3 Ways to Brainstorm a Useful How-to Video

There are lots of reasons to add how-to videos to your content marketing strategy:

• Make it easier for your customer to understand your product or niche
• Create another asset to get ranked and draw people in
• Drive video viewers into your conversion funnel
• Give your brand fans another reason to share on social media channels.

Yes, there are many solid reasons to create how-to videos and none to neglect it…

The huge demand makes a how-to video the perfect way to promote your product or site.

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How-To Videos: Inspiration

Youtube Suggest is the greatest help when it comes to brainstorming a video topic that is likely to resonate with the audience.

There are lots of ways to expand your suggest query too:

This is where SEOchat Google Suggest tool will of be great help:

There’s also a neat FireFox addon that enables Youtube suggest within your FireFox search box (that lets you brainstorm on the fly).

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Youtube Search Operators

Don’t forget that Youtube is run by Google – which also means you can do magic by just getting creative with search functionality.

Try advanced and boolean operators:

• Exact match “how to …” (turns particularly useful when you try sorting results by anything other than relevancy. For example, if you sort your search by ratings, the results might be rather unrelated to your initial search unless you force the exact match);
• Wildcard “how to * …” (In combination with exact match, this operator helps you broaden the proximity and let the search engine insert any words in place for it. It may trigger quite unexpected results, help you to brainstorm and even change the initial focus of your research);
• Exclude any word “how to … -word” (especially useful if some irrelevant word dominates search results);
• Force any word in the video title “how to … intitle:word” (which again turns quite handy when you sort search results not by relevancy)

Note: now that you can play with search results to yield various related search results, pay close attention to video titles and notice which words are used next to your keyword: this is a great way to brainstorm an awesome video concept.

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How-To Video Sharing Networks

Do you need more ideas to create a related how-to video? Here are some video network focusing on exactly that:

	Expert videos	User-submitted videos	Best feature
HowCast	Yes	Yes	Active community, high rankings, powerful Youtube channel (for expert videos only but adds to branding)
Menkey See	Yes (experts have to adhere to thestandards.	No (but videos can be added after you contact them)	Only features professional how-to videos
Wonder Howto	No	Yes	High moderating standards, advanced search functionality
eHow	No	Yes	High Google rankings, powerful Youtube channel
VideoJug	Yes	Yes	Active community; powerful Youtube channel
SuTree	No	Yes	For content owners (auto-index your videos):the site can automatically index videos using your RSS feed.

Happy brainstorming!

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Facebook Acquires Video Advertising Start-Up LiveRail

They Know What Users Want, Now To Sell It To Them

Facebook has acquired LiveRail, a start-up which develops ways for companies to focus video ads on their sites more directly to consumers. As the largest platform for the publishing of video adverts across a variety of sites, delivering over seven billion targeted video ads every month, the purchase of LiveRail marks a definitive move on Facebook’s part to further monetise the growing capacity of mobile devices in particular to integrate video into users’ News Feeds.

Source: mashable.com

The social networking site first trialled auto-playing ads at the end of 2013, and auto-playing videos were introduced into all users’ News Feeds in March of this year. This acquisition demonstrates Facebook’s commitment to this movement, and can be seen as a challenge to the growing threat of Twitter and that company’s long-term integration of corporately sponsored Tweets into users’ feeds. It also shows the impact which mobile browsing has had on the company’s business model; Snapchat’s recent introduction of sponsored Snaps suggests that Facebook is not alone in seeing video advertising as a significant aspect of the future of monetised mobile social media.

LiveRail’s reported purchase price of up to £291 million reinforces Facebook’s perceived commitment to targeted advertising as a large part of the company’s revenue stream. Targeted is the key word here; while the traditional models of advertising have prized volume above all else, LiveRail’s expertise in tailoring adverts to specific demographics and even to individual users is another indicator of the paradigm shift which mass engagement with social media has brought about.

Just as Tumblr have been careful not to disrupt or alienate existing users as they introduce advertising to their site by attempting to ensure that people only see ads which are of genuine interest, so too do Facebook hope to create an environment in which suggested content is almost indistinguishable from user-selected content.

