Justine Priestley, founder of business video company Really Bright Media, says that too many planners ignore the power of video to reach clients and some over-estimate the cost.

Ms Priestley, speaking at the IFP's first social media conference in London today, said an investment in video could be a sound financial decision for planners, enabling them to reach hundreds or thousands of clients at modest cost.
She said planners needn't have to spend a fortune to put video online. These days flip cameras, some smartphones and even DLR cameras were able to shoot video and video editing software was often very affordable or even already built in to some laptops and desktops, she said.
She told delegates: "When you invest in a film the return can be repaid over many months as video is durable. Small businesses can do big things online."
She urged planners to look at new video services such as Twitter's Vine service which hosts short, six second videos and helped to integrate video with social media.
Corporate videos of 2-3 minutes were fine and even one minute can be effective, she said, but it's worth keeping things short and sweet. Music and good lighting take things to the next level, she sadded, and she urged delegates to tell their clients or audience when the videos were coming out.
Before embarking on making a video planners should decide if the video was for one of three aims: attracting new leads, making conversons of leads to clients or for building community. She said when making a video avoid boring talk, poor locations and bad lighting and hand held cameras if possible. You can buy cheap tripods even for iPhones, she said, and these improved quality.
There were many types of film such as pitch or intro video, meet the team, testimonials, how-tos and so on and each fulfilled a purpose. She said there were many places to share video online. YouTube was essential as it is the top service. It is worth looking at YouTube playlists, vimeo for high quality films, blip tv.
She said: "You have all the infrastructure and technology you need right now at your finger tips to get started. I would encourage you all to have a go and have fun and I'm sure when you have your first breakthrough you won't look back."
The full-day conference is looking at why social media is vital in business, how to add a personal touch to marketing, best practice strategies and defining goals and objectives.
Financial Planner will be tweeting live from the conference on Twitter @FPM_Online and running regularly updated news coverage onto financialplanneronline.co.uk To follow the conference on Twitter, use the hashtag #ifpsocialmedia.
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Speakers at the event will include Abbie Tanner of A Business Innovation,  Philip Calvert from LifeTalk (formerly IFA Life) on LinkedIn essentials and Morris Pentel from Customer Experience Foundation on using social media via mobile phones and tablets.
The conference qualifies for six hours of CPD.

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