In our last post, we looked at YouTube bots, but now it’s time to delve a little deeper into the practice of buying YouTube likes. Since the dawn of social media, businesses have been able to buy likes, fans, and followers. YouTube is no different. Just Google “buy YouTube views” and see how many results kick back. There are hundreds, if not thousands of services out there that will generate views and subscribers for a fee. And while this is a guaranteed way to improve your vanity metrics, is buying YouTube views really worth the money and the risk to your account?
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Happy New Year: Online Video Predictions For 2014
2013 could be considered the year that video finally became a must-have item in a standard marketing playbook. And with the rise in mobile device usage, strategic video marketing will become even more critical in the years to come. So as 2014 looms just ahead, let’s take a moment to look into the future and make some online video predictions for 2014.
YouTube Bots: A Gamble Or A Guarantee?
Posting videos to YouTube can be an emotional roller coaster. You pour time, energy, and money into producing content to share with the world. You post it. Then you sit back and wait for the likes, views, and subscriptions to start pouring in. But more often than not, the number of views you get is more of a sprinkle than a tsunami. If nobody is watching or liking your content, how will it spread across the internet? This conundrum led to the creation of YouTube bots, automated software that generates likes, views, comments, and even subscribers for YouTube videos and channels.
Automated YouTube bots can be appealing to businesses just entering the video marketing game. When you’re the new kid on the block, you need a little bit of cred in order to attract new viewers. But without viewers, you have no cred. So bots can help you establish a footing.
But is it worth it to spend money on YouTube bots for a little bit of cred?
YouTube Metrics: Are You Focusing On The Wrong Data?
When you spend time marketing your videos on YouTube, it can be very easy to get obsessed with your view count. Many people view total views as “votes” for their video. It is the easiest metric to see, as it is displayed prominently on your video’s page. But there are other YouTube metrics that are actually more important than total views when it comes to measuring success.
YouTube is giving more and more weight to watch time and engagement in order to determine just how well a particular video is performing. And as a video marketer, these metrics can be critically important. If a video has a high view count but nobody is watching it past the halfway point, something is wrong. And if hundreds of thousands of people are viewing your video but are not liking, commenting, or sharing it, is the video actually contributing anything to your marketing strategy?
Facebook Video Autoplay: Testing Continues As Brands Wait Their Turn
Over the last several weeks, you may have noticed something when using Facebook on your mobile device. As you scroll through your newsfeed, certain videos automatically begin to play. Facebook video autoplay was rolled out to a select subset of users late in Q3 of this year. It was met with anticipation from Facebook’s advertising customers, and skepticism from many users.
This testing phase puts Facebook one step closer to autoplay for advertisers, a move that has many brands excited. The opportunity to have an ad seen by Super-Bowl sized audiences will likely change the face of video advertising – and the landscape of Facebook – forever.
Instagram Video Creation Tips: Learn How to Crush It In Shortform
Your personal Instagram feed is probably loaded with silly or whimsical videos of friends, children, dogs, and cats. So it might surprise you to learn that 40% of the top 1,000 most shared Instagram videos last month were created by brands. Instagram’s shortform videos are creating twice the engagement of images on the site, and users are not just consuming the content, but they are sharing and embedding the videos at an ever-increasing rate.
In fact, 4 out of the 5 most-shared videos on Instagram came from brands. The biggest winner? MTV, with 134,110 shares of their 84 videos on Twitter, Facebook and other platforms. 80 different brands made the cut, including, Red Bull, GE, BMW, Disney, GoPro, The NBA, and Peanuts comics. 9 out of 10 Instagram video shares happened on Facebook. There is little doubt that Instagram video is a powerful tool for brands.
But 15 seconds is a very short amount of time. Many businesses are hesitant to try it out for fear of failure. If you’re ready to give it a try, here are some tips to help you create sharable Instagram videos.
Longform Video: Sometimes Bigger Is Better
Bite-sized, shortform videos on Vine and Instagram are the current haute trend in video marketing. When done well, these platforms can be effective for business. But brands shouldn’t get so tangled up in Vine that they neglect longform video. Longform video is still the best way to get your message across and reach your ideal customer.
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Who’s Afraid of Video? Overcoming Five Common Video Marketing Fears
A new report by Digiday indicates that marketing agencies are spending up to 83% more on their video advertising campaigns over last year. And 9 out of 10 indicate they are planning on increasing spend even more in 2014. Video is becoming a must-have as part of most internet marketing campaigns, and consumers increasingly prefer their content in video form. Yet many companies are still hesitant to jump on the video train. If video marketing fears are causing you to avoid this strategy, consider some statistics from Unruly Media:
Who Is Sending Viewers Your Way? Three Ways To Discover Video Traffic Sources
Once you’ve put your videos on YouTube and you’ve started attracting viewers, it can be tempting to think, “Well, I’m done with that.” But in order to maintain successful video campaigns, you’ll want to dig a little deeper to discover where those viewers are coming from. If you know which websites, blogs, and social media sites are sending you the most traffic and which are sending you the least, you’ll have a better understanding of where to spend your energy on future videos. There are several places you can look for video traffic source data that you can analyze to help you make better decisions about your online promotion efforts.
Vimeo: A Look Back At Some Of Its Most Important Milestones
Vimeo often lives under the shadow of YouTube. It can be so easy to push this site to the side – especially in recent months thanks to the newest shiny objects on the block, Vine and Instagram Video. But Vimeo has carved out a very important place in the world of online video. It can be the perfect platform for content creators who look at their work as more art than marketing. There is less clutter on Vimeo (and by clutter we mean animal videos), and the platform is geared toward the creators of the content, not the consumers of the content.
Let’s take a look back at some of the most important milestones in Vimeo’s history.
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