Video - A Must Have for Marketers

SmartBrief on Social Media tracks feedback from leading marketers about social media practices and issues. This week, marketers were asked: Do you incorporate video elements into your social media presence?

The results:
Yes, and they have been very successful: 42.16%
We’d like to create videos, but we’re not sure how: 28.43%
No, we have no plans to produce videos: 17.65%
Yes, but the results have been disappointing: 11.76%

Video as a form of content for your social media and content-marketing efforts has reached must-have status.
According to a survey in May by the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project, “71% of online Americans use video-sharing sites such as YouTube and Vimeo, up from 66% a year earlier.” Further, in The State of Online Video presentation in January, comScore’s Dan Piech said “89 million people in the U.S. are going to watch 1.2 billion videos … today.” So, if I were to say that online video has grown in popularity, it would be such a ridiculous understatement.

The growth of broadband Internet access combined with increased computing power in smartphones and mobile devices makes watching online video possible just about anywhere — literally. You can watch video when standing in an aisle at Costco Wholesale, sitting in a doctor’s office waiting for a flu shot or lying on a couch during a commercial break. Simply put, online video has become omnipresent, only a click and a second or two away from our viewing pleasure.

Why? For some, such as busy executives, watching video is simply easier. Consider this finding from Forbes Insights study “Video in the C-Suite: Executives Embrace the Non-Text Web”: “Three-quarters (75%) of executives surveyed said they watch work-related videos on business-related websites at least weekly.” Also, “65% have visited a vendor’s website after watching a video.”

So not only are we seeing increased frequency of viewing but also that video is effectively influencing our online behavior. And, as SmartPulse results show, 42% of you are seeing that success. For the 28% that are not sure how to get started, If you need help contact VMakers.com at 888.712.8211 or info@VMakers.com. For those not planning video, the resources in this article  should convince you of your need to get started.
-Jeremy Victor, SmartBrief

Need help creating and marketing your videos?
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Video Marketing From The "Hollywood" Studio Pros.
The team behind your favorite TV shows and movies, including: Ellen, Seinfeld, Whitney, How I Met Your Mother, The Disney Channel and more. 

New IAB Guidelines Bring More Transparency To Video Advertising

Networks & Exchanges Quality Assurance Guidelines

The current ad networks and ad exchanges marketplace is complex and confusing. Over 1 million web sites carry advertising, and there are reports of 300+ ad networks and ad exchanges. Web page content can change constantly and dynamically. The IAB Quality Assurance Guidelines are intended to demystify ad networks and ad exchanges. These guidelines are designed specifically for networks & exchanges who are principals in transactions with marketers and agencies. However, these guidelines do not apply to ad exchanges that are technology platforms only, providing tools to enable direct media buying and selling between participants.

2 key objectives for the buying community:
- Provide detailed information for:
- Acquiring Inventory
- Contextual Taxonomy & Targeting
- Inventory Vetting
- Data Disclosure

Eliminate confusion through a common vocabulary for:
- Targeting
- Data

Networks & Exchanges that voluntarily agree to be certified against these guidelines are providing marketers & agencies with a standardized approach that is designed to make buying easier and to give increased control over where ads are placed. Marketers & Agencies will have greater brand safety assurances that ads will not appear next to content that they decide is inappropriate. For the first time, the US ad networks and ad exchanges market will be giving advertisers consistent and standardized information, serving to build greater marketplace trust.

Download Guidelines.

Need help creating and marketing your videos?
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Video Marketing From The "Hollywood" Studio Pros.
The team behind your favorite TV shows and movies, including: Ellen, Seinfeld, Whitney, How I Met Your Mother, The Disney Channel and more. 

Video is Imperative, Don't Get Left Behind!

Consumer and business usage of video is increasing at an astonishing rate. Cisco has estimated that video will increase from 30% of Internet traffic in 2010 to 90% by 2013. Online retailers are already using video, and service companies, manufacturing, and many others are also hopping on board. The scope of businesses that employ video and the different uses for video are expanding.

 The message is clear: people expect online video as a central element of a company’s communications strategy. No matter what sector of business you are in, incorporating video is an essential step in preparing yourself for the future of marketing.

73% of online retailers use video on product pages, which means that if you’re a retailer and you don’t have video on your site, you are officially in the minority, according to eMarketer. A recent survey by Industrial Marketing Today found that 50% of B2B manufacturers use YouTube as a channel to connect with their customers. Even service companies such as Charles Schwab are starting  to include videos on their websites.

Video can be used in various ways, which explains why more companies are using video to achieve business objectives. It is clearly beneficial for online retailers to demonstrate a product to their consumers. But what about answering potential questions about your company through video on a FAQ page? This way, you can efficiently inform your customer with a personal touch. Dell credits video with reducing service call volumes by 5%, and Virgin Mobile expects video to reduce call volumes by 14% in 2011(The Australian, December 2010).

