Video sharing is all the rage these days, and not just for bored teenagers who want to share with their best Britney impersonation or gripe about school. It has become one of the most effective and widely used marketing tools in media today.
Online Video is Mainstream
According to recent statistics by Ipsos MediaCT, online video viewers are not just 20-something males. More and more of people, including women, over the age of 35 are enjoying online video streaming. In other words, video sharing is not only becoming mainstream, it’s also becoming a mainstay of a modern society that would rather give up their TVs before their Internet.
What’s more, video consumers are more likely to make purchases after viewing and this is something that marketers are beginning to take advantage of. You, too, can take advantage of video sharing—to introduce your services or to share a story (evidence shows that people like narrative videos too).
Creating Video is Easy
If teenagers can do it, so can you. All you need is a camcorder, which you can borrow if you don’t already own one, and an idea that will sell your service. Also, video editing can be done easily online with free editing software.
Basically, don’t be put off by the notion that creating video has to be exceptionally difficult or time-consuming. Trust us, it’s worth any time and effort you put into it.
Check Out These Sites for Video Sharing
The following is a list of top video sharing sites, but before you upload any videos, make sure you have a strategy in mind. Like any other form of marketing, video needs to be persuasive.
Blip.tv – This video sharing site ranks number 1 with PC World. It’s free, has excellent video and audio quality, and is easy to use.
YouTube – No list of top video sharing sites would be complete without this one. If you don’t know what YouTube is, then we don’t know where you’ve been the past few years. This is probably the most popular of all the video sharing sites, and has the power to draw the greatest viewership. It’s also free and easy to use, but the video quality isn’t as good as some others.
Vimeo – Also a free video sharing site, Vimeo lets you upload video and make it available for download. There’s a limit to how much video you can upload, though, but the quality is good and it’s not difficult to use.
Veoh – Pretty straightforward, free and offers good quality.
Microsoft Soapbox on MSN Video – It doesn’t offer viewers the ability to watch full-screen, but it’s well-designed, high quality, free and can be used with MSN Messenger.
Yahoo! Video – Another popular video sharing site that’s free and simple to use for uploading and sharing.
Most of these sites have online communities or networks, and you can use these to promote your video to a targeted audience. You can also post video to your own website. Video can be optimized and is one more way to draw traffic to your site.
As always, feel free to contact us if you have any questions about this stuff. We know it can be confusing!
