Five years ago, the first video was posted on YouTube. A year later, in 2006, YouTube reported that 65,000 videos were uploaded daily. In January 2009, 15 hours of video were uploaded to YouTube every minute. According to Mashable that’s the equivalent of Hollywood releasing over 86,000 new full-length movies into theaters each week!
What does this mean to your group, business or organization? Video is 52 times more likely to show up on the first page of Google search results, which is where you want your audience to find you. The rising trend of uploading video illustrates that more and more people are looking toward video for more interesting communications.
Through video we receive a combined stimulation of the visual and auditory senses that creates an emotional response that can’t be accomplished by a website or in a blog post, tweet or facebook message alone. However, simply uploading a video to YouTube in hopes that people will search and find it inside of the site won’t work. The video needs to be part of your overall strategy for social media marketing and embedded in your website, and posted on your Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and other social media accounts.
I have had the opportunity to consult with many businesses and nonprofits about effectively using video for their promotions, and the one piece of advice I always share is: don’t use video to tell viewers something, use video to show viewers something. If what you are offering isn’t showable, don’t create a video or find a way to visually illustrate your message, like in this YouTube video Social Media Revolution that has generated over 1 million views.
Also, don’t post a video just to have a video up on YouTube; the concept and content must be inspirational, educational and/or entertaining or you’ll just look desperate.
After you’ve posted your video and disseminated to all of your social network contacts, ask them to share it and make sure you reply to the comments that people post to the video. After all, the goals for social media marketing are to build community, connect with your audience, build collaborations and stimulate conversation so don’t let the conversation end with you. When you are ready to create your next video, make sure to answer the questions generated by your first video.
Are you using video as part of your social media marketing strategy? If so, share it with us here.
Film for Good! 