Video Sharing, Photo Sharing & Podcasting
Video
Remember the days of racing home to catch your favorite TV show? Because you knew if you missed it, you’d have to wait until the following summer to catch the re-run? Never again will you have to rush through dinner for the sake of a TV show, thanks to the changes in the way video content is disseminated on the internet.
A July 2009 Pew Research study found that 62% of adult internet users watch some sort of video online, with online viewing of TV shows gaining rapidly in popularity. But it’s not just TV shows that are experiencing an upsurge in online popularity; video on the whole is wildly popular with internet users.
Search engines now include video in their search results, and social networking sites like Facebook allow video clips to be embedded into certain pages. Bloggers can embed video directly into blog posts, and users can navigate directly to video sites like YouTube and Vimeo.
Video can be a highly useful tool, but it does require some strategy to be successful. At TKG, we help our clients put together effective video strategies, such as creating video pitches to bloggers and maximizing social media profiles. Heck, we can even handle the video creation and production!
Photo Sharing
Photo sharing sites and images are a much overlooked way to market businesses online. There’s a bunch of sites out there, but some of the better-known ones are Flickr, Picasa, and PhotoBucket.
Let’s take a look at Flickr; it’s one of the fastest growing social media sites, and - hey - it’s also our favorite. Flickr allows you to set up a free basic account, create a profile and upload photos to their site. Once your photos are uploaded, you can tag them, give them titles and descriptions, and share them with other Flickr “friends.”
Say you have a small business making frosted cookies: you could create a detailed profile about you and your business (including your URL), post photos of your various cookie projects, and maybe join a Flickr group like Cookie Creations to share your photos and comment on the work of others. On your website, you could link to your Flickr photostream for customers interested in seeing your full collection of work.
With sites like Flickr (and really all social media), it’s all about participating in the community and making a soft sell.
Podcasting
Podcasts are digital audio or video files, usually produced in a series or ongoing basis (i.e. weekly), which listeners can subscribe to. Just like with video on demand, podcasts allow you to subscribe to your favorite programs.
So for instance, if you’re a fan of This American Life on public radio, you can subscribe to the show’s podcast. Or, if you’d like free guitar lessons or a little daily yoga instruction, you can get those via podcasts, too.
The important thing is to think about your business and if it has applications for podcasting. Could you create a multi-part series on a particular topic? Do you have ongoing content to share on a daily or weekly basis? Do you have lots to say or can you provide detailed instruction on a topic?
Don't jump into online video and photo sharing without a plan. Let's talk about some ideas. Give us a call at 888.485.4932 or drop us a line using the form on this page.