Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Thursday, March 11, 2010
How important is Video Production in this modern age of Internet Video?
I’m Eli Covell and this is your ReelSnap of the week.
In my blog I have talked a lot about the importance of creating/distributing a lot of video content, how easy it is to create/post your video content with new technology, and the new trends of video production that make it easy to do your own filming. Sure, user generated, shaky, grainy video is trendy and has been proven to have better viral results but just because that style works doesn’t mean you can do it yourself. The only experience shooting film I have ever had is video taping my kids and if you are reading this, you have probably seen my efforts at video production for my VLOG. I am horrible! Just because technology makes it easy for us to shoot video and post it on our site doesn’t mean that it’s going to be good. And by the way, your video content should be optimized, distributed, and tracked.
Every business should have a professionally edited video created to voice their message. I strongly suggest using a professional video studio. Use a studio that is digitally competent, meaning, they can shoot in digital, can post your video on the net, have editing capabilities that allow for digital manipulation, and have the ability to code for analytic tracking. There are videographers out there that can do this, the problem is, it is extremely expensive. Also, there are a lot of companies out there that can give you video distribution, analytics and place to manage your video content but none of them have a video production studio. So it is up to you to have your video content produced and then use video management, distribution, and tracking company to market it. Unless you use ReelSnap. Reelsnap is the only place on the net that can do all of this, we can handle all of your video needs without breaking your budget.
Darrel Johnson is the head of our video production studio. Darrel has been on the fore front of video production for over ten years and truly has a passion for his work. He has been involved in everything from national television shows, to our $39 dollar video productions and everything in between.
In my blog I have talked a lot about the importance of creating/distributing a lot of video content, how easy it is to create/post your video content with new technology, and the new trends of video production that make it easy to do your own filming. Sure, user generated, shaky, grainy video is trendy and has been proven to have better viral results but just because that style works doesn’t mean you can do it yourself. The only experience shooting film I have ever had is video taping my kids and if you are reading this, you have probably seen my efforts at video production for my VLOG. I am horrible! Just because technology makes it easy for us to shoot video and post it on our site doesn’t mean that it’s going to be good. And by the way, your video content should be optimized, distributed, and tracked.
Every business should have a professionally edited video created to voice their message. I strongly suggest using a professional video studio. Use a studio that is digitally competent, meaning, they can shoot in digital, can post your video on the net, have editing capabilities that allow for digital manipulation, and have the ability to code for analytic tracking. There are videographers out there that can do this, the problem is, it is extremely expensive. Also, there are a lot of companies out there that can give you video distribution, analytics and place to manage your video content but none of them have a video production studio. So it is up to you to have your video content produced and then use video management, distribution, and tracking company to market it. Unless you use ReelSnap. Reelsnap is the only place on the net that can do all of this, we can handle all of your video needs without breaking your budget.
Darrel Johnson is the head of our video production studio. Darrel has been on the fore front of video production for over ten years and truly has a passion for his work. He has been involved in everything from national television shows, to our $39 dollar video productions and everything in between.
Friday, March 5, 2010
How Do I Optimize My Video Content for Search Engines
Video content on the web is growing in popularity faster than any other web-site trend. So if you are an SEO marketer or your company uses SEO you should be working now to optimize your video content. If you have not yet begun doing this you are behind, but do not fret, reading this is a great start.
The multi-million dollar question is: How can I make relevant video content highly accessible to searchers?
Video content in 2010 is similar to text content in the late 1990’s. What I mean by this is video search is still relatively new. This can be both good and bad. The first step is to develop a plan and build a meta package for your video producers. Or better yet use a video production company (like ReelSnap) that does video content SEO in addition to video production. Which ever way you go, your video producer must understand the importance of properly tagging your video content with good meta information. The chances are that whoever handles your video production at this point does not understand this. That is because until a few years ago video production and web marketing were two completely different disciplines. Well guess what… Now they are joined at the hip!
It is important to note that search engines act almost exactly the same as video search engines. Just like SEO for text you have to know where to submit your video content in order to be successful and to avoid making mistakes. Make sure that the video search engine you choose has a relative demographic and that you play by the rules. Granted YouTube accounts for close to 90% of all video views on the net but as more and more sites are using video, it is my belief that you will see more and more business applications and thus, more substantial video search engines. Although video search engines act just like their text counterpart they are still all different so your results will be better when you understand the rules of the particular engine you are using at the time.
Video optimization is still fairly new, in fact, most people are just throwing video out there and not really optimizing. That being said, if you simply apply the same basic principals that most of us have already done with our text content, then you will be crushing your competitors in no time.
