How to Make Your Video & Audio Content Searchable

Did you know there is a downside to all of that audio and video content you’re creating? If it’s long, it’s difficult to get people to consume it more than once even though it’s jam-packed with good info. And since people can’t search your audio and video like they can your website or blog you’ve probably found that you’re answering questions again and again that you’ve already addressed in a podcast episode or a Facebook Live. Today I’m bringing you the answer to those issues and more - Searchie!

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The Problem with Video & Audio Content

Video is king. And everyone has a podcast now.

These are things you’ve probably noticed. And so maybe you are investing your time creating a lot of audio and video content for your business. Or maybe it’s on your roadmap. That’s great!

Everyone seems to be talking about the benefits of audio and video . . . but no one seems to be talking about the downsides, like:

• Once it’s out there you don’t get a lot of repeat watchers/listeners if your content is long

• You’re still getting questions about things that you’ve already answered in video or audio format

• Repurposing video content can be more work than creating it in the first place

• You have trouble pulling specific info out of your content without spending a lot of time re-watching or re-listening to everything

And that last one, my friend, is also exactly why your audience, your clients, your students, your members aren’t getting the most value out of your audio and video content. It’s not like written webpage content or a blog where they can simply pop a word or phrase into a search bar and BOOM there is the info they were looking for in plain text to bookmark or copy.

Video and audio are a great way to absorb info, but they can also be a huge barrier when people need to revisit topics.

The Solution? Searchie*!

In the simplest terms, Searchie is a tool that makes your audio and video keyword searchable. Don’t believe me? Try a search of my podcast, BS’ing with Brandi:

What Searchie does is transcribe your audio, and then makes that time-stamped transcription searchable, so when the results are listed people can click play on the exact time you start talking about the search topic in the video or audio.

No more:

• answering questions by giving a link to a video and saying “the answer is in there somewhere”.

• hoping people will watch all of your content just for that one nugget they were looking for.

• spending a ton of time making a manual index or table of contents for your content so people can jump to the spot they need to hear.

Because Searchie is turning into so much more than just a search engine, I’m going to walk you briefly through some of my favourite features and then break down a bunch of the ways that you could use Searchie in your business!

Best Features

Support: the support & development team prioritize fixes and features based on user feedback (we submit feature requests and vote on the ones we most want). You can see the roadmap and vote on features here.

Transcript editor: while the transcription AI needs work (and it’s one of the features they’re working on) if you need to tweak your transcripts you’ll be happy to know that there is find & replace, and changes autosave as you go.

Transcript formats: your transcripts can be downloaded as time-stamped CSV files (helpful for captioning), SRT files (currently the most widely used caption format - this is what you can upload to platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube to add captions to your videos), or plain text (perfect for providing additional learning mediums or turning your video into written content).

3rd party transcript/caption files: if you already use another service to generate captions and that service is currently more accurate than the Searchie AI, you can simply upload those files to Searchie instead (make sure they’re in SRT format!).

Integrations: in addition to uploading media directly from your computer, Searchie also integrates with Facebook, Vimeo, Soundcloud, and Apple Podcasts.

Auto-Processing: if you want to set it and forget it, you can set your integrations to auto-process so that the transcript is generated as soon as Searchie detects new content. This feature will be most helpful once the transcription AI is improved.

Sharing content: to share you have to create widgets that house the content you want people to be able to search. You can share this widget in 2 ways. 1) generate code for an embeddable widget that you can add anywhere online that accepts custom code, or 2) copy the unique link directly to the widget and share it like a landing page. The widget currently allows a big of customization like color and logo.

Organizing content: by default all content has to be saved in folders (and then in your widgets you specify which folders to include). Tags can now also be added to content and then you can add those tags in your widgets. This is a bit confusing so let me give you an example:

• I have a folder that houses all of my podcast episodes. I have created a widget that includes that podcast folder. I also have another folder and widget that includes tech tutorials.

