Video – The Most Consumed Media Online! What’s Your Video Strategy?

I went over to Google’s St Giles office yesterday to talk YouTube, video and content strategy.

Of course, when training for Business Training Made Simple, video content and YouTube (and Vine, Instagram and other channels) are covered as part of video content as part of our social media training courses.

This means our knowledge of YouTube (the second largest search engine in the world) – has to be right up to date.

Having met with the team at Google to talk about the latest advertising trends and opportunities available – it was good to hear stats we regularly share in our training straight from the horse’s mouth (so to speak).

So here’s a reminder of the latest online video consumption and YouTube stats to keep you up to date too:

• 5% of our time online is spent in ‘search’ (ie: usually searching something on Google).

• This means a whopping 95% of our time is not spent searching – but instead, browsing, watching, emailing, being social.

• If your strategy is to dominate search – then that’s considering only 5% of the time spent online.  To pervade other areas – your ad strategy – or content strategy should consider other vehicles (eg: YouTube and other  social networks).

• 100 hours of video are uploaded every minute.

• Consumption of content and video via mobile is growing at 84% – much quicker than any other platform.

• The average length of a video (of all the millions of videos online) is 3 mins and 8 seconds.  However, we know people drop off after 30 seconds, 60 seconds etc – so endeavour to keep your messages succinct. That said, if you have something worth watching – people will watch.

• Ensure the first 5 seconds of your video are the most compelling and engaging. Decisions to continue watching are made in the first 5 seconds so be sure to bring your great content to the fore and not to bury it 50 seconds in.

• 54% of consumers research online before they buy online.  (Personally, I would say this is higher but I’m not going to argue with the mightly ComScore).

• YouTube has 28 million monthly users which puts it on a par with TV Channels Dave and E4.

It’s worth doing some research in YouTube to see what your competitors are up to – or indeed, just type in your keywords and see what comes up.  This simple research phase is important in understanding the content that is already out there, the quality of it – and indeed any gaps you can fill.

Be sure to be objective with your video content.  Our mantra is that you consider what matters for the audience.  What’s compelling, entertaining, educational, useful and purposeful for them.

Think about pain points – frequently asked questions – what is it that you have that can fix problems for others.  Showcasing this in a visual way can provide far more insight into your product that listing out features and benefits.  And of course – think about the power of advocacy.  If you say it – does the audience believe it – if you get one of your customers to say it – then that’s likely to be far more convincing.   Testimonial videos speak volumes.

As we say, ‘if you sell someone something they may remember you again – but if you teach someone something, then you are building trust and share of mind.’

As with everything you do – Plan, Listen, Analyse before you Engage.  Do the research, understand what the objective of your video content strategy is – and then start to plan and build the content in line with key objectives.

This blog post was brought to you by Michelle Carvill, founder of Carvill Creative, the online visibility experts and author of The Business of Being Social – A Practical Guide to Harnessing the Power of Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and LinkedIn for all Businesses.

If you need any help with your social media activity, blogging or creating content or any other digital marketing services, then do get in touch with us.