Here are some tips that will help you get started, some more difficult than others:
1. Name your video files so that search filters catch them: i.e. video-content-optimization.mov instead of 768568.mov
2. Capitalize on anchor techniques.
3. Optimize the webpage and all of its content where your video resides.
4. Buy or build a platform that allows you to push tons of content. ReelSnap is perfect for this.
5. Include RSS feeds
6. Push your videos with keyword rich descriptions.
7. ABV (Always Be Viral) you should be producing video that has a shot at becoming viral. This is the number one way to really make video content work for you. Use grainy, user generated, funny, scary or unbelievable tactics.
8. Make sure that you brand your video content. Logo in the loading stage, watermark, short brand clip before/after, floating logo and/or ad serve your brand.
9. Optimize your thumbnails for Google search presentation. Think about it, how do you choose which video’s to watch… the thumbnail!
10. Develop backlinks to your video.
11. Create a video site map.
12. Use a video content distribution system (ReelSnap)
13. Use a video tracking technology (ReelSnap)
14. Take a look at your load time. It should be quick, too long and you can lose a visitor. Not to mention that video content search engines don’t like to send people to slow loading video.
15. Use complete phrases in your tags.
16. Make your video content short 2 to 3 minute videos perform much better than longer videos.
17. Piggy back on popular news content but follow the rules. In other words make your content with popular news in mind do not just tag your content with popular news terms.
18. Do not forget the iPod/iPhone revolution. Make sure your video content can play in all formats. This will help in your viral efforts.
Some of these are very simply and some will take a lot of research, time, effort and mostly trial and error. It is costly to outsource your VCO (Video Content Optimization) work but think about just how much work it is. It is not only a full time job but it is a full time job for a very skilled person. If you are not up for the challenge I highly suggest outsourcing this work to a competent third party such as ReelSnap. ReelSnap will not only handle your VCO work but they will build you a custom player with analytics code pre-implemented, they will handle all of your video production needs with your VCO goals in mind, and they will give you all the tools needed to disseminate, distribute, track, and manage your video content.
The multi-million dollar question is: How can I make relevant video content highly accessible to searchers?
Video content in 2010 is similar to text content in the late 1990’s. What I mean by this is video search is still relatively new. This can be both good and bad. The first step is to develop a plan and build a meta package for your video producers. Or better yet use a video production company (like ReelSnap) that does video content SEO in addition to video production. Which ever way you go, your video producer must understand the importance of properly tagging your video content with good meta information. The chances are that whoever handles your video production at this point does not understand this. That is because until a few years ago video production and web marketing were two completely different disciplines. Well guess what… Now they are joined at the hip!
It is important to note that search engines act almost exactly the same as video search engines. Just like SEO for text you have to know where to submit your video content in order to be successful and to avoid making mistakes. Make sure that the video search engine you choose has a relative demographic and that you play by the rules. Granted YouTube accounts for close to 90% of all video views on the net but as more and more sites are using video, it is my belief that you will see more and more business applications and thus, more substantial video search engines. Although video search engines act just like their text counterpart they are still all different so your results will be better when you understand the rules of the particular engine you are using at the time.
Video optimization is still fairly new, in fact, most people are just throwing video out there and not really optimizing. That being said, if you simply apply the same basic principals that most of us have already done with our text content, then you will be crushing your competitors in no time.
Here are some tips that will help you get started, some more difficult than others:
1. Name your video files so that search filters catch them: i.e. video-content-optimization.mov instead of 768568.mov
2. Capitalize on anchor techniques.
3. Optimize the webpage and all of its content where your video resides.
4. Buy or build a platform that allows you to push tons of content. ReelSnap is perfect for this.
5. Include RSS feeds
6. Push your videos with keyword rich descriptions.
7. ABV (Always Be Viral) you should be producing video that has a shot at becoming viral. This is the number one way to really make video content work for you. Use grainy, user generated, funny, scary or unbelievable tactics.
8. Make sure that you brand your video content. Logo in the loading stage, watermark, short brand clip before/after, floating logo and/or ad serve your brand.
9. Optimize your thumbnails for Google search presentation. Think about it, how do you choose which video’s to watch… the thumbnail!
10. Develop backlinks to your video.
11. Create a video site map.
12. Use a video content distribution system (ReelSnap)
13. Use a video tracking technology (ReelSnap)
14. Take a look at your load time. It should be quick, too long and you can lose a visitor. Not to mention that video content search engines don’t like to send people to slow loading video.
