Spike

Shouldn’t you have a video?

Online social media networks have rapidly become the chosen means for people to communicate with each other on a regular basis. The latest research on how the internet and social media is being used by the global online community shows that it is playing an increasingly important part in most people’s digital lives.

Video and photos are a key part of this sharing process. At Spike Productions, we’ve been really excited to see video become such a major part of individuals’ and businesses modes of communication, whether it be brand building, thought leadership or just plain old fun. 

When we started out at Spike, selling the value of film was hard, back then you had to send someone a VHS so they could watch it! Now, with a link to one of our Spikecasts or other hosting site, it couldn’t be easier.

“In the Philippines, just over 98% of active internet users have watched video and the figure is also more than eight out of ten in markets such as Korea, Spain and USA” (Wave 4 Social Media study).

The Wave 4 research shows that 83% of active internet users are now watching video online. Three years ago this was just over 30% percent. This figure is levelling off now but that’s because there isn’t too far to go before everyone is doing it.

Interestingly we may think we in the UK are leading the way in this phenomena but compared to many other countries we are not such heavy users of video online. Of users who upload films to a video sharing site like You Tube, only around 30% in the UK have done so whilst in Korea, China and India that figure ranges between 57% and 80%. 

Social media is where the conversations are happening and marketers generally have yet to catch up. It’s easy to get it wrong though, the Universal McCann Wave 4 research suggests the following top ten tips for successful social media:

1. Listen to/observe what the target audience is doing in social media.

2. Create a “social object” that is relevant to the brand and of genuine interest.

3. Segment the target into tribes. Give them something they can join.

4. Allow them to engage via their preferred platform of choice—create multiple interfaces to your community.

5. Make the experience better when shared.

6. Optimise your content for sharing—particularly via newsfeeds and Twitter.

7. Use paid-for media to get the ball rolling.

8. Take advantage of extreme targeting offered by social networks.

9. Make sure you have the resources to manage your community management and refresh the content.

10. Track the results and optimise where necessary

All quotes and figures within this article are from the Wave 4 Social media Tracker see the full report here http://universalmccann.bitecp.com/wave4/Wave4.pdf