Just throwing a bunch of videos online isn't effective. The Fifth Network's director of marketing explains how to get users to care about the video they're exposed to.
As publishers enhance their sites with video, creating a dialogue around this new content is key to its success. Video is a powerful medium for connecting with users, but there are a number of ways to make sure it really matters to them.
This past weekend, while visiting my mom, there was a moment of awkwardness when she brought her laptop over to me and asked a shocking question.
"Bradley, do you vlog?"
My mouth dropped and everything started spinning. My mom knows what a vlog is?
Upon further inquiry, it turns out that my mom, while not a vlogger or blogger herself, watches vlogs, reads blogs and occasionally posts comments on articles she finds online. As it turns out, my mom and her friends also incessantly send pictures back and forth to each other and when it comes to video, while she doesn't use "the YouTube," she does watch news highlights on her local newspaper "or any other videos her friends send her."
As evidenced by the three or more instant messaging programs she keeps open all the time and her request for a web cam for her birthday, I am certain that the world of "communitainment" is a reality.
Communitainment, a term my CEO, Bill Caspare, has been using for several years to describe the growing form of communication in which users band together online in close, intimate communities of people with similar interests and derive fun from sharing information, content and ideas, was recently made famous by the investment bank, Piper Jaffray in its bible-sized report "The User Revolution."
As Piper Jaffray's lead analyst, Safa Rashtchy, explained to Adweek, this trend of users sharing content that matters to them is going to continue, and thereby lead to users cutting back on the time they spend elsewhere. That "elsewhere" means traditional media, as well as sites that either don't provide content that matters to specific groups of users OR don't provide an easy way to share that content.
When I asked my mom what sites she usually goes to, she didn't know off hand. This wasn't just because she didn't remember (although she is in a demographic that market research describes with a number and a plus sign), rather, it's because she visits many small niche-interest sites that she has found through friends or search. She remembers the content, not the brand name.
These sites, more so than the portal sites she learned to use the internet on, capture her interest, engage her, and matter to her.
So how do sites make video matter?
First, as with any video experience, the playback has to be fast, easy-to-use and high quality.
Second, video has to exhibit contextual relevance. Users watch content more closely and relate to it better when it's on a niche site rather then on a large general site with miscellaneous interests.
For sites that syndicate video from other publishers, it's important to offer well-related content and group videos sensibly for your users rather than throwing as much video as possible at them.
Most importantly, though, publishers need to implement video platforms and experiences that equip their users with community building tools. These tools should compliment the video experience and enable dialogue between users based on the videos and multimedia assets they're viewing.
To get users to care about the video they're exposed to, publishers need to open up the content for free discussion and allow people to add to the experience by posting comments, blogs and vlogs. To create stickiness and grow communities around their content, sites should also push users to create personal profiles and upload their own videos and photos.
You don't need to be a social-networking site to promote thriving communities and sub-communities of interested users on your site, especially when you're offering content users find interesting.
"Mom," I said, "your online habits are proving the efficacy of everything I do all day! Just look at the importance of online video in the lives of you and your friends. That's only going to increase… you're just ahead of the curve!"
To my mom's delight, I also explained that, at least according to Rashtchy and the Piper Jaffray report, her behaviors resembled those of a 12- to 17-year-old.
"I told you I was young at heart," she replied.
Bradley Werner is the director of marketing for The Fifth Network. Read full bio.