15. Use complete phrases in your tags.
16. Make your video content short 2 to 3 minute videos perform much better than longer videos.
17. Piggy back on popular news content but follow the rules. In other words make your content with popular news in mind do not just tag your content with popular news terms.
18. Do not forget the iPod/iPhone revolution. Make sure your video content can play in all formats. This will help in your viral efforts.
Some of these are very simply and some will take a lot of research, time, effort and mostly trial and error. It is costly to outsource your VCO (Video Content Optimization) work but think about just how much work it is. It is not only a full time job but it is a full time job for a very skilled person. If you are not up for the challenge I highly suggest outsourcing this work to a competent third party such as ReelSnap. ReelSnap will not only handle your VCO work but they will build you a custom player with analytics code pre-implemented, they will handle all of your video production needs with your VCO goals in mind, and they will give you all the tools needed to disseminate, distribute, track, and manage your video content.
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Really...I have to put video on my site?
Here’s the scenario…
Your company has spent years of positioning, mounds of budget, and a think tank worth intellectual capital in creating your message. You have put great care into your brand, look and feel. Now you finally have a web-site that really gets that message across to visitors.
Do you really have to add video to the site? Is it really that important?
Don’t kid yourself, video has always been that important. The only reason it has taken this long for marketers to realize that it’s necessary to have it on your site is because of technology. Recent developments in technology have allowed us to put video on the net with out causing page load delays, breaks in your video, poor video quality, or being forced to display your video in a small grainy player.
Well you might ask yourself, if that’s the case then why don’t all web-sites have video?
The answer: Until now it has been expensive and difficult to put professional video up. Also, it has been nearly impossible to track how effective your video is in driving true business results to your company.
ReelSnap makes all of this simple to do and inexpensive.
First, we will professionally produce your video content. Weather it is a three camera, two actors shoot with a helicopter or it is just a quick video created out of six still images for $39, ReelSnap will pass your message through to your audience in a professionally produced video. Then, once you have got the video content ReelSnap will…
Give you a VCMS or Video Content Management System. With this system you will be able to order production, archive, organize, and distribute your video content. This will allow you to create a viral campaign to drive traffic, build brand recognition and ultimately increase revenues.
Once you have created the video content and pushed it out across the net. Then ReelSnap gives you the reporting technology to track the effectiveness of your video. You will see how many people watched your video, where they saw it, if they watched the whole video, and how far and wide it reached. Once you have this data, you can import and analyze offline marketing campaign data against it. Then finally, you can capture traffic that has come back to your site from your video content.
All of this from one centralized location, from one provider, one company for all of your video content needs……so what are you waiting for….go to www.REELSNAP.com to get started.
Your company has spent years of positioning, mounds of budget, and a think tank worth intellectual capital in creating your message. You have put great care into your brand, look and feel. Now you finally have a web-site that really gets that message across to visitors.
Do you really have to add video to the site? Is it really that important?
Don’t kid yourself, video has always been that important. The only reason it has taken this long for marketers to realize that it’s necessary to have it on your site is because of technology. Recent developments in technology have allowed us to put video on the net with out causing page load delays, breaks in your video, poor video quality, or being forced to display your video in a small grainy player.
Well you might ask yourself, if that’s the case then why don’t all web-sites have video?
The answer: Until now it has been expensive and difficult to put professional video up. Also, it has been nearly impossible to track how effective your video is in driving true business results to your company.
ReelSnap makes all of this simple to do and inexpensive.
First, we will professionally produce your video content. Weather it is a three camera, two actors shoot with a helicopter or it is just a quick video created out of six still images for $39, ReelSnap will pass your message through to your audience in a professionally produced video. Then, once you have got the video content ReelSnap will…
Give you a VCMS or Video Content Management System. With this system you will be able to order production, archive, organize, and distribute your video content. This will allow you to create a viral campaign to drive traffic, build brand recognition and ultimately increase revenues.
Once you have created the video content and pushed it out across the net. Then ReelSnap gives you the reporting technology to track the effectiveness of your video. You will see how many people watched your video, where they saw it, if they watched the whole video, and how far and wide it reached. Once you have this data, you can import and analyze offline marketing campaign data against it. Then finally, you can capture traffic that has come back to your site from your video content.
All of this from one centralized location, from one provider, one company for all of your video content needs……so what are you waiting for….go to www.REELSNAP.com to get started.
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Internet TV is Already Here
Right now, you can hop on the net and purchase soft-ware for as little as $49. This will give you access to global television programming over the Internet connection you already have. So why would anyone pay for cable or satellite TV which averages about $800 per year when you can watch the same programs that you currently watch for a one time payment of $49? Well there are many reasons at this point in time.
