Live streaming and online video services are dominating the Social Media stratosphere at the moment. In return, brands and businesses that are fully utilising video content are reaping amazing benefits.
Facebook, Periscope and YouTube are currently the biggest ball players in the video content market, all providing their own individual take on live streaming. Facebook Live was launched earlier in the year, providing a nifty tool to allow businesses and users to live-stream video content directly to their profiles. YouTube, on the other hand, has had a live-streaming service since 2011, but it’s currently only available for verified content creators and brands to utilise. Finally, Twitter-owned Periscope is an app built solely for allowing users to live stream content to an audience. The app launched in early 2015, and in just a year it boasts of 10 million monthly active users. The app’s rapid expansion in such a short amount of time provides a great indication of the significance of live streaming and video content and its potential for further growth.
It’s been reported that 93% of marketers use video for online marketing, sales and communications. Additionally, it’s been estimated that 74% of all internet traffic will be video by 2017. With these figures, it’s undeniable that video content has the potential to pave its way to becoming one of the most powerful online marketing tools.
So what can it do for you?
Online video content and live streaming provide you with an instantaneous tool to get your content and brand engaged with a live audience. In a survey of 600 marketing correspondences, 82% confirmed that video content had a positive impact on their business. Alongside this, a massive third of online activity is spent watching video content. These figures give a strong indication that introducing video content will result in an increase in customer engagement.
There have already been many success stories with small businesses utilising video content to showcase their products to the online world.
Squatty Potty’s clever marketing campaign, demonstrating its product via a fun YouTube video, has accumulated over 100 million views from sharing its video content on Facebook and Twitter. Following the viral success of their video, the company’s sales boosted by over 600 percent. This is a great example of how viral video marketing can really work, even if you are a smaller business trying to distinguish yourself from the bigger brands.
Video content is just another step closer to having personal interaction and engagement with your target audience. Studies show that 80% of people claim they are more likely to purchase a product after watching a video about it, demonstrating the persuasive way video content can engage a potential customer into consuming your product.
It seems that the benefits of utilising Facebook Live, Periscope or YouTube to share video content are too great to ignore. Live streaming and online video services are booming, and will only grow with increasing online presence. The future is live streaming – let’s embrace it!
