We’ve all seen those silly videos that get posted on our Facebook walls, right? I volunteer with teenagers on a regular basis and almost every time I see them, they’re all excited to show me the newest viral video. Some of them will even post them to my Facebook wall if they can’t wait to show me. Some are funny, others make you think; but one thing they all have in common is that they catch our attention.
How can we utilize this in social media? Well, Bing and the Sundance Film Festival are joining forces to optimize video and image searches for marketing purposes. In short, the two companies are looking to advance searches for images and video so that marketing professionals can focus on SEO and keywords, much the techniques that bloggers and other written word online mediums utilize. There is going to be a conference tonight with SLC/SEM (A Utah-based marketing company) about these advances and how the companies will go forward.
What does this mean for us as marketing professionals, bloggers, and social media experts? In my opinion, this is the beginning of a shift in current marketing trends. Ever hear the phrase “the only thing that stays the same is that everything changes?” Yep. Looks like it’s that time again.
Video shouldn't make you feel like this guy. Image credit to Alex E. Proimos via Flickr Creative Commons
Does this mean that you need to learn how to do a great video blog (or “vlog”) in order to keep up with the times? Not necessarily. At least, I hope not, or I’m in trouble. I’m not too fond of how my voice sounds on a recording. But this does mean that we should become more used to using video as part of our content, even if it’s linking to educational content from a site that allows use with attribution (similar to Flickr’s Creative Commons, which is where I get many images that I use in my posts).
Will this mean that the written word will lose even more value than it already has? I hope not! Remember how I told you that I’m taking a class on culture? Well, one of the things I discovered is that the average student only reads 3 to 6 books in a year. I’m willing to bet that most of them are required reading for English class or something. I think that everyone will always have a need for short, quick information like our blogs and Tweets provide.
Just some things for you to think about, and I’m thinking about them too. How can we jump on board with using images and videos more regularly in our marketing without making it cheesy or overdone? How much imagery is too much? And how can we do all of these things while keeping the message the same? I certainly don’t have all of the answers; no one does, but it’s definitely something to keep an eye on now and in the years to come. Have a great rest of your day!
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