Dear Mr. Luthango, can you introduce yourself to our readers?
My name is Dumisani Luthango. I’m the Co-founder of Full Funnel Studios, Magnetic Media and Afreedom Fashion. I fell in love with graphic design and multimedia design from a very young age and while other kids were out playing during break time I was busy learning graphic design, video and animation.
I’ve been doing this for more than 20 years and I’ve constantly been learning more and upgrading my knowledge and skills through the years. And in my personal life, I’m a husband, a father and a man of Faith, the Bible being the most impactful book in my life.
Why do you think is video vital to modern digital marketing?
If you’re not using video for online marketing you’re falling way behind.
Video is becoming more and more prominent in the world of marketing. If you look at an App like TiK ToK, the reason that it blew up so much (grew so big), is because it’s based on the sharing of video content.
Some of the most effective social media marketing campaigns have to do with video.
What’s the most likely thing to go viral these days? It’s a video.
And even if you think about the future of marketing. In the future, when people have holograms and things like that, in my opinion, those will mostly be based on video.So if you’re not using video marketing as a company, you’re falling way behind and losing more business than you think.
How can a content creator maximize the content of his videos?
Let’s start with the basics: you need to get your lighting right, audio, and video quality right. Also, video composition actually contributes a lot to the quality of your video. As a content creator, you really need to be strategic about how you use video. A lot of people are just shooting video just for the sake of shooting video, thinking that the video is going to make it out there. It sometimes does, but that is rare. The main thing you need to think about when you do a video is, you need to think about the content of the video. What is the point of that video that you are shooting? Do some research in terms of your target market. Is it what they’re looking for? Is this the message that they’re gravitating towards? Also do some research in terms of how to execute that video. So the first thing to do as a content creator is to do your research before shooting that video. That is one of the biggest ways you can “Stand Out and Break Out” as a content creator. Then push yourself. Work very hard to make your video stand out using your creativity. If you have the resources, use a video editing company. Some people are editing their own videos, but don’t have the skills to edit a video of great quality, so my suggestion is that you use people who have the skills to do that. That is why they specialise in doing what they do. It’s also vital that you use people who understand what is trending out there in terms of styles of videos and trending topics that are going out. And another thing is you need to be original. If you gonna be presenting/speaking in your video, have confidence. Grab people’s attention.
These are a few things I spoke about at the African Digital Week and the European Digital Week Conferences.
In your opinion, how to make content that resonates best with the audience?
So earlier, I spoke about doing some research before shooting your videos. What I mean by that is not to copy other people. Some people are trying to copy other people and trying to be other people. That’s not a wise thing to do. However, what I am saying is that you must do your research about your target audience.There are certain things that they are very attracted to and there are certain things that are trending at the moment and as a creative, you can actually even work out what can start trending sometimes. So the first thing to do is to do your research. When looking at your competitors, just look at how they’re executing their videos and learn from them. So for example, if you’re into fashion, go look at the successful fashion videos that are out there. If you’re into building websites, go look at the people out there that are doing videos about website development. If you want to do gaming, or property, or accounting, or architecture or become a business coach. Whatever your field is, or whatever your client’s field is, go look at the competition out there and pick up on some of the great things they are doing. You’ll then have more of an idea of how to execute videos. Remember to be authentic. People can sense it when someone is not being authentic and your video will have a negative impact. But if you’re being yourself and you being as excellent as you can, and you’ve done your research, your audience will resonate with you.
How do you think will social media evaluate in the next few years?
I think social media has changed dramatically through the years, so I think the future of social media is going to be very exciting. I strongly believe that through the advancement of technology, we’re going to see social media that is even more personalized. I also believe that we are going to see integration in terms of holograms coming into our society and social media being used with that. In my opinion, through the technology that’s gonna be advancing social media is even gonna go into technologies like virtual reality. So imagine putting on 3D glasses and experiencing social media through that, where you are now able to see images and videos that are more interactive because you’re actually in that three-dimensional world. So yes as technology advances social media is also going to advance.
However, the basics of social media are going to stay as well. Some people think a platform like Facebook is going to eventually die and go away. I disagree with that. If you look at Facebook, it has a lot of our memories that we have put there for years and years, and so a platform like that is going to remain there whatever happens. But it will adapt and add whatever features that it adds. It’s still going to stay in some form or another as long as people are there to post their memories, to share their stories, their experiences and what they’re going through. So those principles are going to remain where people are out there sharing their content, stories and experiences. Then as brands and companies, we are obviously going to want to get their attention. So advertising strategies are still going to remain in those platforms. And whatever platform comes as people gravitate towards those platforms, as advertisers, as companies, we are going to need to learn whatever strategy we need to learn and execute whatever strategy we need to execute in order to get that audience attention. This is the importance of learning and growing continuously learning continuously. It will help to adapt as a company and to penetrate those platforms.
Lastly, what I’m also going to say is, as those platforms continue to evolve just watch as video is going to be a backbone in terms of marketing on those platforms. Don’t underestimate the importance of video marketing.
