It’s no secret that online video is on the upswing. It has been for years—and the wave is showing no signs of crashing.
The organic reach and engagement of video over photos or text-only posts is very well known —any marketing or PR pro will tell you that. But if you need evidence, Snapchat has it for you.
The video messaging app has exploded in popularity since launching in 2011 from CEO Evan Spiegel’s father’s living room. Speaking with Bloomberg recently, Spiegel spilled some Snapchat numbers, and they’re telling of the state of video consumption today.
The platform has 100 million daily users (to wit, Twitter has 300 million monthly users), 65 per cent of whom upload video content daily. According to Spiegel, this translates into two billion video views on Snapchat every day.
Cisco ran some numbers of its own lately, also. What it found is that by 2019, nearly three-quarters of the world’s mobile traffic will be video-based (from 55 per cent in 2014).
Taken together, these numbers indicate that in 2015 online video may still have a lot of room to grow.
So what does it all mean? How can you leverage this growing medium, to make sure that you and your brand catch and ride the wave? And if you have already, how can you do it better?
Video blog pioneer and all-around new media savant Steve Garfield explains how best to leverage this ever-growing trend:
- Show yourselves: All too often, companies’ identities are impersonal, rolled up in their image and branding. Casual video is the best way to remind consumers that companies are actually just groups of people. “Companies are made up of people, and people have stories. (And) video is the best way to tell a story.” Simple as that.
- Set your videos free: One of the worst things you can do with video is cage it. Instead of only posting it to your site and waiting for views, put it on YouTube, on Vimeo, everywhere you can, and link back to your site. This is inbound marketing in a nutshell.
- Just do it: To incorporate videos into your marketing strategy, Garfield maintains they don’t have to be professionally shot and edited. What matters more is the content (as always) ━ that it’s entertaining and educational, and that the human element, that passion, shows through. Just start with whatever you have ━ no matter if the budget’s nil and the equipment’s an iPhone ━ and get them out there. Rather than making them perfect, focus on simply making them.
- But don’t do this: Perhaps ironically, the No. 1 thing to avoid in video is bad audio. If your audience can’t understand what’s being said, it doesn’t matter how pretty or engaging the visuals might be—they’ll lose interest in a split second.
Video’s not so much the digital darling of the moment as it is the new way of doing things. And with the evidence of its staggering reach and impact (which MediaMiser can help you monitor and measure), there’s no excuse for you not to be on board. Do as Garfield says━create videos, tell stories, post everywhere━and watch your footprint grow.
