Maximize your video's value from these top 3 social sites as mobile video dominates internet tra
It's official, as month-after-month, 2015 proves that mobile has risen to become the leading digital platform and overtaken desktop traffic - and video dominates that growth
(Source: comScore).
The total number of mobile subscriptions in Q1 2015 was around 7.2 billion and Smartphone subscriptions are set to more than double by 2020. By that time, 70 percent of the world ́s population will have a smartphone and Ericsson's report forecast indicates that there will be more than 26 billion connected devices by 2020.
In most mobile networks today, 40–60 percent of video traffic is from YouTube. Mobile video in general is forecast to grow by around 55 percent annually through to 2020, when it will account for around 60 percent of all mobile data traffic (Source: Ericsson Mobility Report June 2015).
You are using video in your marketing strategies, right? If not, you might be comforted to know that businesses, both small and large, have not yet equaled their marketing budgets on mobile digital as they are with traditional print, tv or radio spending - which is behind where customers are choosing to point their eyeballs and the perfect opportunity to be ahead of the competition!
(Source: KPCB 2015 Internet Trends Report)
Business needs to also realize the incredible growth of online ecommerce via social media. At the moment it may have a small share of total online retail sales, but its impact is becoming impossible to ignore.
A 2014 report from Business Insider Intelligence has analyzed social media's role in online sales with the use of embedded ' Buy' buttons. In the graph below we can see the power of organic search combined with paid search for online retail sales and note the 198% year-over-year increase in social channels.
(Source: BI Intelligence)
Looking at the above, it is easy to see why I love YouTube search and is my first recommendation when focusing your video marketing promotion.
The research above illustrates the staggering importance of video on social media and these channels cannot be ignored if you want to succeed. So, let's discuss how we can leverage the maximum potential of our video advertising and marketing campaigns on both mobile and web.
1) YouTube
YouTube boasts one billion unique users per month on mobile with an average viewing session of 40 minutes. Moreover, most internet searches begin on Google or YouTube. YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world and Google, the largest search engine, ranks all YouTube videos highest in SEO. Although Facebook is a fast growing video medium, I still favor YouTube for its ability to successfully engage viewers with long duration videos and its fantastic search statistics (Source: YouTube press).
I've written more about the pros and cons of YouTube here: Not using YouTube for your property or real estate videos? Then you are losing potential sales and although this post is targeted to Real Estate agents, more than 95% of the information is applicable to business, small or large.
YouTube offers numerous free tools to increase click through rates to your website, contests, promotions or other call-to-actions, lets take a look at the various ways to do this.
FREE YouTube options
Bake it in
The most customizable way to add a call-to-action, is by having your video editor design one right in the video itself. By having total control over the look and feel of your call to action, you keep your brand identity on point and within Google you can have a transparent annotation over any specific area of your call-to-action. Needless to say, this type of design is limitless as to the type or link you may add.
Below is an example of how Hishe uses clickable annotations at the end of their video to drive viewers to more videos, their merchandise store as well as to subscribe to their channel. These are simple endcard annotations that were built directly in YouTube - but, your video editor could create graphics that better represent your brand. YouTube analytics can report if your annotations are distracting by checking the percentage of people who close the annotation and as well you can compare reports of how your annotations are performing against others.
(Source: Hishe)
Cards
YouTube has added a new preformatted feature called Cards that they promote as annotations on steroids - haha. They are great for video content managers that are unable to edit original video footage to create totally customized options. Below is YouTube's video explaining how Cards work. YouTube analytics can also report how well your cards are doing.
(Source: YouTube)
Featured content
YouTube introduced featured content which promotes a playlist or video from your channel across all of your uploads at one time. It includes tracking of how many users click on your featured content.
Video descriptions
I've spoken at length about the importance of your video descriptions and you can read more here: SEO optimization for video in 5 easy steps, but in short they are the most important way for your video to be discovered via search. Read the link, it's worth it!
You can learn more about each of these free call-to-action options at YouTube's Creator Academy.
PAID YouTube options
Of course, there are more way to get your video marketing campaigns in front of more potential customers and below I've briefly highlighted the paid ways to do so. These options can really expand your reach and of course are customizable to the demographics you choose to pay for.
YouTube advertising formats include Display ads, Overlay ads, Skippable video ads, Non-skippable video ads and Sponsored cards.
