Short, viral videos have become more than digital-age curiosities. They are a central economy of the Web and a serious business on which future media fortunes will be gambled, won and lost.
Pumped out cheaply and quickly, most Web and mobile videos make a fraction of the money of a Hollywood film. But they also carry a fraction of the risk: For their makers, a flop doesn’t break the bank — and a hit can mean everything.
Web video’s rise has sparked a growing tension for media’s most established players, who must retool and compete for a new generation of viewers on an increasingly insatiable Internet. In June, a Facebook vice president called video “the best way to tell stories in this world” and said that the world’s biggest social network, with 1.6 billion users, would be “probably all video” within five years.
The players are fighting over billions of screens in people’s pockets, where advertisers are moving en masse. Spending on digital ads in the United States is expected to surpass TV ads this year for the first time, research firm eMarketer said. Web-video ad spending grew to $10 billion this year, having doubled since 2014.
Two years ago, the “Ice Bucket Challenge,” which raised money for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis research, proved that simple social video could bloom into a cultural phenomenon. Producers, networks and news organizations have been racing to publish more videos, because advertisers will pay more to sponsor them than digital offerings such as banner ads.
The videos are built to go viral, not to win awards, so volume is paramount, and long-accepted signatures of traditional video are ignored. Many videos are shot not wide-framed but vertically to fit how younger viewers see the world: through cellphone screens. The videos’ sound is deemed less important; many viewers watch them muted, anyway.
Web video has not supplanted the titans of TV and film, but its early successes have shown what kinds of content best resonate on an always-on platform free from traditional length, style and cost constraints.
There are other reasons you need to be using video for your online store as well.
1. Google Loves Video Having product videos gives you an extra chance of ranking, especially if none of your competition is using video in their stores and for their products.
2. Video Is More Sharable & Clickable Studies show that people are more likely to share videos than text pages. 3. Video Captivates Watching a video takes little effort compared with reading long product descriptions and posts.
4. If a Picture is Worth 1,000 Words, than...Video has the ability to convey an incredible amount of information very quickly.
The fact is though, implementing a great video strategy for your online business doesn't have to difficult and many times, even the simplest strategies can give you a competitive advantage.
Courtesy of WashingtonPost and Shopify
