Collaboration Cast

Commcraft has done a great job in explaining Social Media in a simple and creative way in the above video. They compare social media to ice cream and how many people and companies can make their own ice cream and benefit from other’s creations. Their analogy describes popular social media technologies such as syndication, ratings, tagging, reviews, blogs, wikis, video, and podcasts.Their video already had been watched by over 61,000 people and can be purchases for distribution. Vendors trying to sell social media products or services can purchase this video and add their own logo or message to the video. Other social media related videos, published by Commcraft, include:

1. Podcasting in Plain English
2. Twitter in Plain English
3. Wikis in Plain English
4. Video: RSS in Plain English
5. Social Networking in Plain English
6. Online Photo Sharing in Plain English

If you are trying to explain social media to a colleague, boss, or customer these may be a very quick and media centric way of explaining social media and its features.

You Tube was sold to $1.6 billion to Google and a knock off to You Tube, GodTube.com focused on christian videos, grew nearly 1000% percent during its first month to reach 1.6 million unique visitors every month since it’s first release. The online video advertising market was worth $400 million in 2007, according to Borrell Associates, and is expected to grow to $13. billion this year. A recent survey from Jupiter showed that in 2006 60% of advertisers and 79% of agencies where buying video ads for their online budget. This percent of people purchasing video ads and the number of ads they purchase is only expected to grow in 2007.

A recent poll done by Pew Internet & American Life showed that 57 percent of online video users (67% of 18-29 year olds) send video links to others and 75% receive video links. The other very interesting point is that 45% of those consuming videos show some type of response to the video message, 31% check out the companies website because of the video, 28% looked for more information about the material, and 22% searched for more information about the product.

Not only is Online Videos influencing is viewers, but they are also becoming a significant form of entertainment for those people using the internet. A recent study by eMarketer shows that 69% of men and 45% of women who use the internet in the US listen or view internet media streams. There are several things market managers should do to leverage the benefits of online video.

1. Start a Viral Video Campaign

Several companies have created viral videos who have spread through out the internet and have generated a lot of attention for a company. In my previous blog I wrote about Mentos and how Mentos increased their sales by 20% because of the Mentos and coke video. Companies need to find ways to start viral videos that can help them reach the same success Mentos obtained. These videos do not have to cost much, but most importantly need to be creative, innovative, and attention grabbing.

2. Create Your Own Video Library

Companies need to leverage the attention they are already getting and convince people to spend more time on their site and listen to their message. A great way to do this is add a video link to your website, very similar to what people are doing with blogs today. Companies should have their own You Tubes with their messages that consumers can listen to and share with others.

3. Leverage Other Social Networks to Syndicate Your Content

Do not ignore the power of You Tube, Face Book, and My Space. It is important to invest in these networks and create videos that the users of these Networks can consume. A lot of success will be reached by getting the right video to the right community and watching it virally spread. Millions of people are registered in these sites and a great video can see overwhelming success over night.

4. Find Targeted Ways to Place ads on Potential Viral Videos

Besides creating your own video you should also plan on diversifying and investing on ads in other videos that have a similar message to your brands. Find out what is out there, what people have published, and stick your ad on their video. Ride someone elses wave and make it your success.

Hopefully some of these tips help in planning out your next video campaign.

Most of you are already familiar with the explosive reaction that you get by adding both Mentos and Diet Coke.  For those that are no, you should take a look at the video below:

In the summer of 2006, entertainment site eepybird.com released a video showing what happens when Mendos candies react with Diet Coke.  The resulting “geyser” video spread virally, gerating thousands of views each hour and passing the 3 million mark within a few months and to date the video has been viewed 6,835,462 times.

Since the release of the first video, Mentos was quick to capitalise on this publiscity and shipped eepybird free cases of Mentos for further experimentation.  Also, they sponsored the “Make Your Own Mentos Geyser” competitions.  Which also created additional viral spread of videos and today in YouTube over 1790 mentos and diet coke videos exist.

In 2006, Mentos sales went up 20% - the highest increase in the company’s history. Mentos is a good example of a company who immediately reacted positively to an opportunity to gain free publicity and leveraged the publicity to not only help create more publicity, but also drive to record sales.

I believe the take home lesson for marketers is that we always have to be listening and staying attentive to how people are using and marketing our brands.  By listening and observing we may be able to catch a trend that will allow us to get free publicity and sales.  Mentos was listening and capitalized, why shouldn’t you do the same?