Thinking Critically About Web Video
Web video is hot. Some say your opportunity to be a pioneer.
How hot, and how much of an opportunity? Recent intelligence from comScore, consistently say more than 80% of the total U.S. Internet consultation views online video in a agreed month. YouTube’s fact sheet states every minute, 24 hours of video is uploaded to the network and 2 billion videos are being watched per day.
All this popularity has of course been driving a trend with marketers: the desire to make video as part of their digital marketing mix. Except alas, it’s nearly never approached strategically.
Agency-side marketing/PR/digital pros: how many era have you had a client approach you after making a web video and said “hey, we made this video, now make it go viral!”
Client-side marketing professionals: how many of you have had a CMO suddenly learn web video, only to enthusiastically push the team to concept something “because our competitors are doing it.”
Due to these mistakes (and many others) most companies get web video dead incorrect. Their content is too advertorial, there is a lack of genuine reason anyone would want to watch it, let alone pass it on. It doesn’t pass the all vital “so what” test of web content and feels contrived or lacks creativity. And these are really just surface level problems, it goes deeper than that.
The real question you need to question yourself is why am I making web video? What marketing problem does it answer, and how does it answer it? How does it feed digital marketing KPI/objective metrics? Am I doing it because I read an article about it in AdAge or because it’s an elegant way to express my brand’s tale to the world?
“Let’s make something viral” vs. let’s make an ongoing dialogue
By now, most companies know blogging. And all knows you’d never make just one (even fantastic) blog post and be done with it. No matter how well loved that post was, just one blog post is not likely to provide long term value for your brand. You need to continue making posts over time until you have a large opt-in consultation that’s consistently spreading your content organically. Consider the fact that a web video is not too uncommon than a blog post. Successful text and video are both content formats that can be passed on socially, and successful archetypes of each share similar qualities.
Yet, the business world seems to house web video up on a pedestal as if it’s some magic creature that plays by uncommon rules merely because it’s video. The rules are not all that uncommon, and apply for both formats of content for it to spread socially. Making one video that catches on may be nice, but this does not take advantage of the larger opportunity the web affords: to build up an consultation of right fans who genuinely want to follow your every word carefully.
Poorly conceptualized content has no opportunity
Small of publicity and interrupting users, there’s not much you can do to make awareness for a poorly conceptualized video lacking the proper hooks. On the web, publicity is content – there is no captive consultation and viewers can and will ignore your promotions if your videos aren’t worthwhile. It has to be fascinating, relevant and sticky if it has any opportunity of getting passed on. And with a firehose of content being uploaded to to the web, most web video is likely to be lost in perpetual obscurity, perhaps agreed some life from search engines.
Unless you’re a massive brand with deep pockets that can work with a high-paid creative team to concept some remarkable content, you’re likely better off by video as you would any other social content. In other words: use it to connect with your audiences in a genuine, meaningful way that follows your larger content strategy.
The best part about treating video as you would any other digital content, is just like text: if you produce lots of it and experiment, you can commence to learn video content archetypes that work for you. Then, and only then, can you start to get agile with your video content production and iteratively get better until you can consistently make stuff that catches on.
With that said…you still need a community
Web video by itself is tactical. If you’re serious about influencing the social web you still need a community that’s interested in getting all types of your content being published in a channel agnostic fashion. Simply place, you need to build up a group who has affinity for your brand, its team members and thoughts. Without this you’re not feeding something larger. Even if you have a well loved video with hundreds of thousands or millions of views, what’s the point if you’re not continuing the dialogue over time and nurturing those relationships?
Conclusion
Ignoring the “viral video” bug many have been bitten by, web video is an opportunity for your brand and should likely be a part of your content marketing mix. But reckon critically about how it plays into your larger content strategy, and know your reason for being with making digital content in the first house.
Placing web video on a pedestal, as if it’s so uncommon from any other digital content, is the incorrect approach. It has to be just as astute, creative and relevant as your text-based content. Perhaps more so since we can’t just scan a video and get the gist of it. And just like your written content you will need to build an consultation before you can have consistent success.
For long term results, experiment and play around with presentation, formatting and thoughts. Work to learn what it is your audiences react to and ensure that video is made in a way that benefits your larger social and SEO programs.
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© Online Marketing Blog, 2010. | Thinking Critically About Web Video | http://www.toprankblog.com