Viral Marketing

We've talked about how to make your online marketing videos talk-worthy or prepare them to go viral (on a moderate scale). It's important to integrate stories into all of your content marketing - on your site and across social media channels where dialogue, interaction and sharing occur.

Here are five ways to create and use video stories online:

1. Determine trending topics. Relevancy is key. Leverage interest around hot topics with new, creative insights. Remember that your story has to be consistent with your brand and messages and allow this to enhance your other online and offline efforts.
2. Source stories from customers. Let others tell stories related to your product and brand. Create brand advocates and highlight the real-world impact of your product or service.
3. Incorporate a human-interest element into your videos. People are attracted to people like themselves. Be authentic and help your audience put themselves into the shoes of your customers.
4. Allow for interactions and additions. Using social media outlets as distribution channels allows your audience to interact with you and your brand. It provides the opportunity to post comments, share with friends and become personally invested. 
5. Enable easy sharing quickly and broadly. One of the major attractions of social media and online video marketing is the ability for users to share your content when and how they desire. Using a video player, such as the one included in the Backlight video management platform, that includes share features encourages and assists with the sharing of videos.

Want more tips on making video content compelling?  Contact me and we can discuss the process we use for developing a video strategy for clients, and how we do our story development process to ensure we produce engaging, compelling videos.

I just read a paper from Omniture talking about Steven Slater, the flight attendant who stormed off the JetBlue flight in dramatic fashion recently. In the post, it was noted that he has amassed 200,000 Facebook fans since the tantrum incident (more than many corporations can boast). Really? Why?

Simple. We find Steven's story fascinating. It's being described as "urban myth quality". His story is one we can relate to. It's compelling content. It has all of the attributes of good content marketing. 

To make your content talk-worthy on social media platforms, develop strong stories that are in line with your brand, including its voice, language and visuals. When you create your online marketing videos, make sure you incorporate these elements to create powerful stories that your audience wants to hear, engage with and share. 

1. Add emotion. Just telling your audience the facts about your product or service won't get them to care. Find the connection and make your product or company's story resonate with your audience.
2. Identify with the protagonist. Stories must motivate your target to connect with the man character in some way, perhaps by stepping into his shoes.
3. Memorable. Stories have a beginning, middle and end, making it easier for viewers to remember your video's message. Familiarity increases memorability, add your own twist.
4. Easily adapted. Stories can be changed and embellished by the teller to suit his or her purpose. This makes stories more dramatic and increases the audience's ability to empathize, personalize and share your message online and off.
5. Sharable. This can occur in the old fashion way where one person tells another or it can happen through social media and electronic channels. Using the proper video player to support your message will aid your video in going viral.

Want more tips on making video content compelling?  Contact me and we can discuss the process we use for developing a video strategy for clients, and how we do our story development process to ensure we produce engaging, compelling videos.

Marketpath's Content Management System and Video Management Software from Cantaloupe.tv provide users a more engaging experience.


Content management solution provider Marketpath, Inc. has just announced the addition of VideoHere to its SaaS web content management solution. This integration offers Marketpath users the ability to seamlessly utilize video in their web pages therefore providing highly relevant and engaging content. VideoHere allows users to point-and-click to upload, customize, embed, and track videos in their web pages. It is licensed from Cantaloupe.TV, LLC, an online video solutions company that provides an end-to-end solution for marketing with online video.

Directly from their Marketpath account, customers can easily manage a video library, add video to web pages, and track video metrics. Users can upload MP4, MOV, FLV, MPEG, WMV, and AVI videos to an online video library. Further, impressions, clicks, views, drop-offs, view times, and viral sharing can be measured so that marketers know how their videos perform.

“Adding video to web pages provides website visitors a more engaging experience and allows marketers to better meet their goals,” says Matt Zentz, CEO of Marketpath. “Studies show that 65% of viewers watch online video to completion, while less than 10% read a text-only site in its entirety. Keeping visitors glued to their content helps companies better deliver a message to their intended target.  VideoHere is a powerful tool to help ensure that our client’s audiences engage more deeply and longer on their websites.  And with Marketpath’s VideoHere integration, it is now just as easy to add video to your website as it has always been to add images and image galleries to landing pages.” 

Other added advantages of VideoHere are that an online marketer is able to enhance SEO efforts and also increase their social media footprint. VideoHere includes an out of the box tool that tags videos for search engines, and the video player includes features which allow the viewer to easily share videos with their network and post to social media outlets.

