Marketing with Internet Video

Josh Bernoff, a researcher at Forrester called buyers in the business-to-business sector "one of the most active groups (he's) ever seen when it comes to social participation." He goes on to say, "If you're a B2B marketer and you're not using social technologies in your marketing, it means you're late."

As a purveyor of a social technology (i.e. internet video marketing) that even surprises me, but it's hard to argue with the numbers. According to the report "The Social Technographics of Business Buyers," a whopping 91% of B2B decision makers in the technology sector are using social media.

But even more telling is the fact that 69% ARE USING SOCIAL TECHNOLOGY FOR BUSINESS REASONS.

If nearly 70% of buyers are using a certain technology for business purposes and you're not, then it must follow that you're late, right?

As a marketer, I'm tired of self-proclaimed "social media experts" telling me that without a twitter account my business will wither and die, but within all that exaggerated noise lies some truth. Social media is becoming increasingly important to our prospects, therefore it should become increasingly important to us.

At Cantaloupe, we didn't rush into social media. We were very early adopters of internet video, but we eased our way into Facebook, twitter, and YouTube. Each of these has become valuable to us for different reasons (which you can read about here). As some of the social media experts will even admit, the important thing isn't to be everywhere, but to fully own the places you chose to be.

We think online video is a great place to start because it integrates well with what you're already doing. Video can add a lot of value to your website, email marketing, live events, blog and even your search engine optimization. And once you do decide to start that Facebook page or twitter account, you'll want video to push out to your fans and followers. In the end, content is still king, and video storytelling is great content.