I attended a seminar this week all about ‘social video’ – its rise, its future and how to use it to your advantage.
It was a great seminar so I thought I’d share the main points:
Big brands: Most big brands have YouTube channels but very few are making it work. They’re still trying to push their videos out rather than creating videos that people actually want. Remember: big brands need humanising and video is great for that. You can instantly give the company a human face through video.
Three main types of social video:
- Branded entertainment – also known as viral, e.g. T-Mobile Royal Wedding. Cost a lot but often fail because they’re not as funny as brands think they are.
- Online TV ads
- Product demos – reviews, how to, tutorials. 96% of people who watch these do so for purchase consideration. Good examples are ‘unboxing’ videos of new gadgets and ASOS’s catwalk videos where you can actually see the clothes on a real person
Hot tip: don’t spend money on trying to get people to share your videos (buying ads, etc), they either will or they won’t. Make the video good enough to start with / what people want.
Related videos and scheduling: Most YouTube traffic will come from related videos, i.e. the recommended videos on the right of the one you’re watching. You can appear here more by researching when your competitors post their videos and posting yours at the same time. You should also post videos at the same time, on the same day each week to so subscribers know when to expect them.
Personal interest videos: E.g. bow tie or hair and make-up tutorials. These are the foundation of YouTube and make up 54% of the total content. You can’t get these on Sky TV so people go to YouTube.
Info graphic videos: Cheap to produce and people love them. All you need is a bit of music and graphic design. My favourites by far are Erik Qualman’s Socialnomics series. If you haven’t watched them, do it now (or after you’ve finished reading this post)!
Partner channels: Once you become a partner channel on YouTube you can upload your own thumbnails rather than selecting from the ones automatically pulled through by YouTube. This means you can have visually appealing ones designed that are more attractive, more professional, and more likely to be clicked on.
Vine: Is becoming big very quickly. It’s easy to do, affordable and it works. These videos are very shareable. They are great for increasing your Twitter following and let you show off your creativity. Even just talking about Vine videos can boost your Twitter following… apparently!
So, what do you think – will video truly rule social before long?
Marketing and PR blog by Rebecca Hills 