12th Mar 2018
12th Mar 2018
A great viral video has been known to make mainstream news, with clever advertising generating countless retweets and millions of views. Just look at Australia's public service campaign video on rail safety in November 2012; 163 million views on YouTube, a popular app game and a 30% reduction on rail-related accidents later, 'Dumb Ways To Die' proves to be the best example of how social media hype can generate positive effects when it comes to easy-to-digest videos.
Businesses need to recognise that people are generally getting lazier. I definitely am. With everything at our fingertips, we can't help it. Easier to digest and quicker to process than an article, a company can easily lay out their core principles and motive in one quick video. Bright visuals will help it stand out amongst the others. Add a catchy song and it's stuck in the viewer's head all day.
Still apprehensive? Well, if you text someone something a bit dodgy, it can come across as more negative than if you told them the same thing face-to-face. Same with video - an article can come across as long-winded and boring, but a memorable video with the same message can generate a more positive outcome (I know that this article is ironic). It's also quite difficult to promote written content on social media, but videos can be easily shared and distributed.
You could also be missing out on a key demographic if you exclude yourself and your company from generating videos for social media; the Millennials. A dreaded word to many, 18-33 year olds represent a large chunk of the consumer population and many companies miss them out. They grew up on the Internet and they dominate as the highest users of social media, with some suggesting the average Millennial spends up to five hours a day on these sites.
Therefore, promoting videos on social media is the perfect avenue to engage with this age bracket, with many popular platforms granting an easy way in to access a captive audience. Instagram and Snapchat prove to be the favourites and their quick, snippet-sized video formats are the best way to grab attention and provide coverage for your company.
So next time you're thinking about making a video, make sure you have social media and those Millennials in mind.
*www.adweek.com/digital/mediakix-time-spent-social-media-infographic/