t see the viewing box below.