First off this programming is only accessible on your computer. So for many people they won't get the HD picture quality that they do on their $3,000 flat panel television set. This is true unless you have a television that is Internet ready. Most television manufacturers already offer this functionality or are planning to in the near future. Or you can do this through the use of a Slingbox, Xbox 360, or some other intermediary device that handles resolution configuration automatically. TV's are not monitors but technology is linking the two quickly. Vizio Internet Apps allows you to easily connect to the Internet and stream TV. Zenith plans to offer a family of Internet products and there are many more on the horizon.
Second, people are very comfortable with their current television situation. We have all been watching TV in pretty much the same manner for fifty years. To all of a sudden take that away, I believe, people fear that they will be missing something. Like there is some connection to the rest of the world that will all of a sudden be disrupted. Once we make a switch like this, we are now responsible for catching all that is important for our pop-culture needs, while under our current situation it is forced down our throats.
Finally, the model simply does not work. I mean, someone has to pay for these super expensive television productions, they are not donated to the past time needs of Americans. So, the networks have to be able to sell their programming to advertisers. The current Internet model gives away the farm for free. However, I think this will change. We are already seeing it work. There is ad-serving in the middle of video content and many other ways to sell production (pay per view, banners, etc.). Go to any of the major network web-sites and you can watch their shows but you are forced to sit through commercials.
So what is the point of all this? As we move farther away from cable/satellite TV and closer to Internet TV we will see more and more ad spend on the Internet. Plus, bigger and bigger prime time targeted demographics on the net. It's much easier to drive someone to your site from a commercial on their favorite TV show when they are already on the net. Well I am a strong proponent that web-marketers better get their act together when it comes to adding video to their web-site as the two mediums evolve and become one.
ReelSnap
First off this programming is only accessible on your computer. So for many people they won't get the HD picture quality that they do on their $3,000 flat panel television set. This is true unless you have a television that is Internet ready. Most television manufacturers already offer this functionality or are planning to in the near future. Or you can do this through the use of a Slingbox, Xbox 360, or some other intermediary device that handles resolution configuration automatically. TV's are not monitors but technology is linking the two quickly. Vizio Internet Apps allows you to easily connect to the Internet and stream TV. Zenith plans to offer a family of Internet products and there are many more on the horizon.
Second, people are very comfortable with their current television situation. We have all been watching TV in pretty much the same manner for fifty years. To all of a sudden take that away, I believe, people fear that they will be missing something. Like there is some connection to the rest of the world that will all of a sudden be disrupted. Once we make a switch like this, we are now responsible for catching all that is important for our pop-culture needs, while under our current situation it is forced down our throats.
Finally, the model simply does not work. I mean, someone has to pay for these super expensive television productions, they are not donated to the past time needs of Americans. So, the networks have to be able to sell their programming to advertisers. The current Internet model gives away the farm for free. However, I think this will change. We are already seeing it work. There is ad-serving in the middle of video content and many other ways to sell production (pay per view, banners, etc.). Go to any of the major network web-sites and you can watch their shows but you are forced to sit through commercials.
So what is the point of all this? As we move farther away from cable/satellite TV and closer to Internet TV we will see more and more ad spend on the Internet. Plus, bigger and bigger prime time targeted demographics on the net. It's much easier to drive someone to your site from a commercial on their favorite TV show when they are already on the net. Well I am a strong proponent that web-marketers better get their act together when it comes to adding video to their web-site as the two mediums evolve and become one.
ReelSnap
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
You Scared?
Is adding video to your site difficult? Or maybe tracking the effectiveness of adding video to your site is daunting? Oh, I know, actually going out and producing a video worthy of your marketing, message is scary? Or maybe just expensive!!!!!
Sure, anyone can go to YouTube, post some little hokey video, grab the embed code and then post it to their site. But what does this say about you and your company? It says, “Hey, it’s free!” Is this the message you want to send visitors to your site? Well it shouldn’t be. Your message should be succinct, compelling, and professional. It should be displayed within your site with the same care that you have put into designing your sites look and feel. It should have purpose. It should grab your audience and push them to your conversion event in one way or another. It should be manageable. When it is no longer relevent, it should come off the site and be replaced with something fresh.
"Well that’s all great and dandy Eli but to do what you are talking about is expensive. It costs money to build a player that fits with our look and feel. And video production is crazy expensive, we don’t have budget for that. Not to mention the technical time involved with formatting, managing, and hosting. After I have managed all of that... how am I suppose to track the effectiveness of my video content? I am sure that requires some custom analytics system.", you might say.
