How Social Videos Impact Business ROI?

Social videos have seen a meteoric rise and have affected business ROI positively when used judiciously. Companies are now seeing the merits of all kinds of content – long and short-form, videos – to capture a market share and attract a large audience base.

Facebook has grown in power in the video marketing strategy realm, which in turn has helped increase its market share. It has moved from being a purely personal social site to being taken a trifle more seriously by creators of videos – Facebook’s auto-play feature has contributed to the number of video views. It has the infrastructure in place to support even long-form content. Companies are beginning to understand the opportunities available to them when launching video strategies, thus enabling them to take complete advantage of this new rage.


YouTube is synonymous with online videos – especially long-form ones. They have worked relentlessly to become the to-go destination for all kinds of video content. YouTube now commands attention and this has been possible to the infrastructure built-in to its site for supporting video viewing – and it is getting some serious ROI from doing so. Hulu is another site like YouTube that is doing a great job at monetizing its video content and getting high returns.
The focus seems to remain on long-form content and when done well, can arrest viewer attention irrespective of the numerous content destinations and the overwhelming amount of information on the internet. Such form of content is a better source and platform for creating awareness and educating viewers on what the company has to offer. Creative and innovative video content is a great way to evoke reactions and emotions, which in turn could help to influence customer behaviour and buying patterns. YouTube, for example, rewards the amount of time viewers spend on a site and any video in particular, by giving high search rankings to the site.

In the year 2014, Vine, became popular with its short-form video content formats. Many large companies took advantage of this trend, and shifted their focus on creating short crisp videos – it was a great way to get their brand noticed and ‘out there’ to the masses quickly and effectively. Short-form video content is also popular on Instagram – the technique is simple, design is straightforward, and the push a product receives is quite rewarding.

The popularity of short-form videos is because they are easy to view and provide viewers instant gratification through entertainment and information. Such video content is, easily received because they are precise, concise, and easy to grasp. They allow a company to appear relevant and trendy, rather than getting into the rigmarole of producing something new. Current trends dictate the content of such videos and as a result, they are well received.

What companies need to remember is that any kind of content – videos included – would be ineffective without the sharing aspect. Sites such as FB, Twitter, and Tumblr are perfect not just for viewing but are great with the sharing feature too. With so many channels of communication now available, it would be a poor strategy to feature video content on a single channel. The videos should be an opportunity to interact, get social, and have a ‘conversation’ with the target audience who love spending time on and with your brand. The fact is that video content, like all other forms of content, get disseminated through two means – one when the company publishes it for its audience and two when this audience ‘pushes’ this content forward to their friends, family, and associates.
It is a known fact that content must be searchable and ‘easily found’ by the search engines and many companies still struggle with ‘being found’ and converting the ‘visitors’ to actual buyers.

For a company to be successful at affecting business ROI through social videos, it would require a sound strategy. A team of skilled and dedicated individuals should work together to create both long and short-form content for videos. The content should evoke a response and be a ‘conversation’ starter ensuring that these conversations never die down. A thorough understanding of the customer base and target audience will help to know what kind of content would be easily accepted and what would be rejected outright.

It would be tempting for companies to launch all their videos on a site that seem most popular while ignoring others. Let us take the example of Facebook again – audiences have now come to appreciate the video content and their behaviour has changed towards it – viewing of videos has gone up significantly on FB. However, companies must remain balanced and proactive in their approach – disseminating their video content via other available channels too.

The good news is that there are a number of video hosting sites, helping businesses share their video content, irrespective of the audience. The audience could be internal customers – such as employees, or external customers and other business ‘partners’. These sites are great for hosting such content since they would also provide some value-added services such as tracking of the number of users, actions taken by each, no advertisements during the video, limited access to verified users only, and other such features. Click FILE to view a complete list of video enabling sites.

What can be said with certainty is that by creating amazing video experiences and interactive ‘sessions’ with your brand, your company would be positively and steadily affecting the business ROI. Customers love interactive and entertaining videos and are sure to reward a company with a steady flow of business and will be sure to let others know of their great ‘content journey’ with the company. Sharing and liking your company’s video content, will further ensure reach and awareness – creating opportunities for more customers and more business.