“Videos are delivered to viewers via well known and respected Content Delivery Networks, ensuring the best viewing experience possible,” says Stacy Billanti, Cantaloupe’s President. “Marketpath customers will now have an advantage over their competition by being able to effectively and easily use video in their websites. Further, they will have access to a video hosting library that is reliable and scalable to support large spikes in web traffic.” 

In order for a web video to gain viral traction, it has to have something unique about it.  You can't just copy someone else and put your logo on it. Well, you can, but it probably won't work very well.



Ozzy Osbourne has a new album coming out. To gain awareness, this video was put together.  It currently has over 1 million views and is video marketing at it's best! It's a fun, creative and amusing video that isn't him talking about the album or just a music video.  It does feature a song from the album, so that's nice.

The best part is, people want to talk about it, so they embed it in their blogs, ahem, tweet to their followers, share on Facebook and email to each other, which gives this web video even more viral traction. Are you trying to reach new customers? Do you think a video about you talking about your company is going to spread across the web?

Remember, get creative and have fun!

Justin Gutwein

It is estimated that Facebook.com has over 350 million users and over half of those are over 25.  Facebook is the 4th most trafficked website according to comScore, so the next question for your company is “why haven’t you posted your company’s videos to this free resource?”    If Facebook is part of your online marketing strategy, then you should post your online videos there.

When using Facebook for your organization, there are two different ways you can manage your web video.  You have to first either setup a Facebook Page or Group.  Pages seem to be a better solution for companies since they can handle longer conversations with end users.  You can learn more about Pages vs. Groups here.

You can either load the web video directly to your page or share a link with your fans.  This decision is usually made by considering  whether you want the people on Facebook leaving Facebook and going to your web page to view your video, or allowing them to watch it right there.   You also need to track and monetize the video with a link.

In the example below you can see how media consumption is displayed within Facebook. By looking at the green line you are able to see web video views per day on your Page. With this, you can easily correlate the day that a specific video was posted and then relate those video views to that video.

Keep in mind that by posting your videos on the Facebook page, it allows fans an easy way to share video with their friends by posting it on their wall feed, hence encouraging viral sharing.

You can also share your videos with those on Facebook by posting a link to your video rather than uploading the video to Facebook. The best way for sharing video links on Facebook is to use link tracking software such as bit.ly. Bit.ly takes your existing link, shrinks it into a smaller URL, and then provides analytics on clicks and source of clicks. One weakness of this approach is that if the viewer copies the URL to share with others, you will not be able to track all the source of views.   It also requires the viewer to leave Facebook so they may be more reticent to view the video.   Want to see more online marketing video posting examples?  Become a Fan of Cantaloupe on Facebook.

 

 

We've talked about using social media to get your online marketing videos in front of more prospects, clients and employees. Why not empower your viewers to help you spread the word?

When selecting a video player to embed on your site, make sure that it includes a sharing (or viral) option. Let - and encourage through calls to action - your viewers embed the video on their personal or company blogs, email a link to the video to a friend or colleague, or post a link on their social media outlets, such as their Twitter feed.

This may sound complicated, but it's as easy as clicking a button. Give it a try with one of my favorite CantaSeries videos - email it to a friend and post a link to it on your Facebook or Twitter.

Are you confused about what kind of story your company can tell? Let me give you a hint. You don't always have to tell a story about your company. Emotional engaging stories are the best kind of stories to tell in my opinion. Does your company sponsor an event or do they donate to some type of charity? If the answer is yes, I have the perfect idea for you. Sponsor a video!  Donate a video to a charity or a local non profit organization. I know, I know your saying "alright, well that sounds like a great thing to do but how is that going to benefit my company? After all aren't these viral videos supposed to generate business for my company?" You are exactly right! Put your logo at the end of the video. Have an interview with your company CEO telling the viewer why volunteering or donating is important to the company. Link the video from your page or host it live on your company site. Cantaloupe TV has great online video marketing and hosting options. Show your prospective and current clients the pride and heart your company has for the community. If you were a prospective client wouldn't you want to partner with someone who shares your same values? See, I told you there was a video option for you. Check this out:

Southwest Airlines. Zappos. Maker's Mark. Apple.

What do these companies have in common with each other? I would bet it's the same thing you would like to have in common with them - brand  ambassadors! Who wouldn't want their customers creating buzz and spreading excitement about their brand? But how...?

Think of your customers as friends. These companies talk to their customers as friends. The tone of their emails, the conversational style of their online marketing videos, the features on their website. These are anything but corporatey; they're friendly and comfortable. Maker's Mark put customer's names on barrels and refers to it as "their" whiskey. Southwest  gives props to their passengers who spread pictures of the planes' wings and tails. Zappos helps spread videos of customers' visits (and even a wedding) at the office.