Promotional videos can be placed on a landing page to endorse new products and services. Background video on a Web site can make the page feel interactive and exciting. The list of possibilities goes on. Companies are using video on more platforms as well. YouTube is a common channel that companies use, and it is the second most popular web site with 790 million unique monthly visitors, per ReelSEO. Other social media tools, such as Facebook and Twitter, integrate video into their systems and make it easier than ever for users to share videos with each other.

The use of video in emails is gaining in popularity and has been shown to increase click-through rates by over 96%, in an Implix survey. Newsletters or other subscriber-based system could benefit from video, too. Video is even extending beyond the computer, to mobile phone apps or at on-site locations. Imagine going to a restaurant, using your phone to scan a QR code next to a menu item, and watching a clip on what the dish looks like and how it is made. This is just one example on how video can be employed inthe hospitality industry.

Increasing consumption of video makes it clear that consumers prefer to take information in as video over other forms of content. That’s true no matter what business you may be in. Companies that respond by deploying video more broadly will be speaking in their customers’ preferred language.-VideoInsider

Get help creating and marketing your videos. 
Call VMakers - 888.712.8211,  info@VMakers.com

Video Marketing From The "Hollywood" Studio Pros.
The team behind your favorite TV shows and movies, including: Ellen, Seinfeld, Whitney, How I Met Your Mother, The Disney Channel and more. 

Your Brand's Website and Facebook Page are Hungry, Feed Them Video!

Online video, branding and social media have become inextricably linked. Facebook and Twitter are among the first places online video viewers hear about a new video, and traffic referred to videos from those sources is often the most engaged of a brand’s video viewers. Online video technology provider Brightcove recently released a report analyzing trends in the first two quarters of 2011, underscoring just how vital social media is for discovery and interest in a video whether from a broadcaster, a news source or a brand.

This should not be surprising. On social channels, we often hear about videos from friends or colleagues whose opinion we trust, making us more likely to both tune in and to finish watching. We also may follow brands in those venues, and therefore will be more interested and keen on the videos that are shared by a brand. That’s why Facebook and Twitter powered the longest viewing times in the first half of the year for most videos. Facebook took the lead in all categories of video except broadcast video in terms of driving viewing time among discovery sources for video. Brands also saw a higher engagement level on Facebook compared to other sources. By and large, Facebook users watched more video regardless of whether the video came from a broadcaster, magazine, brand, newspaper or online media than consumers who found video through Google, Yahoo, Bing or Twitter.

The upshot is that video clearly powers engagement for a brand. As such, marketers should take advantage of the feedback loop that exists between social channels and video. Brands need to make sure video is feeding social media and social media is feeding video. Make sure your two channels are tightly connected and serving each other, with each one bolstering the other. - Daisy Whitney, MediaPost

Get help creating and marketing your videos. 
Call VMakers - 888.712.8211,  info@VMakers.com

Video Marketing From The "Hollywood" Pros.
The team behind your favorite TV shows and movies, including: Ellen, Seinfeld, $#*! My Dad Says, How I Met Your Mother, The Disney Channel and more.

6 YouTube Marketing Tips

YouTube is the biggest social media site. It's bigger than Facebook or Twitter." YouTube is still a great place to launch or grow a brand.

Here are some tips from entrepreneurs, plus some from Lane Shackleton, product manager for YouTube.

1. Don't expect your video to go viral
Are you ready to become the next Orabrush? Maybe it's time to reset your expectations. 48 hours of video are loaded to YouTube every minute, so you're probably better off playing Powerball than waiting for your clip to take off.

Anyone who thinks they're going to have a video go crazy on YouTube is dreaming. Raw numbers aren't as important as reaching the right customers, so don't freak if you're nowhere near a million views.

2. Buy some ads
Since your video's probably not going to go viral on its own (or at all), you should consider buying some ads on YouTube. Fortunately, rates are pretty good compared to AdWords. Search ads on YouTube are going for 50 cents per click vs. $1.50 per click on AdWords. So you don't have to sink a fortune into it. You can do pretty well today buying "promoted videos," the ads that pop up when you do a YouTube search. However, no matter what you spend on ads, make sure the content is relevant to the search term. Google will base the ad's position on that relevance.

3. Use comments, hot spots and A/B testing as your focus group
If you hire an agency to run a TV spot, they're likely going to want to subject the ad to focus group testing. But if you're a small DIY advertiser, your best approximation of a focus group—aside from your wife and her Rotary Club friends—are the comments below your video. Many will be insipid and/or obscene, but some just may have some insight.

Beyond that, YouTube has some other tools to help you gauge how your video is being received. Chief among these is Hot Spots, a technology that lets you see when people are tuning in and out of your video.

Another option is A/B testing. Big ad firms do this, as well, but you can do it on a smaller scale by running two different versions of your clip as an unlisted video backed by search ads and then watching to see which one gets the better response. Then, you choose the winner.

Finally, there's Google Analytics, which will at least tell you how much referral traffic you're getting from YouTube. Shackleton says on average, people who come to your site from YouTube spend more time there than if they came from somewhere else.