Yes it’s true, in the past companies that do this (ESPN, CNN) spent millions building custom systems to be able to do all of this. Not anymore! You can do it all! You can do it all and you can do it within your budget. Step in to 2010! Get signed up with someone like ReelSnap. They can do everything for you from one easy to use interface or VCMS (Video Content Management System). They will produce the video. Build you a player that matches the look and feel of your site. Distribute the video to relevant sites. And to top it all of they will track the effectiveness of your video distribution. Plus they will do it all for next to nothing. Get with the program and get your message out to the world with ReelSanp!
www.reelsnap.com
Sure, anyone can go to YouTube, post some little hokey video, grab the embed code and then post it to their site. But what does this say about you and your company? It says, “Hey, it’s free!” Is this the message you want to send visitors to your site? Well it shouldn’t be. Your message should be succinct, compelling, and professional. It should be displayed within your site with the same care that you have put into designing your sites look and feel. It should have purpose. It should grab your audience and push them to your conversion event in one way or another. It should be manageable. When it is no longer relevent, it should come off the site and be replaced with something fresh.
"Well that’s all great and dandy Eli but to do what you are talking about is expensive. It costs money to build a player that fits with our look and feel. And video production is crazy expensive, we don’t have budget for that. Not to mention the technical time involved with formatting, managing, and hosting. After I have managed all of that... how am I suppose to track the effectiveness of my video content? I am sure that requires some custom analytics system.", you might say.
Yes it’s true, in the past companies that do this (ESPN, CNN) spent millions building custom systems to be able to do all of this. Not anymore! You can do it all! You can do it all and you can do it within your budget. Step in to 2010! Get signed up with someone like ReelSnap. They can do everything for you from one easy to use interface or VCMS (Video Content Management System). They will produce the video. Build you a player that matches the look and feel of your site. Distribute the video to relevant sites. And to top it all of they will track the effectiveness of your video distribution. Plus they will do it all for next to nothing. Get with the program and get your message out to the world with ReelSanp!
www.reelsnap.com
Monday, February 1, 2010
Why Video?
Because it works.
If you watched the Grammy awards last night, you saw how the music industry is preparing for the transition to IPTV. All the display and imaging across the screen as they introduced nominees were framed in an Internet video player. And throughout the entire show, there were plugs driving people to web-sites. Sending people to sites to donate to Haiti, sending people to a web-site to vote for the song you wanted Bon Jovi to play, and many other web-sites. Just one more step in the evolution of IPTV.
By the way, marketers love this! It is easier to capture the success of your marketing efforts on the net. Through the use of sophisticated analytics tools and tracking software you can get much more accurate statistics than you can through the use of random sampling. Which is how TV has monitored it's reach for the past fifty years. Now that video technology has evolved to the point where it can be easily pushed across the net, marketers can combine their TV commercial knowledge with their Internet marketing capture knowledge. If you are a marketer, you must have a plan to incorporate video to your web marketing efforts.
We all know very well that the longer a visitor browses your site, the chances of them completing your conversion event increase. It seems like keeping the attention of visitors to your site is like herding cats. If they have to read more than a couple sentences, they click away. Recent studies show that visitors to sites with video stay on twice as long as they do on sites without video.
VIDEO IS EXPECTED!
If you watched the Grammy awards last night, you saw how the music industry is preparing for the transition to IPTV. All the display and imaging across the screen as they introduced nominees were framed in an Internet video player. And throughout the entire show, there were plugs driving people to web-sites. Sending people to sites to donate to Haiti, sending people to a web-site to vote for the song you wanted Bon Jovi to play, and many other web-sites. Just one more step in the evolution of IPTV.
By the way, marketers love this! It is easier to capture the success of your marketing efforts on the net. Through the use of sophisticated analytics tools and tracking software you can get much more accurate statistics than you can through the use of random sampling. Which is how TV has monitored it's reach for the past fifty years. Now that video technology has evolved to the point where it can be easily pushed across the net, marketers can combine their TV commercial knowledge with their Internet marketing capture knowledge. If you are a marketer, you must have a plan to incorporate video to your web marketing efforts.
We all know very well that the longer a visitor browses your site, the chances of them completing your conversion event increase. It seems like keeping the attention of visitors to your site is like herding cats. If they have to read more than a couple sentences, they click away. Recent studies show that visitors to sites with video stay on twice as long as they do on sites without video.
VIDEO IS EXPECTED!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
