What Is Social Video Marketing? (Part 1 of 2)

As I write this, there are only 435,000 sites that have the term “social video marketing” in them. Some of the ads are from internet marketers who have their “systems” that will help you rank on the first page. You know, the one guy in his bedroom who is going to make you $532,457.00 in just one month!

There are a few social video companies advertising in the search results and quite a few in the organic SERP. Companies like www.videoarmy.tv, www.reelseo.com, and www.podtech.com are our brothers and sisters in arms as we try to define what social video marketing really is. I’m sure there are other folks doing killer stuff and the number is growing each day.

So, I’m going to put a dotted line around this little piece of land called “social video marketing” and try to create a definition. As marketers, we know it’s hot. We know Gary Vaynerchuk is doing it. We also know that there is a lot of crappy viral video out there and we need to get in on some of those conversations. I think Matt Cutler from Visible Measures actually coined the phrase here.

I’m sure that I’m missing something and someone (I’m kinda slow). If I’m being a complete ignoramus, you can shoot me a line at @Talmadge and we’ll go have a beer summit (I drink Dos XX).

Why is Social Video Marketing Important?

Offhand, I can think of at least (4) four reasons why social video marketing is important to people, companies, and marketers.

1) Social Video Gets Found

When I last checked, there were lots and lots of YouTube viewers – at least 100 million. Video is what people want and it’s what they look for. In fact, YouTube is the second most searched site in the world after Google.

And it’s because of Google’s relationship with YouTube that all those wonderful videos get found in blended search. Get your keywords right and very, very quickly you’re going to find yourself ranked higher than your competitors.

Connect searchers and their needs with a well-appointed keyword and you are ready for a click.

Clicks then turn into money, Honey.

2) Social Video Marketing Develops Your Brand

And by brand, I mean YOU.

Video and social media in general make your business more transparent. You are your business. You are your product. If you don’t believe me, ask Seth Godin.

With social video, you have the opportunity to build a character online. And you’re not just building your persona, you’re sharing of yourself and giving us a window into what it’s like to be you – what it’s like to create and love your product. And transparency is what we all want these days, I think.

We recently interviewed some of our friends at a little company called www.austincornucopia.com. They absolutely love what they do, and it shows on camera. They care about their product, they care about their customers and if it weren’t for them and their relationship, you wouldn’t have the best damn gourmet popcorn ever.

Social video marketing shows Nikki and Nadia for who they are – great friends, intelligent entrepreneurs, and popcorn sorceresses. It tells their story. More importantly, it lets them tell the story of their product and their relationship with their customers in our dear old Austin.

Your story is just as rich. You can go beyond “how-to” videos. I promise. (Thanks to Noah Weiner and www.reelseo.)

3) Social Video Marketing Builds Connections

It builds connections because its shareable. Those connections aren’t just between you and your customer, they’re between the person who just saw your video and the person they just sent the link to. It becomes the thing through which we have a conversation – a conversation about a conversation. Hugh MacLeod just pointed this out about www.boingboing.com recently.

Those connections also come from the people who helped you make the video. They also come from the responses and feedback that you get on your videos. As your viewers watch and reply, their stories interweave with your own. Like many of the most valuable things in life, media loses it’s value when its movement from person to person stops. (This is one of those rare qualities that love and money have in common.) The value is in the connection.

These connections are the social capital by which people trade their hard earned dollars for products and services.

4) Social Video Marketing Is Measurable

From ranking to click-throughs and conversions, we can track how effective or compelling our online conversation is. There are quite a few services out there that help you track your views. www.tubemogul.com is one. You can even look at Viral Video Chart to see what’s hot right now. Affiliate companies like www.invodo.com are serving up ads for retail companies.

It’s debatable that all of this video is truly social and not just advertising, but at a minimum, all of these services do the same thing. They tell you who’s watching and when. And that’s important to business people in general and marketers in particular. We’re all hunting for that elusive ROI of video.

It seems like we’re about to find it.

This is the first part of a two part post. (I hope. It may get bigger.) Next, we’ll try to create some definition.