 YouTube is a popular and effective distribution channel for your interactive marketing videos - especially those you hope to go viral. But it is just that - a distribution channel. It is not your far-reaching online video platform solution for video hosting, publishing, distribution and measurement. I digress... YouTube is an effective distribution channel and a great way to drive traffic back to your site.

We've already talked about SEO as it relates to getting your website and your online video messages found - getting found is critical, yes? Yes. Think about the other factors in getting a high placement on a search results page - number of visits, relevant content throughout a site, Google Page Rank (specifically for Google searches).

Think about this - YouTube gets millions of page views a day and has a high Google Page Rank (9). When someone searches the web to find a video tagged with your keywords, do you think they'll end up on your company's website, surrounded by your messaging and calls to action or do you think they'll end up on YouTube, surrounded by other distractions or worse - your competitors' videos and offerings?

YouTube is a good distribution channel, but is no substitute for good web marketing practices, well produced and well tagged videos provided to your customers on your website, and through your controlled distribution methods.

People make web videos that go extremely viral everyday. How do they do this? I'll give you one guess and it isn't spending millions of dollars on talent, props and special effects. People's videos go viral because they are entertaining. Viral videos appeal to an audience that has an interest in what you're addressing. Now, a viral video with a keyboard playing feline or a guy getting hit in the jewels by whiffleball bat may not make it on the cutting room floor for your company but there are plenty of other engaging attributes that your business can utilize.

Take your company culture for example. Does your business have a great work environment that you're trying to add talent to? Show that culture in a video. If I'm looking for a new work environment and I see how much fun it is to work for your company. I'm getting my resume together right away and blasting it over to you. Or I'm picking up the phone or surfing your web page to find out more about you.

Okay, so maybe you're not hiring but looking for new business. Show a client testimonial video that will allow a possible future client to see how happy a previous client was. There is nothing better than having a past client talk positive about you and your business and being able to see them expressing their joy on screen. Bring their words to life!  As a prospective client this is what sells me.

There are so many ways to pass along great messages about your company and Cantaloupe.tv video marketing has just the way to do it!

One common mistake that marketers make with their web videos is believing that a server is a server is a server. If you want your site visitors or employees to be able to access something - a video, a document, pages of content - all you have to do is post it /somewhere/ on the Internet and viola! Right? Well, not so much.

Most web servers are not optimized for video playback. Additionally, the bandwidth required to play a video - especially a popular or viral one - can put a strain on your website. As we've touched on before, your offline and online marketing materials represent your company.

Make sure that your web videos are hosted with a reliable source who is ready to handle the unique demands video brings to the technical environment. The cost of doing this right is small, but the stakes are high when it comes to delivering a quality experience to your video viewers.

Let me be clear up front.  There is no guarantee that a web video will go viral.  However, in video marketing, what does viral mean?  If you get a million views, but none of those viewers are potential customers, that's not really successful.  If you hit 1,000 views of potential customers...well now we are talking.

There is a balance of entertainment (cool factor, funny factor, etc) and marketing messages that need to be achieved. Too much entertainment and you aren't getting much more than brand recognition (which is great if that's your goal!) On the other side, too much marketing mumbo jumbo and you aren't going to get viral traction.




Google has put together a fantastic example.  The marketing message is simple: Chrome is fast! The entertainment factor is obvious, cool HD stuff and a bit of humor.  By doing this, they are opening up their audience past people that may want to know more about Chrome to people that may not even know Chrome exists!

This web video is a perfect example of the balance of Entertainment and Marketing in viral marketing.


Justin Gutwein

 Another lesson, or reminder, was when Mitch Joel stepped up to the mic.  The author of Six Pixels of Separation reminded us of another important paradigm in viral marketing:

Content is King.  He mentioned that most marketers are doing what they've always done, just on the web.  Banner ads = billboards; email = direct marketing; etc.  He challenged us to think beyond that.  The internet is not a broadcast tool; it's about having the right conversations with the right people.  Content, not broadcasting mediums, is king . . . in video marketing and otherwise.

 My time in Boston at the Marketing Profs B2B Conference was a truly positive experience.  There was one fantastic reminder that bears repeating.

Transparency Reigns in Viral Marketing: David Weinberger, senior researcher at Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet & Society, reminded us how important transparency is in this new age of marketing.  He made a fantastic illustration using a castle.  He called in "Ft. Business."  This was the old school way of filtering messaging, content, behavior, brand and feedback that an organization handles.  He argued that in this information age we live in now, it's impossible to propagate and spin our messages.  I happen to agree.  So instead of overly controlling your brand, embrace the mess.  Don't be afraid of exposing your company's fallacies and don't squelch negative feedback from customers; embrace it.  This is 100% applicable to web video and video marketing.  

