Social Video Marketing: A Missed Opportunity
Do you think video is only for the big brands with big budgets?
If you haven’t explored short video for your business, you may be missing out on an
opportunity for more reach and shares.
What is Social Video and why is it important?
By definition it simply means digital video designed to be shared through social networks.
Social media videos needs to be digital, or optimized for digital channels. Videos that work on television may not work on an iPad.
Social video also needs to be shareable. You’re not just optimizing for the channel, but for share-ability as well. Different things make content shareable, from the emotions it induces to the traditional story structures it uses.
And finally, these videos needs to be designed for social networks. Video appears in different ways on different social networks, and each network has a unique audience. You need to keep these things in mind when creating social media videos and potentially edit the same video in different ways for each network.
Social video’s importance can be seen in rise of platforms like Instagram video, Vine and even Snapchat. It can also be seen in more recent developments, from Facebook’s purchase of Oculus Rift
Social video is also important because of its primary audience. Its growth is fueled by millennials (approx 18-33) who grew up with online video and spend a growing number of hours on their phones and laptops and a shrinking number of hours in front of the television.
Video is also unique in its ability to convey a powerful message to viewers, in a way that static forms of content can’t. Social networks also favour video in their algorithms, knowing that this rich form of content is more appreciated by users. Plus, video comes with special advantages on social networks and online in general. You may only have 140 characters for your Tweet, but you can also include a video in a Twitter Card for greater appeal to your followers. Videos get a thumbnail preview in Google search results that make them more clickable as well.
Businesses that don’t invest in video risk being left behind. Almost 70 per cent of businesses said their budgets for online videos would increase in 2014. It’s clear that companies are beginning to recognize the power of these videos. If you’re not investing in social video, your competitors probably are.
Social media videos can deliver impressive ROI. This is probably the only point you will care about the most. Production and distribution costs associated with video have plummeted in recent years. That coupled with the value of earned media you can drive from a truly shareable video makes this one of the most effective forms of content marketing.
How does Social Video Marketing Fit Into Your Marketing Plan?
Brand Awareness. It’s simply a matter of reaching your consumers where they are. If you work as a real estate agent, videos from inside new homes may not go viral across the web, but can be very shareable amongst prospective home buyers in your area.
Employer Branding. It allows you to show a more fun or hidden side of your company, regardless of how ‘boring’ it might seem from the outside. Even accounting firms (sorry accounting firms!) can have great company culture. Social video is a fantastic means to lift the veil on your business and attract new applicants.
Lead Generation. Make sure you focus on creating compelling video and don’t be afraid to make your initial call-to-action simply a share button. Once the video has been shared you can point the interested audience to more complex lead generation channels.
Customer Support. By using social video to answer customer inquiries, you get to answer the question in a very visual and personal way, which makes it easier for your clients to learn a solution. You also create something that is more shareable than a lengthy thread of discussions, which makes it more likely that other people facing the same issues will find that solution.
10 Quick Benefits (with Stats)
Customers watch more video - 78% watch 1 vid per week, 92% of B2B watch online video, 34% of shoppers more likely to purchase after watching a video.
Video is helping your competition - including email, greatly improves consumer engagement.
Easily searchable - 70 % of top google search listings are video results.
Video is Mobile - accounts for 50% of all mobile traffic, 85% of marketers plan to increase mobile advertising budgets, 30% of mobile ads have an 88% completion rate.
Behaviour Analytics - YouTube and other video hosting sites provide extensive viewer data that can give you deep insight into the behavoir of viewers who interact with your videos.
Conversions - increases odds of purchasing by as much as 35%.
Efficiency - software developers are continually finding new ways to integrate sites so that video messages can be easily shared and broadcast via social networking channels.
SEO - Google, Bing, Yahoo, and other internet search sites/engines have made video a key factor in their search formulas. The more videos on your website, the higher the search rankings.
