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Ever since Google bought YouTube, everyone has been buzzing about video. It’s certainly the “latest thing” and while the buzz is loud, marketers are asking questions about using video on their sites. Since many of them have spent years and significant amounts of money working on strategies for optimizing their text-based websites, they just do not see why they should spend all that time and money on something Google does not even index.

Is that really how video should be seen? I think not.

As much as we sometimes wish it did not, the world moves forward. Video is here to stay and its foothold on the web will only grow in the future, so smart marketers will have to come to terms with the technology. There are three key things you should know about video and why it should be an important part of your marketing strategy.

The first key thing you should know about video is the ‘gee whiz’-factor. Only in the last year or so has broadband penetration reached a high enough level for video to become mainstream in the Internet. That is why for many surfers there is a gee whiz -reaction: an ‘isn’t this neat’ feeling that will often carry over to the subject of the video. In addition, because so many viewers see video as remarkable, they are much more likely to tell their friends about it, to post about it on their blogs, to send links to it in email.

This leads us to the second thing you should know about video: it is easy for video to go viral. If I write a couple of great jokes on my blog, you might link to me, or you might not. In fact, even if you remember the jokes, you will probably just tell them on to your friends without mentioning my website. If I make a video of a dancing cow and put that on my website, though, you have no easy choice but to link to the site to show your friends. You are certainly not going to make your own cow video - you will just link to mine. While the ‘gee whiz’ factor will get you some viewers, quality and humor go a long way in retaining viewer attention.

That leads us to the third thing to keep in mind about video; though the same is true anywhere else on the Internet, content is king. Remember, there is no way to ’scan’ a video, like you can do with text content. The video must keep the audience’s attention from the second it starts playing. If it does not keep their attention, there are just too many entertainment options available at the click of a mouse. Boring not only does not go viral; boring means they hit the ‘back’ button and you’ve lost a visitor.

Video content is here to stay, there is no denying that. Google would not have shelled out over one and a half billion dollars for YouTube, if they considered it a passing fad. While no one is seriously suggesting that marketers will ever give up text, there are very powerful reasons for adding video to your marketing strategy. Video content does well in social media, and can be an effective link bait.

by Sutocu | October 15, 2007