4. Watch a lot of YouTube
If you're serious about using YouTube as a marketing platform, then do your research. Forget about watching TV ads, and spend a few hours discovering what's hot on YouTube. The goal is to begin to "recognize good ideas."

5. Track that ROI 
If you're spending money on YouTube ads, you will likely want to know what you have to show for it. The fact that people have clicked through your ads is great, but the novelty will wear off quickly if they're not actually buying anything.

Now here's the surprising part: Despite the fact that Google owns YouTube and marketing on YouTube is, by definition, 21st century digital and cutting edge, you still have to rely on a fairly improvisational, analog form of ROI tracking.

6. Find your niche
If you followed step 4 and watched copious amounts of YouTube programming, you should be getting a sense of what will and won't fly on YouTube. Guess what? No one wants to watch an ad unless it's really, really good. But rather than try to crack the code on a spectacular ad, either position yourself as an expert in your particular field or attach your brand to a particular lifestyle. Pick an interesting part of your brand and focus on it.

But what if you sell something really boring, like plumbing supplies? Chances are this is interesting to someone, perhaps someone who has to fix their toilet in a hurry. Get inside their head and make a video directed to their likely concerns. Whatever you do, don't think like a traditional advertiser.
The key is creating stuff that helps people, that people connect to, and allows them to explore. It's not about advertising. - OpenForum

Get help creating and marketing your videos. 
Call VMakers - 888.712.8211,  info@VMakers.com

Video Marketing From The "Hollywood" Pros.
The team behind your favorite TV shows and movies, including: Ellen, Seinfeld, $#*! My Dad Says, How I Met Your Mother, The Disney Channel and more.

How to Sell Merchandise on YouTube - NEW Merch Store

YouTube has long been a friend to independent musicians and bands trying to build an audience, and now it can help them raise money through merchandising, as well. The video sharing site has announced a new feature called the Merch Store, which lets YouTube partners sell merchandise to their fans. They can list song downloads, clothing, tickets, a meeting with the band, and more.

YouTube isn’t selling the goods directly. Instead, it partnered with sites like Topspin (for clothing and other merchandise), Apple and Amazon (for song downloads), and Songkick (for concerts).
Artists who want to take part will need to become YouTube partners first. YouTube wrote on its blog that becoming a partner is now easier than before.
The page you’ll need is called Content Identification Application, and the purpose is to prove to YouTube that you own the copyright for the material you’re uploading. Once that’s cleared, you’ll be able to serve ads on your videos and sell merchandise.
If you don’t get access to the Merch Store immediately, don’t despair: YouTube is rolling out access to the store gradually over the coming weeks. Prepare your posters and t-shirts, and eventually you’ll get a chance.
By the way, if you’re in the New York City area, YouTube is hosting a panel discussion with artists who have advanced their careers using the site. Go to the Mercury Lounge October 20 at noon ET to listen in.

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Video Marketing From The "Hollywood" Pros.
The team behind your favorite TV shows and movies, including: Ellen, Seinfeld, $#*! My Dad Says, How I Met Your Mother, The Disney Channel and more. 
 

How to Use Zoom, Moving Camera, & Moving Zoom:

Check out the video!

Magnification vs. Movement
Moving camera shots, such as a dolly or tracking shot, physically advance or change the position of the camera. A zoom lens, however, makes the subject larger or smaller within the frame simply by shifting the lens elements inside to change focal lengths. This magnifies the view of the subject while the camera itself remains stationary.

How do I tell the difference?
In a zoom shot, as the subject gets bigger within the frame, the spacial relationship between the subject and the objects or people around the subject will not change. This is the first technique used by the crew in the video above. It looks artificial because there is no shift in perspective.
However, when there is a movement of the camera, the relative position of everything within the frame changes constantly. The crew tried this method second, and were more pleased with the results. This method replicates closely our expectations of movement. For this reason, most motion pictures favor a tracking shot over zoom.

But that doesn’t mean that zooms and dollies can’t coexist together.
In cinematic situations of suspense or fear, a zoom paired with strategic camera movement can create a dramatic effect. The subject in the foreground stays a consistent size within the frame, but the background grows bigger and bigger. The unnaturalness of a shot like this is a powerful mood enhancing tool. The Vimeo crew tried this method last and liked it best for their video.
While the growing background is perfect for expressing a negative emotion, the trick can be reversed, creating a background which recedes. This shrinking background is perfect for positive moments of realization or clarity.

What’s the trick?
In order to get the background to grow, a zoom lens is used to shift between a short focal length and a long focal length. The problem is that the foreground also grows. So, to offset this, the camera must move as it zooms to compensate for the magnification, keeping the foreground subject at a stable size within the shot.

Get your custom videos created by the Hollywood Pros, contact us today:
VMakers - 888.712.8211,  info@VMakers.com

Video Marketing From The "Hollywood" Pros.
The team behind your favorite TV shows and movies, including: Ellen, Seinfeld, $#*! My Dad Says, How I Met Your Mother, The Disney Channel and more.