Video SetupSocial media strategy consultant Amy Porterfield has some great tips on Social Media Examiner for online video marketing. She offers a statistic from Forrester Research that proves the effort is worth it: “videos were 50 times more likely to receive an organic first page ranking than traditional text pages.”

Other encouraging factors are the relative low cost of producing videos to post online, videos can have a long shelflife online, and most social media sites encourage video sharing.

Porterfield offers advice in four categories relating to online video, including optimizing your video, how to make your video stand out, keyword strategies, and 10 things that will spark your creativity to get started making the video. Some of her best advice includes:

  1. Use keywords in your video title whenever you upload it to a site.
  2. How-to videos are popular, and are an easy way to get the creative process going.
  3. The average video is 3.8 minutes long.
  4. Include your logo and URL within the video itself, not just in the description.
  5. Think about creating a series rather than a single video.
  6. Include a call to action at the end of your video. One suggestion is to ask your viewers a question that they can answer within the video’s comments section.
  7. Screen capture videos are a good alternative to filming yourself. Porterfield includes a list of some useful software for this.
  8. Use search phrases in the video’s tags and description, not just search words.

Porterfield also writes:

Don’t try to be perfect! I can guarantee that you will not like your first take of any video you record. And it is of course fine to redo it a few times. But don’t let multiple video takes slow you down. Make a promise to yourself that you will do your best, and then move on. With each video you publish, your confidence will increase and you will get better with time.

Source: “16 Tips for Successful Online Video Marketing,” Social Media Examiner, 05/06/10
Image by Jakob Montrasio on Flickr, used under its Creative Commons license.

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