There has been a trend online recently of service businesses posting process videos on social media as showcases of the work that they do.
Sometimes these videos are timelapses, day-in-the-life, or detailed technical explanations of how they solve unique problems they come across in the field.
As an example, I want to look briefly at a guy named Spencer who owns SB Mowing and SB Pressure Washing.
The content from these businesses has become extremely popular for the timelapse videos that Spencer posts of himself mowing overgrown lawns and cleaning dirty driveways free of charge. According to his website, he has over 50 million subscribers across the various social channels where his content is posted.
This channel is an excellent, if somewhat extreme, example of when the content becomes the offering.
In Spencer’s case, the entertainment value of watching his riding mower zip over tall brush or seeing the white cement be slowly revealed from under layers of muck has overflowed into an excess of time spent watching this process by people who don’t live anywhere near Spencer and would never hire him for his actual service.
But here’s the thing, the intrinsic emotional value of this content has become so great that Spencer is no longer in the lawn care or the pressure washing business.
Spencer is now in the entertainment business.1
So, when it comes to deciding the kind of value you hope to provide through your content, be sure to ask yourself: what business do I want to be in in the long run?
