by CHICKMELIONfreelance
There is a lot of chatter lately about the emergence of a new internet marketing medium called Social Video. In the hustle and bustle of a million and one entrepreneurs jockeying to get themselves in the fore front of the public’s eye amid this vast sea called the web; this medium makes a whole lot of sense. I don't know about you, but on a daily basis I am inundated with words... some days I am so inundated I can’t even type straight.
I joke with my friends that a troll comes in the night and switches my keyboard keys around. My spell check is doing overtime! In all reality we all are doing a lot of reading. Whether it be road signs to and from work, labels, bills, directions, mis-directions, re-directions, white papers, scrap papers... well you get were I am heading. I kind of like the idea of sitting back and having things presented to me... I find that I absorb more information, remember the facts easier, tend to actually go through the whole material instead of skim the surface. That is good news for a marketer! No doubt this is exactly why Social Media Video is taking off like a storm.
I attended a web seminar not too long ago put on by: Mike Koenig whose site is Market Yourself Video (marketyourselfwithvideo.com/video2.html) and I learned with a few tid-bits. For one; the potential for marketing via video is crazy and I am going to quote Mike’s stats directly :
Social media video is one of the hottest, most effective ways to sell virtually anything over the Internet
1) People really like to watch short videos. Consider these facts:
• 30 billion videos are watched in the U.S. every month
• Almost 60% of all web traffic is video
• 100 million people view online videos each month in the United States.
• The average duration of an online video watched is 3.5 minutes.
Secondly, I learned that the amount of social video vehicles available was a whole lot more substantial than I would have guessed.. I counted at least 58 or more sites that you can upload your video to, with YouTube(c) as the giant of all. That is a phenomenal reach and according to Mike Koenig with a nominal investment you can drive targeted visitors to your site and benefit from the SEO bonuses because of it.
Do you need a large production company to direct and produce a 3.5 minute commercial for you? Mike Koenig claims not! He suggests that you think of five objections you can turn into selling points, or answer 5 questions your market may ask you about your business or product and generate five mini conversations around these. Why 5? Well apparently to keep things viral and the hungry viewer satisfied. If they like what they saw they will want more and you had better be prepared to give it to them. Five seems to be the number acceptable to keep the hungry viewer satisfied and give you a toe hold as an authority on your subject.
With all this in mind, I thought I would give it a try myself to see what I can come up with. Armed with just my graphics program, windows movie maker and a bit of imagination I threw together a few commercials. Heck, I have to admit, I had fun doing it too! You might want to give it a try yourself! This is a trend that is not going to die out. I am sure you will find yourself down the road looking for the resources to get in on Social Video Marketing . And I wish you the best of luck with it. After all it is the successes of small businesses that builds a strong economy.
