Michelle Han March 25, 2015 | 12:37:42
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Why PR Should Pay Attention To Video Sharing


Many prognosticators in the marketing and PR worlds have declared 2015 to be the “year of the video” — super short video, to be precise — when it comes to content. The designation has been a long time coming: as early as 2013, observers were noting a critical mass of “bite size video” and mobile sharing apps had reached the market and were poised to dominate social media.

Assuming complete domination in 2015, there are several reasons why companies and brands ought to consider video sharing in their PR and marketing campaigns. Here is our take on just a few.

It’s popular. By all accounts, video sharing is growing. Some estimates say video accounts for 66 percent of all Internet traffic today and will grow to nearly 80 percent by 2018. New video sharing platforms are constantly entering the market, investors are backing them, and existing social media networks (including Facebook and Twitter) have developed or are developing their own internal video-sharing mechanisms, making it easier to view within their systems. With so many eyes and ears looking at and sharing video, companies and brands simply can’t ignore it as a marketing and communications tool.

It’s easy. Creating video content was once the purview of specialists with fancy (read: expensive) equipment. Today anyone with a smartphone, which is just about everyone, can take high-quality video. And while it’s true that professional video remains in the realm of the professionals, mobile phones have gotten faster, more powerful, and larger in screen size, making them better suited to both view and create high quality video. Mobile networks are faster, too, better able to handle high-quality streaming, and are often more affordable. In 2015, embracing video content is more of a mind shift than a technical one.

It’s a buzzworthy category. New players in the video sharing world have a rockstar profile. Take Meerkat, the video sharing mobile app that gained 300K followers, including a few celebrities, within its first several weeks of existence. The cleverly branded app was all the rage at this month’s SXSW gathering, and is the media darling of the moment, used by tech publishers like Mashable and personalities like Jimmy Fallon. It’s not just PR, either: the fledgling app recently raised $12 million in Series B funding, and is now valued at $40 million.

It’s a smart PR and marketing move to take a little bit of effort to connect your company or brand to a trendy movement that only seems to pick up steam.

For helpful tips on how to create buzzworthy brand videos, download our free tipsheet, “7 Traits of PR-Worthy Brand Videos”


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