Page 184 - Social Media Marketing for Dummies

When considering calls to action for YouTube, don’t feel that you have to wait till
the end for the call to action, especially for longer videos. You can use clickable
annotations that appear in the first few seconds of the video to drive people to
where you want them to go.

Have some fun, too

Your customers are typically looking to be entertained when they’re on YouTube.
Have some fun with the videos that you post. Even if they’re educational in nature
(which can be very valuable and popular on YouTube), don’t shy away from inject-
ing a bit of humor into them (as Procter & Gamble did with Old Spice). Keep in
mind that the clips should be engaging enough that they encourage the user to
share the clip with others.

When you’re producing your videos, remember that the first few seconds are
the most critical. You want to start off energized; otherwise, you run the risk of
losing your viewers as the video progresses. On average, you should expect to lose
20–30 percent of your viewers over the length of your video.

Seeding a Viral Campaign

Viral videos are of two types, and it’s important to know both:

» Organic: This is a video that creates a national frenzy, and people rush to see
it and share it with their friends (like Psy’s Gangnam Style, which is one of the
most viewed videos of all time, with more than 2 billion views). Usually, it just
happens organically without planning. It captures the imagination of viewers,
and off it goes.
» Seeded: This video has a carefully planned viral seeding campaign with lots
of thought and advertising dollars behind it. It may go viral, but there’s no
guarantee. Some companies specialize in viral seeding, or you can go through a
general social media agency to get assistance. Companies such as Medianeedle
(www.medianeedle.com) and Video Viral Views (www.videoviralviews.com)
can help you in this regard. Others like Sharethrough (www.sharethrough.
com), TubeMogul (www.tubemogul.com) that was bought by Adobe, and
Tubular (www.tubularlabs.com) focus more on the paid distribution and
the measurement of the video views across all platforms on the Internet. Can
you make a video go viral? Decidedly not. If you could, marketers would be
launching them by the armload. However, these few tips and tricks may
improve your chances of creating a viral video:

168 PART 3 Reaching Your Audience via Mainstream Social Platforms