Companies Throw Their Weight Behind Online Video – eMarketer

Most of the attention in the online video space has focused on either media content and consumers or marketers and video advertisements. But companies continue to push further into this realm with non

via Companies Throw Their Weight Behind Online Video – eMarketer.

 

How long should a video be and how to use it for lead generation?

Why do we seem to want to watch a video for only 2-3 minutes? What is it about that slice of time that feels like we’re getting something of value, yet watching any longer (and occasionally any less) just doesn’t seem to appeal to us?   And since there’s a great emphasis on video, what is the best strategy for including video in a lead-generation process?

First, why 2-3 minutes for videos? Ultimately, it’s because we’re all subconsciously programmed in some way for that amount of time. Music singles are rarely longer than 3 minutes. We’re all familiar with YouTube, and the average video length of the most popular ones, is less than 3 minutes.  People want to be in control, and will sit through a video when they can see that it’s length is something they can tolerate.    More relevant is the length of movie trailers, which are almost always less than 2.5 minutes – really, check for yourself. They are carefully crafted to draw you into the movie (some better than others) within that 2.5-minute limit.

So the lesson here is to create a 1-3 minute introduction video as your lead generation to draw people in and get the most interested to follow you back to your site for either more videos, perhaps an accompanying white paper, or other related resources on your site.  Or even better, when they share your video with others, say on Facebook, Twitter, etc.!   (Check out how the Opera Company of Philadelphia Video we produced has over 1 million hits in just 2 months!)

Utilize the SEO power of You Tube! The reason for this is YouTube allows you to insert a lot of keywords into your description and tags, and YouTube videos rank well (meaning, very visible) in Google searches.

This reminds me of the old days of SEO when you focused on putting lots of tags on web pages to improve ranking. Now people put those tags on videos. But remember, you want to drive people back to your website for your lead-generation purposes. So be sure to have a video library ready for your viewers to watch, put them on your website, and be sure to include a sign-up form for viewers to get more information (not to mention, to build your lead-generation database!)

Have a question?  Give us a call at 1-877-280-7245 or email us to schedule a time to speak.

Emilia Andrews

 

Partnerships & Progress

There’s lots to be said about breaking out of your normal routine and making the most of a new situation.  And we’ve done just that!  In the coming weeks, we’ll be announcing some amazing partnerships we created… all in an effort to better serve our clients!

We’re pretty excited about the opportunities and can’t say enough about how Creativity is truly the Innovator of Progress.

Can’t wait to catch you up on all the great news!

Til next time,

Emilia Andrews

 

Social Media – Are you committed?

So.. you’ve signed up for MySpace, created a profile on Facebook, and joined Twitter and LinkedIn.  Now what?

You really need to identify your time commitment for your social media efforts.  If you have something powerful, something that works, and is free… You probably don’t see the true value behind it.  However, I bet if it costs thousands of dollars, you would!

Social networking, like any form of networking, is about dedicating time. Checking in, updating your profile status, and logging out is not going to get you business leads.

If you want to use Facebook to destress… that’s just fine!  There are millions addicted to Farmville (personally I can’t stand it)!   But please know that not everyone is using it strictly for fun.  Make the most of these applications and tools and start the process by creating a plan, an integrated media strategy.

Try to make the most of your social media networking experience and define your goals… even on a weekly basis.  Some of these goals can include:  adding at least 5 more colleagues or friends to your base, researching friends of friends to see who would be compatible with your goals, studying the behaviors or habits of those you’d be interested in learning more of and much more.  Have a purpose with your research of use them to your business advantage.

If your business is considering investing in the time to get involved in social networking, the following are social media sites you may want to consider:

•    Traditional Social Networks: Facebook, MySpace
•    Social Media Submission Sites — Digg
•    Social Bookmarking – StumbleUpon, Delicious
•    Microblogging – Twitter
•    Photo and Video Sharing – Flickr, YouTube
•    Review and rating sites – Amazon, Epionions, Yelp
•    Blogs and Wikis

Good luck to you and your social media endeavors.  And while you’re at it… be sure to include Social Media Marketing in your marketing plan!

Til next time,

Emilia Andrews

 

Pepsi – Social Media Gamble or High Stakes Win?

Pepsi has recently announced that they are pulling their traditional multi-year, multi-million dollar Super Bowl ad campaign and trading those dollars (a whopping $20 million!) for Social Media with the Pepsi Fresh Project.

A year ago, it would have seemed crazy to leave an established Super Bowl TV crowd, especially this year with the Colts/ Saints match-up.  But in just 12 short months, online viewers, users and consumers have experienced the excitement that’s brought on by social media.

Integrated media is more than just showing your online video on your website or You Tube.  Integrated media is taking your branded messages, NOT just one message, and delivering it across multiple platforms and achieving the most creative goals you could have ever imagined!

When marketing initiatives include more than just brand and ad exposure, marketing managers and corporate communications teams can literally all work together and create a seamless message system under the same house.  What?!  You mean inter-departmental flow!  Say it ain’t so!

Yes, that was a bit sarcastic, but we’ve all experienced what it’s like when one hand doesn’t speak to the other!

Now, Pepsi is able to:

• increase their social media campaign through integrated media aps
• increase their sustainability with a global message that reaches the world within seconds of posting
• interact with their very customers by encouraging brand engagement and excitement
• AND they are able to increase their global community initiatives through this Pepsi Refresh Project… And who doesn’t need money these days?!

The Pepsi Fresh Project is about getting the global community to nominate projects that need funding in local communities.  You upload your video / project profile, gather as many votes as you can by reaching out to the social media atmosphere and the top projects will win finding from $5k multiple times per month up to $250k a few times every month.

I’m looking forward to seeing the engagement levels and watching how the campaign pans out for Pepsi. Hopefully it’s a massive win for them!  But still wonder if they should have kept the Superbowl ad to tell the TV viewers about this campaign?

Let’s see how Coke responds?!  Good Luck Pepsi!

Til Next Time…

Emilia Andrews

Beholder Productions