How to leverage online video in your social media channels

How to leverage online video
in your social media channels
cantaloupe.tv How to leverage online video in your social media channels
What is the role of Social Media in business?
Social media is all around us and has fundamentally changed the way many of us communicate. As defined by Wikipedia, "social media is media designed to be disseminated through social interaction, created using highly accessible and scalable publishing techniques." So why use it for business, especially B2B marketing? 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."
This may sound a bit aggressive, but, according to the report "The Social Technographics of Business Buyers," 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. Social media is a great tool for building your internet presence and increasing your company's visibility with existing customers and prospects. Social media channels can be a website traffic driver, a list building tool, a way to engage in a meaningful conversation with customers, a method to gather market intelligence, and a means to build your thought leadership in the market place. However you are using these channels, social media is becoming increasingly important to your prospects; therefore, it should become increasingly important to you. Further, you should do all you can do to make your social media communications as engaging as possible.
Now, let's discuss the role of video in social media channels.
Why use online video in social media channels?
The same rules apply in social media channels as on your website. Content is king. And video is more engaging to your clients and prospects than blocks of boring texts. In fact, it could be argued that you need more engaging content on your social media channels to break through the noise and clutter of the space. Let's review some basic facts and principles:
1. Video engages viewers more than text does.
2. When communicating online, you will be hard pressed to find a viewer who will read as much content in text as you can fit into a video.
3. Adding video to your website increases your Search Engine Optimization (SEO) because viewers are more likely to select a link containing a video from search rather than a link containing only text.
Page 2How to leverage online video in your social media channels
4. As evidence of the importance and power of video, YouTube is now the second most popular search engine next to Google. Online video is demanded and expected by consumers and B2B buyers.
Now, you may not be using online video in your marketing efforts. If not, pause here and ask yourself why not? Contact Cantaloupe.TV at makecontact@cantaloupe.tv to learn how you can improve your online sales and marketing efforts by using video on your website, in emails, for SEO, and in your sales process. But if you have online video and you use social media channels, or are thinking about it, read on.
How are you going to use and measure video in your social media channels?
This article will cover two of the current big social media channels: Facebook and Twitter. Also important of course is LinkedIn which is strictly a business network.
Facebook
It is estimated that Facebook.com harbors over 175 million active 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 com-pany is "why haven't you posted your company's videos to this free resource?"
When using Facebook for your organization there are two different ways that you can handle video. First you have to setup either a Facebook Page or Group. Pages seem to be a better solution for companies because you often have longer conversations with your end user, and Pages are setup to handle this func-tionality. You can learn more about Pages vs. Groups here.
With your Facebook page you can either load the video directly to your page or share a link to your video with your fans. We'll get to how you can monetize the video with a lin... [download for more]