Using video to promote a social networking strategy
Another of my favorite Social Media Today bloggers, Jim Tobin, posted some staggering stats about user-generated videos on sites like YouTube:
“One of the things that social media is great at is soliciting and distributing user-generated video. With all the platforms available now (from YouTube to Viddler to Seesmic and JustinTV), creating and sharing video has never been easier. As a social media agency though, we come across clients all the time (usually old-school marketers or PR types) who are just skeptical.
“Sure, Jim, you can get the video and put it out there, but do you really think people sit around and watch this stuff?”
Um, yes. They do. And not just a little–a lot. Only 22 billion views of user-generated video in 2007. This is projected to rise to 34 billion views in 2008. So, yes, note to all clients, people are watching this stuff.”
22 BILLION views??? Holy Moly!
He continues, “The bottom-line lesson here is clear: There’s a tremendous opportunity for video to help folks with their social media marketing. If you do it right, people are clearly willing to watch.”
Along with everything else web 2.0, the percentages of people participating is growing exponentially every year. Whether or not we are ready right now, I think it’s our job as “promoters” for our associations to have our eye on the ball all the time, so that when we are ready, we can just go for it.
Oh and by the way, you can always try posting videos on PITV if you want to dip your toes in, maybe get some feedback…!
