Video Sharing Online

Video Sharing is very much part of our culture these days with everyone from friends, family, groups, organisation, politicians large companies posting videos online. This section looks at the history of video online and its relationship with Social Media.  Recent developments with YouTube and Facebook with regard to Online Video will be of interest to business and bloggers.

The Popularity of Video Sharing

The success of video online has been greatly enhanced by many factors in the past decade:

Improved Technology

• The cost of camera technology has reduced significantly with the standard of technology rising. Even simple digital cameras have a video function for short clips.
• Network Communication for the internet has improved and bandwidth has increased down to many more homes which have improved faster connections even in rural areas in countries around the world.
• Editing Software and high-tech professional recording technology is much more accessible and cheaper.
• Installing online video clips from YouTube is as easy as adding a line of code to a website. Videos can be included on any website instantly.
• Mobile (Cell) Phone technology has increased with video functionality and is seen as the norm on modern mobile phones.
• The use of webcams has also increased with webcam being integrated as standard in computers and the price of a webcam is much lower.

Improved Awareness

• Governments around the world have proactively begun preaching the benefits of Information Technology.
• Elderly people (Silver surfers) have become more educated in Internet use.
• A younger generation is growing up with Information technology and becoming very Internet savvy.
• YouTube is always in the Mainstream media, for positive and negative reasons. Funny videos, Politics, World Issues. In the UK there is a popular TV show based around YouTube and online video called RudeTube.
• TV Channels air their shows on YouTube as well as their own media channels (e.g. UK Channel 4 – Peep Show).

Video Sharing History

Before 2005 if you wanted to put a video online and for free there were not many options available. During 2005 two new services launched YouTube and Blip.tv, suddenly anyone with a video clip could upload them.

The initial response was slow, so YouTube added additional Social Networking features like adding friends and personal messaging. YouTube got noticed, by 2006 a total of 65,000 videos were uploaded by visitors and there were 100 million views daily. In October 2006 the search engine giant Google on seeing the potential of Video Sharing bought YouTube for $1.65 billion.

Since 2005 companies such as Nike began to use YouTube as an advertising medium, which has had a snowball effect with larger established names creating content. Companies have recognised the power of Viral Video Marketing and the opportunity online video creates.

In 2009 YouTube continues to grow and has passed 1 billion views a day for videos but continues to be unprofitable.

YouTube as a Search Tool

The popularity of YouTube is unsurpassed and much has been noted on the web about the lack of profit the company generates. YouTube is owned by Google a company renowned for offering free tools on the web (In the UK they can even monitor your utilities). Google has the luxury of monitoring our habits on the internet once we join their services.

This information is invaluable and enables Google to use our information for targeted ad campaigns which includes Ads on YouTube. This approach finally appears to be paying off as Eric Schmidt Google CEO stated that they expect to make profit in 2010 see Financial Times.

Youtube is a part of our lives and with increasing advances in technology is helping to change our habits which include how we search on the internet. This article in the New York times highlights a 9 yr old boy who searches primarily on YouTube for his school homework and if not successful then to Google.  This is not an isolated case, and with the ever changing internet technology comes changes in behaviour.

How to Upload a video to YouTube

Marketing Your Online Videos

This identification of behavioural change has implications for marketers, it makes the use of Online Video which is already an important marketing tool even more valuable. Techniques will have to be implemented to make your video stand out from the crowd and become much more searchable.

Remember that Video Search Results Online:

• Appear in Google Search Results, sometimes up to 6 images in a line
• Are more relevant than Image results as they have more descriptive content
• There is less competition
• Visitor attention is drawn directly to images, than text on the Search Engine Results page.

See Video Marketing for More information.

Social Networking and Online Video

The popularity of Online video is not just increasing sites that primarily deal in online videos, Facebook has become a strong player in Online Video viewing.

Nielsen report that in October 2009 Facebook was the No. 1 online social networking and blog destination in October 2009, with 217.8 million total video streams viewed during the month Myspace.com and Stickam were No. 2 and No. 3, with 85.2 million and 26.3 million video streams, respectively.

Video Viewing on Facebook Continues to Grow
During the last year, Facebook’s online video viewing audience has experienced tremendous growth. Year-over-year, total time spent viewing video on Facebook increased 1,840 percent, from 34.9 million minutes in October 2008 to 677.0 million in October 2009. The number of unique viewers of video increased 548 percent and total streams grew 987 percent during the same time period.

“Facebook’s rapid growth in online video during the last year illustrates the site’s evolution from simply a communications focused tool to a media portal,” remarked Gibs. “Social networking sites are evolving from a venue for catching up with friends to a platform for personal expression, allowing consumers to share their experiences in the full variety of content formats available online.”

Facebook is the world’s third favourite place to view online video, encompassing its other social networking capabilities makes it a very powerful tool for a blogger or business to promote their message. See Facebook for Business for more social marketing ideas.

Hopefully this will give you more of an idea about Video Sharing and will prompt you to take that interest further