Most of our clients promote their webcast recordings for continued engagement after the live event has ended, and this is something we strongly encourage. Some companies have an internal hosting service that they use to post the videos to stream, which is great if you have that resource. However, with today’s ever changing landscape of video and social media there are several great free video streaming platforms that you can use to promote your content and that can even integrate into your current social media vehicles. Below we have highlighted the pros and cons of the top hosting platforms our customers are leveraging for continued customer outreach.
YouTube: Industry Leader
YouTube is definitely the heavy hitter in the video sharing industry. Nearly everyone and their Mom (literally) have used YouTube, either by watching or posting videos. With roughly 800 million unique visitors per month, and roughly 72 hours of content being uploaded each minute, it’s by far the most used video-sharing platform on the web (And it’s owned by Google, and is now integrated directly with your Google account). The sheer amount of traffic in addition to the fact that it is free is a big selling point. With more than 1 billion unique user visits each month, your videos are more likely to appear in searches.
Some Companies may be a bit unsure about using YouTube to promote webcast content because of the in-video ads and links that appear after the video has finished playing. It’s true that you do have limited ability to control the look of the video player when compared to some other solutions out there, but you can disable ads and turn off external links in your embedded videos.
To customize the look of your embedded video, click on the “Share”, then “Embed” options under the video in your video library. This is where you can customize the size, as well as disable showing videos after the video finishes playing, turning on and off player controls, as well as showing the video title and player actions. Disabling these features may provide the more streamlined appearance you want to achieve.
YouTube has also recently added a really nice feature of video editing tools that allow you to customize different elements of the video from color brightness, adding audio clips, annotations, chapters, and closed captioning. YouTube also does have some video analytics that can give you an overall snapshot of video views, demographics, and traffic sources.
YouTube is a heavy hitter for a reason – it’s free, easy to use, integrates with your Google account, and has a huge network of built in users.
Click Here to Check out YouTube if you haven’t already!
During the month of May, V2 was lucky enough to stream a live webcast from San Diego hosted by PNC Bank, featuring the one and only Mari Smith the “Queen of Facebook” herself! Mari is a true social media guru, and shared some great insights with her audience on the best way to utilize social media to grow your business. She shared her tried and true three part strategy that works with most social media vehicles out there, and emphasized Facebook as the core of her social media arsenal, because as she put it, there is no better platform than Facebook to reach targeted audiences. With over 1.65 billion people on Facebook, and users checking their pages at an average of 14 times per day, it really is an optimized platform for your business.
The main facets of the three part strategy are:
Step #1: Craft Compelling Content (has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it?) –
The biggest tip here is to use VIDEO. Why is it so important? Video allows you to tell a story. This could be a story about you, a customer, a testimonial. Put simply, next to seeing someone in person, video is the next best thing. For someone checking their Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram feeds, the movement of the video is the best way to capture their attention. When creating video, use lower thirds and captions to add a written element to the video to help your message stick. A big trick of the trade is to add a call to action when you post the video on Facebook or Twitter. Several newer Facebook features such as video editing tools allow you to choose the thumbnail for your video, and Twitter now has a feature that allows you to select a short section of a longer video that you wish to play. In addition to video, using interesting images, especially ones you have taken yourself will add extra flair to your social media posts. A big question that Mari says people ask her is how often should you post? Here are her general recommendations based on experience. For Facebook, posting at a minimum of 5x/week, Twitter 1 to 6x/day, Instagram 1x/day. Using tools to manage incoming/outgoing posts like HootSuite or AgoraPulse allow you to easily organize and schedule your posts and content.
A recent survey by staffing agency Intelligent Office found that one-third of workers use social media at work for at least an hour a day, and a quarter of respondents said they wouldn’t work for a company that didn’t allow them to use social media. Additionally, a study late last year estimated that 75% of people access social media on their smartphones at work every day. The survey also states that 67% of those people said that they used social at work multiple times a day. About half say that their social media use is business-related, while the other half admitted they use social media on a personal level.
At V2, we have produced some extremely powerful online events. However, as the landscape of webcasting changes, we have seen a seismic shift in the rules of engagement. In the past, e-mail was always the primary medium for online event promotion and although this holds true today, social media promotion and integration is quickly gaining ground. Social media outlets offer a unique way to promote and add pizazz to your online event by transforming your webcast into a dynamic and engaging experience by increasing awareness through multiple avenues; it can also create an advantage over your competitors. Using social media also greatly increases marketing cost savings, and due to potentially driving larger audiences, increases potential revenue.
At V2, we integrate your webcasting efforts with social media outreach by:
- Showing you simple ways to use online video and social media in your webcasts (including Twitter, Facebook, & LinkedIn) before, during and after the conference to drive viewership
- Using social media icons inside your webcast to facilitate attendee involvement, social sharing and event networking
- Converting your webcast to an easily consumed podcast or video file so it can be posted on sites like YouTube or Vimeo
- Sharing insights and guidelines on creating an appropriate webcast hashtag
- Creating social media specific links so you know which outlet your attendees came from
Author-Cam Nicholson, V2 Business Development, has been in the conferencing industry for seven years, spending five of those as a Online Services champion with Microsoft.