Everybody knows that YouTube is the second most used search engine. Everybody knows that YouTube is SEO optimized. And everybody knows that more than 1 billion unique visitors watch more than 4 billion hours of video on YouTube each month. That’s why 100 of the top 100 advertisers post videos and create channels on YouTube. But did you know that most brands post videos without much of a strategy and hope for the best? Or did you know that many brands post videos that don’t match the interests or viewing patterns of their most likely customers or prospects? That’s the insight Pixability brings to the table in measuring and analyzing YouTube as a communications platform. Their study of the Consumer Electronics vertical on the video platform, which analyzed 18.9 billion CE views on 113,780 specialized CE channels, turned up these ten expected and not-so-expected observations: Brands are Minority Publishers. Only 23% of CE views are attributable to brands. Three-quarters of the videos about phones, tablets, computers, cameras, wearables, etc. come from other sources, some of which have significantly more credibility and share-ability than the leading brands. Viewing influences purchases. Videos about tablets and smartphones prompt more than 334 million views Read more…

“Instagram resembles a modern day bazaar – one that I visit on my phone when I have a free moment.” Jenna Wortham wrote in The New York Times. “A huge part of the appeal is that the goods I’m perusing are sandwiched in my Instagram feed between my friends; selfies and pictures of snow covered spots where they’ve stopped during the day. Stumbling across an unexpected and gorgeous find … on a special app like Instagram brings with it the excitement of discovery not unlike the titillating thrill you get when coming across a rare find at a flea market.” Photos and fifteen second videos are the coin of the realm. Pictures communicate fundamental ideas and emotions without a need for translation Instagram might be the absolute proof that a picture is worth a thousand words. Now my favorite data geek, Dan Zarella, studied 1.49 million photos from 538,000 users on Instagram to distill what he calls “The Science of Instagram.” These data-derived insights can be used to master this evolving medium. Consider these five selected observations. More Tags Equal More Likes. The easier you are to find; the more people find you. With up to 30 tagging options per Read more…

Ninety nine percent of social posts create no engagement according to new data from Social Flow. An unrelenting blizzard of posts that come and go quickly, an ADD public addicted to social and mobile media and brands using a two-way channel with a one-way mentality are contributing causes. Nobody can really keep up with the torrent of social media posts so its no wonder that 9 out of 10 die alone in the dark. Too many brands bring an old school media mentality to social networking. This mismatch of expectations seriously contributes to the absence of engagement. Too many marketers think of social media as a fast, cheap add-on channel. They fantasize about creating a video, an ALS-like stunt or a meme that magically goes viral. Yet these very same marketers process, homogenize and neuter posts in the pre-planning process. The objective is to mitigate risk rather than optimize engagement. By attempting to push cleaver or relevant brand messages, intersect with consumers, or be relevant and useful, posts are written or developed and filtered through legal teams. Since its impossible to guess when the right topic will reach critical mass, its no surprise that this sausage factory approach delivers a Read more…

Face it! Facebook has led marketers down the primrose path. They taught us about and addicted us to free earned media. They encouraged us to spend money to attract and engage millions of followers. They ran us through the “like” gates. And now they have tightly restricted access to the audiences we created and extorted us by creating a pay-for-play platform.