Social Video: The Collision of Social Media and Video Marketing
Video isn’t just an important part of the online experience—it’s essential. According to a report by Cisco, video will account for 80 percent of global internet traffic by 2019. The effectiveness of video is undeniable—51.9 percent of marketing professionals worldwide name video as the type of content with the best ROI (Invodo). And social video, video seen and shared on social networks, has gone from being an added bonus to an expectation from consumers.
Video isn’t synonymous with just YouTube anymore. Social media platforms originally dedicated to photos and text, such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, are all finding new ways to meet the increased consumer demand for video, while other social media platforms, such as Snapchat, Vine and Periscope, have reinvented how video is consumed and changed the ways in which video is produced. Recently, Facebook took it one step further by beating Google to the punch and allowing users to stream video live. This is just one sign of what is to come as the worlds of video and social media continue to collide.
The ease of producing and distributing video using these channels, coupled with the improvements and availability of technology, such as cell phones, drones and GoPros, have enabled virtually everyone to participate in video production, leading to mass amounts of clutter. How do you break through the clutter? Quality.
The video clutter that inundates the internet, and now our social media feeds, makes it increasingly important to produce quality video content that is a cut above what the average consumers can produce themselves. Unique, relatable and shareable stories paired with quality production cut through the clutter and make your videos stand out, increasing your views and the likelihood that your videos will be shared.
The opportunities are endless when you add social video to your marketing mix. With the right strategy, you have the unique ability to effectively communicate and engage with the masses through a platform with which they are now very comfortable. As marketing professionals, we also have the ability to elevate that production value even further and ensure your brand’s message will be heard amongst the video clutter.
Mark Mathis
Mark wrote his first direct-mail fundraising letter in 1981 for the University of Iowa Center for Advancement. The effort raised a few million dollars in undiscovered wills and legacy gifts. From that day forward Mark discovered a love of the big idea that moves the needle. After 12 years at KWWL, Mark became a business owner as a co-founder of ME&V — rebranded as AMPERAGE in 2015. After 25 years of leading creative teams in video production, graphic design, PR, writing and web development, Mark transitioned out of ownership in 2021. Today he serves in an employee role as special projects consultant. He is creatively ambidextrous — son of an artist and engineer — and famous for distilling complex ideas down to a few words and a few visuals. Mark is a writer. When he found that many nonprofits struggled with complex branding puzzles, he wrote the book, “NonProfit-NonMarketing .” He also wrote a novel called “Reenactment.” Mark is an active blogger OneMinuteMarketer® with nearly 1,000 readers each week on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter. One of his most popular YouTube videos is on “How to Look Good on Zoom.” One of Mark’s fondest business memories was being named to INC 500 two times and attending the INC 500 conference with other winners. Mark is considered by some a Civil War expert (and that explains his novel). Mark also served as an adjunct professor in the business and in the communications departments at Wartburg College. Mark is a graduate of the University of Iowa and is currently vice president of the University of Iowa Journalism and Mass Communications Advisory Board. Mark is married to state Sen. Liz Mathis, and the two love to travel, even when it means being trapped by a volcano in the Czech Republic for three weeks.
