RIP, ‘How To’ Manual
This Sunday, like many before, I spent the majority of my morning endlessly scrolling through Facebook videos. Among the clutter of makeup tutorials, dogs playing musical instruments and babies eating lemons, I came across a video titled ‚ÄòHow to do a Backflip in 5 minutes‘. ‚ÄòWhy?’ I thought to myself. Surely, no one wants to learn how to do a backflip from someone on the internet and risk being paralyzed. Turns out, the video had over 7MM views and tons of positive comments. While I’m sure many of these viewers were social content trolls like myself, many of these viewers were actually searching ‚Äòhow to do a backflip’ and, creator, Pigmie, apparently delivered.
This got me thinking. First, of why so many people want to learn how to do a backflip, and in what situation they would perform such a stunt? Second, how anyone with access to the internet can virtually learn how to anything online.
For example, some of YouTube’s all-time favorite ‚ÄòHow to Videos’ consist of ‚ÄòHow To: Dance, make a paper airplane, curl your hair, make cake, get six pack abs in 3 minutes, draw, tie a tie, do makeup.
(Prepopulated YouTube search on July 17th)
Clearly, people are searching for a wide range of videos on how to do virtually everything and anything.
According to Cisco, in 2017, 69% of internet traffic will be video. And, it’s no surprise that people are using this video content as a mean to satisfy their information and entertainment needs.
Don’t take it from me… check out this nifty infographic created by our friends over at HubSpot – https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/video-marketing-statistics
So, let’s get down to it. How exactly can businesses benefit from shareable, social videos? Regardless of product, industry or offering, companies can create impactful, informational and helpful videos to create an engaged audience and generate earned viewership for your company.
For example, these ‚Äòhow to life hacks’ are great opportunities for brands to create video content or sponsor an influencer to incorporate their product into their videos.
Take it from this awesome campaign by Ziplock ‚ÄòLife Needs Ziplock’:
Let’s bring it back to our backflipping friend. Unless you have a gymnastics company, this video would likely not impact your company, right? Wrong. Your company has the opportunity to, when the opportunity is right, earn a ton of viewership. Pigmie’s video, for example, could be a great space for a medical or insurance company to engage with consumers or sponsor a ‚Äòfollow up video’ on how to file an insurance claim after you injure yourself.
People are constantly searching for ‚Äòhow to’s’ relating to hundreds of other fields; medical, travel, insurance, automotive and much more. Questions like “how do I get a car insurance quote,” “how do I get a new passport”, “how do I change a tire”… and, you got it, guess who should be showing up in response to these searches with helpful tips? You. Exactly.
It is inevitable that video will soon be the main source of information share between companies and consumers. So, don’t get left behind. Let us help you. We are experts in social, social video, influencer marketing, video production and online marketing. To learn more about how we can get you more shares, views and buyer conversion rates, click here.