Tag Archives: internet video

Facebook 5th Largest Video Site

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Techcrunch reports today that Facebook has quietly become the 5th largest online video destination on the Web, tripling its video views over the past year.  Facebook has always been an important video destination in my opinion, because video is a powerful social object that can be extremely effective in social media optimization (SMO).  In fact, some spot data analysis I’ve done on my own news items shows that video posts to Facebook on average  receive more comments and likes than text and photo posts to the stream.

Couple the huge user base with a growing affinity for video content and video’s affinity for EdgeRank and there is no reason to think that Facebook will go anywhere but up when it comes to its importance as a video sharing and viewing site.

From Techcrunch:

Facebook is climbing the rankings fast enough: comScore pegged its number of unique U.S. viewers at 13.3 million in April last year, so that means its viewership more than tripled in a year, according to the audience measurement firm.

Thus, Facebook has quietly nestled itself in the number 5 spot, just behind Yahoo Sites, Fox Interactive Media and Vevo. According to comScore, Facebook videos currently draw a bigger audience than known names like Microsoft, CBS, Hulu and Viacom.

via And Now For Facebook’s Next Trick: Video.

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Small business video marketing – using a call to action

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video call to action

I recently had the opportunity to write a guest column about online video marketing over at ReelSEO, and I focused on the importance of including a call to action in your video to encourage viewers to take action after watching.   Whether it’s subscribing to your YouTube channel, sharing the video with a friend, visiting a website or your store; a call to action is critical to creating measurable ROI for your video marketing program.

Here’s an excerpt of HOW TO: Create a Call to Action in Small Business Video, read the rest over at ReelSEO:

A video without a strong CTA is a missed opportunity for a small business looking to create new business from their video marketing. This is an important difference between video marketing for big brands and video marketing for small businesses. A large brand can post a video and use “softer” measures of success such as reach, brand recall, and impressions, but small businesses have limited budgets and success is measured in terms of ringing the cash register.

Image via ReelSEO.

Disclosure: I work for TurnHere. We make and promote video for small businesses.

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Google loves video – set to launch WebM Project

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Dan Rayburn reports that Google is making a major announcement tomorrow around the open-sourcing of its VP8 video codec.  This is a big deal because if Google throws its considerable weight behind an opensource VP8 codec and HTML 5 it could be another serious blow to Adobe Flash as the developers’ video delivery platform of choice.

From Google’s New Video Platform Called The “WebM Project”

Between all the details that are starting to come out about Google’s announcement tomorrow, it’s clear that Google’s going to be doing a lot more than just open-sourcing the VP8 video codec. And if the rumors I heard from earlier today are true, and Google does in fact have or will have hardware support for VP8, then their announcement is going to be a really big deal.

Google is serious about video. Tomorrow’s announcement comes on the heels of YouTube’s 5th birthday where YouTube product manager, Hunter Walk, predicted the end of “online video” and the rise of ubiquitous high-quality video across any screen – streamed through just one channel, yours.

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The Online Video Business Equation

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I love this online video monetization formula from the Brightcove blog:

More Content + More Places = More Audience
More Audience + Right Experience = More Money

It’s simple on purpose but also holds a lot of questions that need further thinking. For example “more audience,” what type of audience? More of who? When is enough is enough? If you’re a local pizza place is your “more” the 15,000 people who eat pizza in your zip code or is it millions of views on YouTube? Is it both?

I think you can answer each of the 4 elements (content, places, audience, experience) with the following questions to help drive this strategy further:

  • What do my customers (potential customers) want to see?
  • Where are they most likely to watch it?
  • Who is my audience I’m trying to reach?
  • How do I create an experience that creates value for us both?
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Stop Praying for Viral Video

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Beyond Viral book by Kevin Nalts McNalty

If you work in the online video space for more than 30-seconds you’re bound to get asked this question, “How do I make a viral video?”  Spend more than 30 days in the industry and you’ll feel like Brett Wilson, CEO of TubeMogul feels about the phrase viral video:

There are a few buzzwords that irk me. First is “viral video.” A viral video is a rare and beautiful thing, but we know that only about .33 percent of videos on YouTube have over a million views, and there are a lot that are effective that have far fewer views (53 percent of videos on YouTube have less than 500 views). People throw around this term carelessly to describe any video made for the web. Let’s just use the term web video. I was cheering when Rob Davis from Ogilvy said the same thing on stage this week at the Brightcove Video Monetization Summit in NY.

He’s not the only one.  Kevin “Nalts” McNalty is currently writing a book on online video called, appropriately, Beyond Viral, which we hope comes out sooner than later.

And to add two more to the growing crowd of those with a distaste for the words viral video, check out Mike Arauz’s presentation (slides + audio) from SXSW ’10, Web Video Thunderdome, where he lobbies instead for the term “spreadable” or “shareable” videos.

Oh, and of course you can add one more name to the petition to stop praying for viral video – me.

Thinking is Fun

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thinking_is_funHere’s a great little retro video from the UK’s David Sillis. The vintage style and effects applied to make it seem like a 1970′s science class movie display an attention to detail that makes it feel authentic, while the subject matter makes the whole thing sublimely absurd.  Well done.

As one of my favorite blogs, Kitsune Noir, says:

It’s cheesy as all hell but that’s the fun of it.

Enjoy the clip:

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Video for Goverment 2.0

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I had the pleasure of presenting with OCTA’s Sarah Swensson at the OCTA‘s Government 2.0 Deluxe Edition. My topic was how local government agencies can use online video to communicate with the public in an engaging, transparent and open way that creates better relationships and greater interest from constituents.

The day focused on how local government agencies can use the tools of the social web to promote transparency and democracy, proving that social media isn’t just for the race for the White House. My focus was on YouTube, but there’s tons of additional video opportunities out there. I hope to have the opportunity to help continue the conversation around video in future events.

It was an energizing day and it was so refreshing to see local agencies that are often maligned by the public as obsolete and unresponsive taking time out of their day to learn about how to communicate through these new social computing technologies.

What do you think? How can local government agencies connect better with the public through these new tools?

Here’s a brief video overview with a couple of clips of me presenting. Enjoy!

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