Got Video? (Video Sharing)

Chapter 13

Safko, The Social Media Bible

By this point, Safko’s book is beginning to sound like a Nike commercial. His primary message: Just Do It.

As he has in the previous several chapters, Safko provides a light dose of history and how-to information, but reminds the reader that providing a nuts-and-bolts explanation of, for instance, video editing, is not the purpose of this book. It is to survey the social media landscape, familiarize the reader with some of the possibilities of each respective media, and steer them toward the internet points of departure.

Safko’s main advice this chapter to help you get your videos online:

• Find your existing VHS tapes and convert them to video
• Make new videos.
• Start uploading at YouTube and several other sites.
• Wrap your video in an RSS feed to make it easier for people to keep finding your material.

One of the most eye-opening parts of this chapter was the Expert Insight by George Strompolos of YouTube. IMO, this was one of the most concise, clear and useful Expert Insights so far. Some of them have suffered from excessive back-patting, jargon and lack of editing. But Strompolos gave a fairly clear and concise explanation of how YouTube’s partnerships program works. If you are generate content for YouTube and attract eyeballs to your videos, you have the opportunity to make some money. The number of people watching videos on YouTube, though, was what really made my jaw drop. Twenty hours of video uploaded every minute, and more videos uploaded to the website in the last three months than the big three TV networks have aired since 1948.

The lessons for somebody involved in marketing or communication:

1. Whatever formats you are already using (news releases, print or broadcast ads, direct mail, other social media, etc.), add video to the mix.
2. Make videos that have a little flair – whether it’s a WIIFM payoff for the viewer or just amusement, it needs to stand out and attract eyeballs.
3. Figure out a way to tie the videos into what you do, business-wise. Like Blendtec.
4. And leverage RSS and other social media – Facebook, Twitter, etc. to get people to your video.
5. Repeat regularly.