Currently Facebook tracks the browsing history of users even outside of Facebook – a person searching for flights to Venice, for example, may then see ads on their Feed for hotels and restaurants in Venice. This extensive data mining, combined with the technology for tailored ads which LiveRail will bring, should attract advertisers who may previously have been concerned that their products were too specific to be worth dropping into the maelstrom of Facebook’s 1.11 billion monthly users.

Source: sify.com

This is not only a move to ensure direct profits. Next week Facebook will release its quarterly earnings, and with their share price still not as robust as some may have hoped by this stage their purchase of LiveRail could be seen as a move to reassure investors that the company is still focused on growing a more diverse array of revenue streams. Alongside their introduction of promoted posts earlier this year and their trialling of a ‘Buy’ button on businesses’ pages from last week, this latest move should suggest to shareholders that the company is at least open to experimenting with methods of monetising which consist of more than simply a string of ads down the right side of the page which are ignored more often than not.

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What Does Viral Marketing Really Mean?

Lately, the term "viral marketing" seems to have infected many conversations about Internet marketing. Most of us realize that it's not about cooties. But what does viral marketing really mean? Graham tells you how to create messages that are compelling enough to spread and also firmly support your brand's values and objectives.

What does viral marketing really mean?

Lately, the term "viral marketing" seems to have infected many conversations about Internet marketing. Most of us realize that it's not about cooties. But what does the phrase really mean?

Let's start with some microbiology. A virus is a protein shell that contains genetic material. An attacking virus uses its protein coating to attach to a healthy cell. Once it is securely attached, it injects its genetic material, permanently altering the DNA of the host cell. A particularly effective virus can transform the host cell into a factory that replicates the virus, spreading it to other cells.

Like the mythical Trojan Horse, a virus presents itself as an innocuous visitor, but contains a force that attacks and overcomes its host. It's just that a virus is a Trojan Horse that goes on to create more Trojan Horses, conquering hosts exponentially as it spreads.

Of course, we don't think of marketing in such bellicose terms. Simply put, viral marketing means creating messages that contain concepts within them that are absorbed by the people that come into contact with the messages. And making these messages compelling enough so that people pass them on.

Have you ever received a funny or obscene email that was forwarded to you through a friend? Chances are, a lot of people you know saw that same email. It's because the Internet, with its email lists, web sites, chat rooms and bulletin boards, is an organism in which message viruses thrive.

Creating them can be tricky -- a lot trickier than traditional advertising messages. Unlike biological viruses, the hosts on the Internet, consumers, have control. Marketing viruses can backfire.

But if you can create a message, be it an ad unit, a newsletter or a web site, that is both compelling enough to spread but that also firmly supports a brand's values and objectives, you might have a winner on your hands.

Blue Marble's marketing for Scope mouthwash, which won the CASIE award last year, was a prototypical marketing virus.

We created advertising units that allowed consumers to send a customized, animated, email "kiss" to their friends. The message reinforced the branding premise that Scope brought people "Kissably close."

When people received a kiss, they had the option to send an email themselves. Our tracking technology confirmed that a good percentage did. Soon people were sending Scope kisses all over the world, and we observed a measurable increase in brand awareness and purchase intent among our target market.

Traditional advertising fit the mold of one-to-many model of broadcast technology. But the Internet is different. It is a chaotic network. Marketers not only need to understand that, they need to develop strategies that thrive in the new communication environment.

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Method to the mayhem: Why some ideas go viral

Why does one ad go viral, when another falls flat? Is it the format? The platform? Is it some undefined quality that can’t be quantified? Let’s examine what makes some content successful, the important role of user-generated content in viral marketing, and how changes in platforms may impact your brand’s efforts.