In 2015, YouTube also added social shopping via TrueView pre-roll videos. Ads can now display products related to the content of the video being viewed - and be purchased directly via 'buy now' buttons. You can find specifics about YouTube's advertising formats here: YouTube ads and below the graphic illustrates how the ads are viewed on each YouTube video page.
(Source: YouTube)
2) Facebook
Facebook now reports up to 4 billion video views per day (Source: International Business Times) - in large part because it has included auto-play (a feature that will play videos as a user hovers over the content). There has been some negative comments regarding auto-play as Facebook counts each auto-play as a view, even if that view is less than 3 seconds. However, knowledge is power and if you decide to market videos on Facebook keep that initial time in mind when crafting the beginning of your video.
Facebook allows you to directly upload videos or link to YouTube/Vimeo videos, however, non directly uploaded videos are penalized in their display algorithm.
Facebook has no free features or options for call-to-actions to increase click through rates. Since early 2015, facebook claims that they wish their audience to have the most pleasurable experience possible and this means that they are also cutting the amount of organic views that a user will see from business pages they like. This is a direct effort by Facebook to monetize their platform and now it is pay-to-play, as they say.
It is difficult to get accurate current statistics of Facebook reach for business pages, however there have been numerous articles complaining of less than 2% reach in 2015 and it will just become worse as time passes by - uggh. Below is a graph from TechCrunch April 2014 article which shows abysmal figures as far back as two years ago.
PAID Facebook options
Facebook has Standard Video Ads as well as Premium Video Ads. The Premium video will auto-play, as the Standard Video ad will, but when tapped it expands to a full-screen view. Facebook also has numerous customizable marketing options that allow you to specifically target your audience through demographics, location, interest, behavior or connection - all of which you can configure.
(Source: Facebook ad essentials)
3) Twitter
I love Twitter because of it's potential organic reach as well as the huge engagement opportunities and continue to use it daily. Twitter has always been a mobile-first platform and has over 700 million monthly users. You can upload or link your videos directly in Twitter and if you choose, you can target users based on geography, gender, language, keyword, interest and username as a promoted video ad.
You have an option, like Facebook, of directly uploading video to Twitter which will be limited to 30 seconds or linked to a YouTube/Vimeo video (in which case there is no limit to duration).
FREE tools to promote Twitter videos
The most common way to increase your reach is to simply add a hashtag (#) to the text accompanying your video. Using a hashtag includes your comment into any existing discussions - but, be sure to make them relevant. Hashtags can be especially powerful if they are tied to an event, regional or national. (Source: Twitter support)
Twitter Chat (aka: Tweet Chat)
Twitter chats have become more and more common as industry professionals and like minded people get together to discuss a topic in real time. It is also an amazing way to interact and connect with your fans and followers. Imagine pre-promoting your new product video or service video to a select group to increase your business buzz. You can learn more by reading Twitter Chats 101: A Step-by-Step Guide to Hosting or Joining a Twitter Chat
PAID Twitter marketing options
Twitter Cards
According to SocialBro, Twitter advertising generates leads at 1/3 the cost of other marketing channels and has an 8-24 time higher click-through rate than Facebook ads. Ok then, lets take a closer look.
There are App Cards, Gallery Cards, Lead Generation Cards, Photo Cards, Player Cards, Product Cards, Summary Cards and Website Cards and each has a specific job depending on your goals.
Conclusion
Oh my gosh, there are so many ways to leverage your online videos with these top social sites that this is just the tip of the iceberg and the statistics show that you must be in this space - no matter if you are a small or large organization - because your customers increasingly using these channels to determine their purchasing decisions and are coming to you with more information than ever before - and the job of you and your sales team is to help guide them through their inquiries to that final purchase.
If you see the value in including video in your marketing strategy, but don't know how to get started, I have a great post titled 8 tactical ideas for your small business video marketing plan in 2016 that will help inspire you and your marketing team.
Of course there are numerous ways to use video across social sites and In an upcoming post I'll be discussing various live social media video options, such as Twitters Periscope or Meerkat, Facebook's Live video and YouTube's Live video.
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I craft compelling and original videos that can bring life to your product or service,
give me a call at 604-356-1144 or email me at PBWX@outlook.com
PalbergWERX Creative Direction
Let me help you create a video that will represent your company's brand and values
as well as resonate and engage your customers - and that is the recipe for increased sales.