Although hilarious, this video does have something to do with using online video advertising.  This web video is trying to sell wool or some high tech surfing gear, or maybe both.  It shows the amazing power of using video in your online marketing. You have to watch it all the way to see the product plug, but this video is very engaging, tells a story, and showcases quite the talented sheep.  I am confidant that this video also has potential for viral marketing.  For your viewing pleasure, here is a link showing Mildred the surfing sheep:

 http://www.finisterreuk.com/surfingsheep/

 Go figure, the President of Russia, Dmitry Medvedev, has a video blog online.  Who would have thought that he or his staff would know the power of using video marketing?   Seeing him in video certainly allows him to better tell his story, show his personality, not to mention encourages viral marketing. One tip President Medvedev:  your web video blog efforts are too long.  Try to keep them to 2-3 minutes.  

Here's a link to it:

http://eng.kremlin.ru/sdocs/vappears.shtml

( Time to brush up on my Russian language skills. )

Musical group OkGo has had a few web video hits.  The "Treadmill Video" has over 50 million views.  Their latest video (above) features one of the largest Rube Goldberg machines I have ever scene and one long tracking shot that would make Scorsese quiver.

The thing I am most impressed about is State Farm's sponsorship of this video.  (OK, not literally. I am video guy and it was a really impressive video) But still, kudos to State Farm for being brave enough to sponsor a web video that only shows their branding briefly at the end and almost unnoticeable at the beginning. That is one of the most effective ways to market yourself online.  Realize that you are an insurance company and piggyback on something cooler.

A recent study by TubeMogul shows that a large protion of online video views are being driven by blogs. TubeMogul is a service that allows you to upload your online videos and then distribute them to over two dozen video sharing sites such as YouTube, Yahoo, and Google with a single click. As much as email marketing and social media may seem to be the best distribution channels to share your videos for viral marketing, this study is begging to differ.

The key to this study is that you still need a video content management system that can allow you to output your videos into the necessary formats, allowing you to upload your videos to a solution such as TubeMogul.

With Cantaloupe's Backlight Saas video system you are able to download your online videos directly to your local machine in the necessary formats to not only upload them to a solution like TubeMogul, but other social media sites as well.

Many of the video content management systems available right now will provide upload conversion, but do not allow for download conversion. Because you are sometimes faced with the fact that your videos were produced by a second party this becomes and extreme monetary value for your company.

Once you are able to output your videos in the necessary video format you can then not only embed your videos into your blog, but you give others the opportunity to embed your videos into their blogs from not only Backlight but multiple video sharing sites.

The more accessible your videos are the more people are going to embed them causing a higher rate of engagement. For more information about Cantaloupe's Backlight video content management system click here.

Looking for a complete blogging software solution for your business? Check out Compendium Blogware for all your business blogging needs.

It seems Bluelock has found a way to establish themselves as experts in cloud computing, and it seems a big part of that is their internet video marketing strategy.

I recently wrote a post about how their videos have shown up on a social network for cloud computing. Now it seems that someone else has grabbed the embed code for their LEGO demonstration of server virtualization and embedded it in their blog.

The ability to let others grab this video and spread it around is made possible through Backlight, Cantaloupe's online video platform. What kind of impact is this video having on Bluelock's business? Well, Bluelock can see exactly how many views their getting from this video placement by checking out the online video analytics report also provided through Backlight.

Another valuable feature is Bluelock's ability to change the ads in this video, that is, to change in-stream calls to actions. Even though this video is already embedded, Bluelock can control and change the message to viewers. (Check out the 2:20 mark in the video) Now they can actually convert these viewers into prospects or even customers.

I also think it's worth mentioning this quote from the blog:

The video below is set to become the greatest online viral video of all time.

DON'T JUST SKIP TO THE VIDEO If you do, I think you'll miss a valuable point that might just benefit you're own online marketing strategy.

As you watch the video below, think about how this story isn't even a story if the only way to present it is in text. The "punchline" requires a visual image as well as audio.

Is the "story" on your website really a story if it's presented in text? Are you missing out on the potential effect video can have on the impact of your sales and marketing because for so long video wasn't an option?

(Update 5/26/09: Susan Boyle is now the 5th most watched viral video of all-time. Ahead of her are 3 music videos and 1 movie trailer)

(The video owner disabled embedding so you have to click through http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxPZh4AnWyk)