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Social Media #5 - Show Me Your Story

Guest post by: Andy Marken

Article Overview: Part 5 in social media tutorial

Social Media #5 - Show Me Your Story

Lights, Camera, Action - Grab the consumer's attention and hold it with video. Educational, informational, how-to videos can be quickly, economically produced and posted on the Web to not only get your product message across but to use in your customer support area to help consumers resolve their own problems, answer their questions. Until recently, you exchanged information, ideas in words, pictures, diagrams.

You talked in meetings, you sent emails, you showed pictures/ppts. All the while, you were thinking, talking visually.

Today, people are increasingly going online to watch all types of videos - entertainment, education, information. According to recent projections by eMarketer, more than 87% of the Internet users watch video content online:

* news

* comedy

* movies, TV

* music videos

* sports

* commercials (honest!)

* non-professional videos (think dumb, dumber YouTube)

* podcasts

* animation

* education

As you move more of your consumer communications to the Web, you need to make your information, your messages more interesting, more entertaining by adding video content.

Short videos -- product demonstrations, applications, installation, troubleshooting, technical discussions - are meeting this need.

In addition, many organizations that have integrated video into their social media activities have seen their material go viral.

It is being used by channel partners, linked by blogs and other social media sites and shared by viewers everywhere.

Online consumers share the video:

* email to friends/family - 50%

* send to social network friends - 23%

* IM to friends/family - 21%

* Send to friends on video-sharing sites - 14%

* Link them to a blog - 12%

* Add comments in other blogs/social network groups - 9%

"Best practice" (most credible) is not done by the video professional that uses costly studio time, tons of cameras/lights, expensive/time-consuming post production.

Be Believable

The believable videos that are watched and passed around the Web are shot in a minimalized office, engineering lab, natural user environment.

New compact cameras like the Flip can be used by virtually anyone in the organization to produce real-people mini-stories quickly, easily, economically.

Products like muvee's Reveal 8 do most of the work automatically.

Business-Grade Consumer Products - For departments on a tight budget, low-cost cameras, simple business environment locations, homegrown talent and automated video production software can be used to produce interesting, informative product/service videos that can be uploaded to the company's Website and social media locations. The key is to tell the story quickly, effectively ... then stop.

muvee and similar products analyze photos and video, style and choice of music and automatically create a video synced to the beat of the music with transitions and effects built in.

Interesting, informational, short videos - even with minor mistakes -- are more believable than polished ads. The software helps you explain products, develop SEO (search engine optimization) links and visually assist customers in efficiently, effectively using your products/services.

Reality Video

Using staff members taking viewers through the product/service story not only adds credibility, it encourages people to share the videos and links with others.

Viral videos on your Web site, Facebook page, posted on YouTube, inserted in blogs quickly, effectively tell the product, application story. They can also help customers who have to assemble products, install them.

Product descriptions, how-to, technical videos helps the consumer feel connected to the company, the brand because they allow person to share information, ideas, rather than being advertised to/pitched/sold.

Monitoring the consumer's feedback/inputs on the videos and the information presented is all part of the changing social media environment.

It's only a small step forward but it's a start in building company/product reputation equity.

Best of all...it's easy, it's economical, it's fun!

# # #

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Article Tags: br music, channel partners, consumer communications, customer support area, dumb dumber, education information, entertainment education, friends family, installation troubleshooting, lights camera action, network friends, network groups, product demonstrations, product message, studio time, technical discussions, video content, video professional, video sharing sites, youtube



Related Forum Posts
Re: Kevin needs "social glue" ideas - Hi, I like the idea of "10 items that could act as "social glue" because I am an internet marketer. But I agree with the rest that the 10 recent post is nice. Maybe we should open up a new section in the forums on Social Media...or Social Media Marketing. I will tell you that the world is about 1 1/2 behind when it comes to understanding social media. Building a section now will put EvanCarmichael.com is a great position a year down the road when people realize Social Media can produce more traffic than SEO. Jeff
Re: Kevin needs "social glue" ideas - [quote="WebBizIdeas.com":gvtxsu7g]Hi, I like the idea of "10 items that could act as "social glue" because I am an internet marketer. But I agree with the rest that the 10 recent post is nice. Maybe we should open up a new section in the forums on Social Media...or Social Media Marketing. I will tell you that the world is about 1 1/2 behind when it comes to understanding social media. Building a section now will put EvanCarmichael.com is a great position a year down the road when people realize Social Media can produce more traffic than SEO. Jeff[/quote:gvtxsu7g] Hi Jeff, Thanks for the suggestion. Why don't you start a new post (with a poll) to see if there's enough interest in your idea for a social media section?
Re: UPDATES: New Campaign! New Layout! New Ideas! - GT - thanks for the FYI - I'm not sure if we'll put a link back. Something to consider though! Trent - the new category is "Social Network and Media" which was put in to compliment the Online Businesses category that currently exists. Overall the new categories are: - Looking For, Networking and Events - Review My... - Social Network and Media - Brags and Rants These came as a result of Ringo doing research on other forums and thinking about what could be improved on ours to give a better experience for everyone. I hope you enjoy them! David, I'm looking forward to reading your Brag / Rant!
Re: Marketing 2.0 - What Are Your Thoughts - Hi Shri, Thanks for posting this. I also read it and I believe Social Media is here to stay, until the next best thing comes up. Social media proved to be useful for me many times and I think everyone should use it for their business.
Re: Social Media Marketing Ignorance - [quote="vbn411":7qciluxl]Social Media is space that you have to be in to succeed in our current climate. People are going to be discussing your brand / product whether you like it or not, so you might as well join the conversation and add value. [/quote:7qciluxl] I think that's probably one of the most realistic way to think about it. There's no real textbook way of understanding Social Media, it's the networks of people and their interactions that will exist with or without your input. As for Jennifer, You can always have 2 Facebook pages. Many people do. There is also LinkedIn, which is like a professional networking version of Facebook. The only way to know is to try it.


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