Wishpond
Here in part 2 of my two part video marketing series for Wishpond, I’m going to look at more advanced video marketing concepts. My first article looked exclusively at YouTube video marketing, and (as the 8,000 pound gorilla in the online video hosting world), you’re right to start there.
Today’s changing video marketing climate is happening due to the fact that a number of prominent online properties are seeing the enormity of video opportunities; and they’re tired of seeing it all go to YouTube.
This article looks at the nuances of each of these socially-driven video marketing opportunities so that you can understand how to better use them for your business.
YouTube leads: Who follows?
We all know that YouTube leads the pack by such a far margin it’s a wonder why anyone else bothers to join the race. With over 300 hours of video uploaded to YouTube every minute, and that video being shared all over social media, many online properties feel that they can cut a fair slice and keep people on their website.
The way that things have been for a very long time is someone will create a video on YouTube, then share it across social media. People would watch the YouTube videos either in a player on the social media site or they’d go to YouTube and watch it. Either way, the content, and more importantly ad revenue, were YouTube’s for the taking.
Have you ever seen The Social Network? If so, how well do you think Zuckerberg is feeling about all this traffic leaving his website for another? My guess is ‘not good’ as there is now:
- His company, Facebook doing video hosting
- Facebook property, Instagram, adding video hosting in 2013
- The competition, Twitter, starting video hosting
- The growth of Vine’s unique video hosting
Not only that, but I’ve heard rumours that Pinterest may start hosting video themselves (especially after their recent release of “Cinematic Pin ads last week).
How are you, the new video marketer, suppose to take all this on? Let me break it down for you so that you can see the smaller nuances between the video styles on each platform.
How video is different on Facebook
The most unique thing about video on Facebook is how you can now include a video in the ‘About’ section of your business page. This appears on the left hand side of your Timeline when people visit your page. Check it out on the BBC News Facebook page:
The Featured Video, as they’re calling it, is another tool for Facebook video marketers that’s available only to them. This is a video under their ‘Video’ tab which is prominently placed to draw attention. Here’s the BBC Video tab:
Both of these differences on Facebook give video marketers two key tools:
- The About tab video can be used as an introduction to what your business is all about. Or, if you have the brand recognition of BBC News, a place to put videos that you think will keep people on your page for longer.
- The Featured video can be your latest video, or it can be the one that keeps on getting you views – run with the popular choice and watch your content take off!
Both are powerful tools in your video marketing because, let’s face it, even my momma’s on Facebook – but she never uses YouTube.
Twitter video hosting
With just 140 characters to make a point, Twitter marketers have been uploading video URLs, then directly embedding videos, in Tweets for years to increase brand engagement. Now they can upload videos directly through the Twitter app, rather than posting them to YouTube and moving them over to Twitter.
The second aspect of Twitter video marketing that is unique to the platform is Twitter’s recently acquired Periscope app. Periscope allows you to broadcast video live over Twitter, taking real advantage of Twitter’s real time marketing strengths:
You can even use it to live broadcast interviews with the most famous drummer of all time:
Although you’ll be more likely to use it to live broadcast quickly from events, conferences, in-store sales, and other newsworthy happenings in your brand’s story.
Looping video opportunities on Vine and Instagram
Vine has had looping video since the beginning. Vine videos are (pretty much by definition) amateurish and low-budget (great for small businesses and marketing teams). Many marketers (like Converse, to the left) have latched onto this and created some great videos specifically for Vine’s looping video. I love this video as it captures your curiosity – “What exactly am I seeing here?”
The good news for video marketers is that Instagram videos now have this same feature. The value of videos that loop is in how it can really hammer home the brand message due to it being viewed over and over by one person.
But how do you get people to watch your looping video over and over again?
One way is to create a video specifically to look good when viewed multiple times, creating an endless effect (as Deer Whale Media has done to the left). Notice how the video begins and ends at the same place, creating a perfect loop. I also like the solid use of hashtags (great on the Vine platform where people use them extensively to search).
Or you can try to create a video series that makes repeat viewing a pleasure as people work to know more about the story and characters (as men’s style company Mr Porter, in conjunction with Mercedes, did a few months ago):
Any way you try it, video loops on both Vine and Instagram are unique to their platform, and will work to hammer home your brand message in short videos that can play forever.
So… many… choices…Won’t this kill my video marketing budget?
You’ve reached the end of this article and are now thinking ‘Great, thanks for spending my entire online marketing budget on JUST video marketing!’
Well, that doesn’t have to be the case as you don’t have to create brand new videos for each platform.
Think about these points:
Planning and editing can go a long way to stretch one video into many videos. When you’re getting your next YouTube video ready, plan to shoot a scene that can be looped on Vine or Instagram. Edit one for Twitter while you’re at it. These can be the teaser trailers for your YouTube video, a keen tactic in getting more YouTube subscribers to your channel from these other platforms.
Your Facebook and YouTube videos can be the same video. Be sure to write a great description with appropriate links on YouTube, and then write a status update with good hashtags on Facebook.
Twitter, Vine and Instagram videos are all approximately the same length. You can upload them to all three, realizing that it will only work best on the platform it was meant for. Just don’t create too many Twitter videos and stop create a looping video or two specifically for Vine/Instagram.
Fear not, brave video marketer, for you do not have to blow your entire marketing budget shooting unique videos endlessly. There are plenty of opportunities to use your one video in a number of settings and spend your budget wisely.
Which platforms are you excited to expand into with your video marketing? Discuss it with me in the comments below, and let’s talk about ideas on how we can use video outside of YouTube.
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