Emotional Benefits - Videos offer the opportunity to use sight and sound to connect emotionally with viewers via storytelling. Video entertains and influences viewers by invoking a series of emotions that result from showing images that connect to their hearts and their brains with your product or service.
Social Media Sharing - More than 500 years worth of video are watched daily on Facebook. More than 700 videos are shared on Twitter every minute. Video sharing is a large part of social media, and social media is a great way to get your message out there in a fun and share-able way.
While you might naturally think of YouTube when you think of video, it’s not the only platform embracing video content.Given how large this video phenomenom has become and how popular video has grown across the internet, others are setting out to jump on the digital video bandwagon in hopes of achieving comparable success. Not only have most social media sites now been swamped with massive amounts of video content, but an array of new and innovative video sharing platforms have sprung up to bring this form of visual content to center stage.
"Yes, Your honour, I am guilty!" A portion of my own spare time is now being devoted to watching instructional YouTube videos on you guessed it - How To Make A YouTube Video.
I truly wish that I had devoted more time to video production in past years, so now I am making it a priority when time permits.
Here are some of the top video sharing platforms to get your business discovered and drive additional conversions:
Vimeo. Vimeo is geared toward filmmakers, artists, professional videographers, or anyone else who seeks to share high quality work. Vimeo provides a multitude of benefits for producing videos such as free video tutorials, a stock music library, and translation and subtitling tools.
Instagram. Instagram is a photo and video sharing service that has gained massive success and momentum over the past few years. The company’s mission is, “to capture and share the world’s moments” and that is exactly what they have been doing with an estimated worth of $35 million. The platform provides users with various tools such as a multitude of filters, an image stabilization feature for shaky videos, as well as numerous other means to develop videos with a slightly more professional feel. Instagram videos can range anywhere between three and fifteen seconds.
The site itself is owned by Facebook. This ownership allows for simple and easy integration of cross-promotion efforts. At the end of the day, having these two sites linked together will allow additional followers to be gained from both portals, regardless of which one the brand was discovered on.
Vine. Alongside Instagram is Vine. By now, most have seen these short, typically funny, six second snippets around the internet. These videos are often looped, which is excellent for product demonstrations or comedic effect. By taking advantage of this looping process or stop motion, businesses have the opportunity to develop some highly informative and creative videos. This is important in an era where the average attention span is constantly diminishing due to sensory overload.
Vine is owned by Facebook’s largest competitor, Twitter. Because of this, there are similar advantages to using Vine. Twitter’s control over the platform enables the integration of hashtags and the same ability for cross-promotion between websites.Ocho. Somewhat new to the video sharing game, the free app Ocho gives users access to a plethora of videos slightly longer than Vine’s. On Ocho, video creators get an additional two seconds, allowing for 8 second videos to be generated. Backed by billionaire and Dallas Mavericks owner, Mark Cuban, Ocho serves up a continuous stream of clips for users to enjoy. In an announcement about the app, Cuban stated that, “Ocho is redefining the way we share our stories through creating a powerful, video-based social network in a way that hasn’t been possible until now.
This new video platforms gives users the ability to narrate videos after the initial shooting with a voiceover feature. Additionally, all videos are shot with a 16:9 aspect ratio even if users hold the phone horizontally or vertically.
Ocho also flaunts the fact that comments can only be made in the form of a video reply. The lack of a text reply will keep people accountable for what is said in comments, largely cutting down on the “troll” factor. If you are unfamiliar with the term “troll” visit the YouTube’s comments section.
MikMak. MikMak is a brand new iOS video app currently available only on the iPhone 5, 5s, 6, and 6+ devices. This app seeks to revolutionize infomercials to be geared more towards the millennial generation. MikMak produces 30 second “minimericals” selling devices or products. Gadgets, jewelry, kitchenware, and home goods (all priced at less than $100) are some of the things that one can expect to find. The short videos are designed to be fun to watch and funny in content.
I Think You Get The Picture ...
now I'm gonna go away and study some more videos and get to it
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