Hungry for Content

By Russ Somers

Instagram, Facebook's insanely popular photo-sharing app, introduced video capability in June to compete with the rise of Vine's bite-sized videos. Within 24 hours, Instagram's 130 million users uploaded over 5 million videos.

The explosion of snackable video and fierce competition between Instagram and Vine to "own the video tweet" has many retailers wondering how they can use these platforms to increase social engagement with consumers.

There are two major takeaways for retailers: First, it further underscores that the web is becoming a video medium. Static images and text are no longer enough. The transition to a web dominated by video content, where video drives the consumer experience, is well underway. It's going to take a massive amount of video content for retailers to take advantage of the online video wave. Some of that video will be professionally produced, some will be user generated and some will come from sources we haven't yet discovered.

Second, starting with apps ("we need a Vine strategy!") is a mistake. You wouldn't plan your menu around the hors d'oeuvres, and you shouldn't plan a video strategy around a hot app either. Instead, plan your video strategy around your customer journey.

Think of the different points in their journey and use video to help them move forward at each step. Sure, sometimes that's a Vine or Instagram video to extend reach by driving sharing across your increasingly social customer base. At other stages in the customer journey, however, it may be a category video to move a shopper down the funnel, a product video to call the shopper to action, or a how-to video to help them install or use a product. Consider where the consumer is and what their information needs are, then create or curate the right type of video content to meet that need.

Create More Video Content
Retailers should embrace the reality of the video-dominated web by doing two things:

1. Start creating more product video content — and lots of it. When creating video, keep in mind these rules of the road:

Don't just think in terms of homepage video; think of video to assist shoppers at the product and category level, as well as post-sale. A 2012 study conducted by the e-tailing group found that 55 percent of consumers watched a product video over the past three months.
Your videos should get right to the point, but keep in mind that the same e-tailing group study cited above found that more than one-third of consumers will watch a product video longer than three minutes if it's educational and delivers the kind of information they want and need.
Lead with videos that elevate your brand image. Multiple studies have found that consumers prefer videos with professional image quality, sound and lighting over user-generated videos.

2. Get your video content out into the marketplace through all the channels where your customers and prospects spend their time online. You should also encourage viewers to comment on it, interact with it and respond by uploading their own video tweets to Instagram and Vine.

Outposts in Your Video Strategy
Vine, Instagram, YouTube and other social-sharing sites extend the reach of your video program, making your content discoverable by search and easily shareable. Your site becomes a hub, the center of your whole video program. That's where you want to drive video views and entice consumers to make a purchase.

Think of Vine, Instagram, YouTube and other sites as powerful outposts that offer branding opportunities to capture the attention of consumers interested in your products, then lead them back to your site. Your video content should be specifically tailored to visitors depending on how they're finding your videos.

On your own site, for example, offer full product videos that are as informative as possible so that consumers feel more confident in a potential purchase and are less likely to return an item. On social sites, your videos will be more effective if they're shorter, entertaining – even funny if that fits with your brand – and easily shareable to create buzz amongst consumers. They should also have a clear call to action related to the content, which should drive those viewers back to your site.

Good Uses of Instagram and Vine
We're seeing retailers use Vine and Instagram in creative ways, such as spreading word about a new sales promotion, giving a sneak peak at a new selection of apparel or launching contests. Some of the clips include creative stop-motion or animations. These are all great uses of the short-form video format. They may even add a coolness factor to your brand. Use them to complement longer-form video content that helps shoppers at other stages of the customer journey.

Video is the world's most powerful content, offering the best return on investment of any content on the web. As video use continues to proliferate online, retailers need to ask the question: Are we positioned to keep up in a world that requires creating video at web (BIG) scale?

Russ Somers is the vice president of marketing at Invodo, a company that helps online retailers sell more through the power of video.