5 Basic Rules of Online Video

Placing video on product and landing pages can increase conversions by 49% and click through rates threefold. But when you then realize that 10 hours of content is uploaded to YouTube every minute, you start wondering how to get your own videos to stand out.

Well, just as blogging is a completely different format to newspaper writing, with completely different rules, online video is also its own, unique medium. What counts as an effective online video, then, is drastically different than what counts as a good, say, TV commercial or music video. Here are a few, basic tips you might want to consider if you’re thinking of incorporating video into your online marketing strategy.

1. Timing is Everything: most viral success are about 30 seconds, but 90-120 seconds is pretty much the ideal length to make a point without boring your viewers, and you should never go over 3 minutes.
2. Cut/Edit to the Point: remove redundant and superfluous content by using jump-cuts or fades (all basic software can do this); not only will this help you keep within time constraints, but it’ll create movement in you clip that makes your footage more visually engaging.
3. Brand Your Videos: make sure you brand your videos so that viewers can take action on them (e.g. go to your website after seeing them on YouTube); even the most basic software lets you add branding elements such as pre- and post-rolls or text-subtitles.
4. Upload Far & Wide: use TubeMogul not only to upload to multiple sites, but get stats on views; also, upload to YouTube because it will give you the most exposure, but also consider services like Blip.tv, Revver, and Daily Motion because they’ll offer you higher quality resolution versions that you can put on your actual site.
5. Tag’em & Bag’em: when uploading you online video content, make sure to write keyword relevant description and add the appropriate meta-tag; this will help the right users find your content on both video sites and in search engines.