• Now I want to create a widget that is just for talking about one of my favourite platforms (for example, Trello). I don’t want to upload multiple copies of the same audio and video files just to make a ‘Trello’ folder, so instead I can tag the files where I talk about Trello and then make a widget that just contains the tag ‘Trello’ - this will make that content searchable no matter what folder they are in

Ideas for How To Use Searchie

So you’re probably thinking that Searchie* sounds like a great idea, but the real value comes in understanding how it can add value to your business. Confession: I had an awful time wrapping my head around what I could actually do with Searchie until I got in there and started using it - I signed up purely on the recommendation of several people that I trusted :)

Below I’m going to outline some use cases. Do any of these scenarios apply to you and your business?

You have an online course with a lot of audio/video content

The problem?

• You’re constantly answering questions that have already been addressed in the course content

• Students are getting frustrated having to rewatch lot of videos to find the 1 thing they are looking for

• You find it easy to create video but your students need more accessible options in order to get the most value

The solution?

Create a folder for your course in Searchie and upload all of your files there. Create a widget and then put that widget inside of your course.

If your course platform has a sidebar that you can edit this would be a great place for it. If not, can you make a specific lesson called “Search the videos” where you can either embed your widget or insert the link to it?

The benefits?

• You and your team will spend less time answering questions because your students can more easily find answers themselves

• They can find the information faster than waiting for a response from you

• Download the transcripts and include them in your lessons instead of transcribing yourself or paying for a separate service

• Download the SRT files and upload those captions back to your course platform (if it allows caption uploads!) instead of paying for a separate service

• It makes your course more user-friendly and accessible for students

• It’s a value-added feature that you can include on your sales page since captions, transcripts, and searchable audio/video aren’t widely available in most courses

You are a coach that does online calls with your clients

The problem?

• You or the client misses something when taking notes and it falls through the cracks

• Clients can't remember what was discussed in previous sessions so they are taking up your time with questions you've already answered

• Clients (or you) getting frustrated with having to rewatch or relisten to a ton of old sessions (if you're recording them) just to find the 1 nugget of info they're looking for

The solution?

Start recording all of your client sessions (super easy with a platform like Zoom or an app on your phone - make this part of your standard client agreement!). 

Create folders for each client in Searchie and then make individual widgets that contain only their calls. After each session upload the file to Searchie and provide your clients the link to the widget.

If they have this link bookmarked they can search recordings whenever they need!

The benefits?

• You will spend less time answering questions because your client can reference past sessions

• They can find the information faster than waiting for a response from you

• Download the transcripts and provide them to your clients as a value-add

• It makes your service more user-friendly and accessible for clients

You do a lot of guest spots on podcasts, radio shows, FB lives, etc.

The problem?

• You’re constantly answering questions that have already been addressed in existing content

• The content doesn’t get a lot of traffic after the initial promotion

• Since you don’t have control, the content could disappear if the other person deletes it or their business shuts down

The solution?

Ask for copies of the files for the content you’re featured in - some people may choose not to provide it, but if you explain why you want the file and how you’re going to help promote the content they may change their mind.

In Searchie, create a folder and a widget for this content (depending on how much content you have or the topics you may even want to create multiple folders if it makes sense or simply add it to existing folders). Upload your files and then embed or link to the widget right on your website.

The benefits?

• You will spend less time answering questions because your audience can reference and search the content all in 1 place

• If you have a media page or press kit include the link so prospects can search to see what you have to say about the topics they are interested in

• You won’t lose content if the original owner removes it

You’ve lost track of your own content

The problem?

• You create a ton of content and are starting to lose track of the details

• You find yourself talking about the same things over and over because you’ve forgotten you already created content around the topic

• You have touched on topics across many different videos but need to amalgamate that topic without spending hours watching old videos or listening to old podcasts

The solution?

In Searchie, create a widget that contains ALL of your folders and bookmark the link to the widget for the internal use of you or your team.

The benefits?

• You’ll save a ton of time

• You’ll be able to pull out snippets of information that can be repurposed for new content

• Use the downloadable transcripts to generate supplemental content such as blog posts, and social media posts

• Provide this as a resource for your team, especially if you’ve uploaded tutorials and how-tos

Get Your Searchie Account Today

I’m a Searchie affiliate and I’d be happy to share it with you. If you sign up using my affiliate link* I’d be happy to spend an hour with you (at no extra charge) to figure out your best strategies and workflows for using Searchie. Once you’re signed up please send me a screenshot of your subscription page and we’ll arrange a date/time to talk!

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