Why That Video Went Viral 
By Natalie Kitroeff for The New York Times

Determining how content becomes a viral success has baffled many. We hypothesize, experiment, cross our fingers, and analyze in hopes that we’ve figured it out this time. Kitroeff writes,

“Social sharing is powerful enough to topple dictatorships and profitable enough to merit multibillion-dollar investments. But scientists are only beginning to explore the psychological motivations that turn a link into “click bait” and propel a piece of content to Internet fame.”

Multiple studies from institutions like the University of Texas, University of Pennsylvania, and Yale have led to two reasons: emotions and ego.

Evoking an intense emotional response – whether it’s happy, sad, uplifting, or enraging – makes people more likely to share. While any intense emotion sparks a high probability of shares, especially strong positive feelings return even higher results. There are a few theories for provoking content’s success:

1. Emotions are contagious. After examining more than one billion posts by Facebook users, a ripple effect was noticed. Positive and negative status updates lead to friends posting similarly themed updates themselves.
2. Sharing is caring… for ourselves. Sharing content is a way to process feelings while consuming content. Forwarding or posting links may serve as release of the emotional build-up caused by the content.

It isn’t a surprise that the second reason is ego. Within social networks, likes and shares are the new ways to confer status. People feel validated and unique when their posts garner attention. By publically sharing content users can show how tapped in they are and what they find interesting – or believe they should. We define ourselves online by a selective compilation of posts, pictures, and shared content. Sometimes it isn’t an accurate picture of us; it’s a clearer picture of who we want to be.

Coca-Cola Unveils First TV Ad Made Completely With User-Generated Content 
By Tim Nudd for Adweek

“This Is AHH” is made entirely of short video clips from fans. View the first UGC TV commercial here. Teens were invited to submit short videos sharing “what it feels like when they take a sip of Coke”, and told the best clips would appear in a national ad. Over 400 videos were submitted and 40 were chosen. The teen-focused campaign is in its second year and also supported by ahh.com. Full of games and videos, the website showcases both brand and user-generated content.

The commercial pieces the clips together to fit into a :30 spot and flow logically. The editing preserves the authenticity of the short videos and doesn’t misuse or force UGC to be something it isn’t. I see the commercial’s shares being driven by its novelty and by user’s egos; teens are already pointing out their contributions in the YouTube comments section.

Yahoo Plots YouTube Rival for Summer Debut After Delay 
By Tim Peterson for Ad Age

Missing an April launch due to delay, Yahoo is launching its rival video service later this summer. Yahoo is ramping up its talks with content creators and reportedly offering more generous revenue-sharing deals and higher ad rates than YouTube. Similar to YouTube, Yahoo’s video player will be embeddable and creators will be able to create their own channel pages to host their videos. Plus, Yahoo will not require exclusivity so creators can upload simultaneously to both platforms. But Yahoo is plagued by more than launch delay.

While ad pricing and revenue-sharing are attracting attention, creators have dismissed the offers as low due to their currently higher-than-average rates on their high-performing YouTube channels. Peterson notes a big issue is content ownership:

“In contracts presented to creators, Yahoo stipulated that Yahoo would be given a perpetual license to any videos that were shared to Tumblr. That would effectively transfer a video’s ownership rights to Yahoo.”

Many creators have also expressed concern over how videos will be promoted, saying Yahoo is presenting mixed messages. I’m interested to see how Yahoo’s newest expansion plays out this summer. Only time – and the content creators – will tell if Yahoo’s challenge is legitimate.

YouTube to Double Down on Live Streaming With Twitch 
By Armand Valdes for Mashable

YouTube is also expanding its reach with unconfirmed plans to buy the live streaming service Twitch for $1 billion. Twitch lets users stream video games in real-time and add live commentary. Each stream has its own chat room where viewers can comment on the stream, creating an interactive community. Integration with Xbox One and Playstation 4 has improved Twitch, making it easier for users to stream, comment and share console games.

So why is YouTube interested? Twitch users will watch video for hours, providing more advertising options and possibly sponsored content opportunities around championship events. Comparatively, people visit YouTube for shorter clips and aren’t very ad-tolerant.

Would acquisition by YouTube allow Twitch to move beyond games? What else would we want to live stream and share with others?

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