2011 was, in many ways, the year of the online video. This is a trend that is only going to grow even bigger this year. There are very compelling reasons to add videos to your event website:
- Videos impart interactivity and professionalism to your website. Websites that incorporate rich media content are more likely to retain and attract visually-oriented users than those with static, text-rich sites. Many webmasters tend to undervalue the personalized, service oriented touch that videos add to a website.
- Videos are excellent for Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Google adds weight to websites with relevant, search engine optimized videos. In fact, it actually pushes such videos up in search results. This is especially true for videos uploaded to YouTube, though other services can enhance your visibility as well.
- Videos can go viral quickly. Today, more than ever, people are happy to share fun, meaningful videos on their social media networks. Check out this recent report published by Pew Research Center which indicates that 71% of online adults are now using video sharing sites.
- If a picture is worth a thousand words, then isn’t a video worth a thousand pictures? Watching a video of show floor activity or a keynote session can transport your remote audience to your event, and build a sense of anticipation for the coming year. More and more users now prefer to watch videos while online. In fact, at CES 2012, YouTube’s CEO expressed an opinion that 90% of the web traffic will soon be video!
- Last but not the least, videos can help you distinguish yourself from your competition. Though watching videos is a favorite online activity, the event industry is still catching up with the rest of the world. So, don’t lose another minute. Be one of the leaders, and create a video strategy for your site and your event today.
If videos are already a corner-stone of your online marketing strategy, we would love to hear from you. Please share your links, tips and tricks with us here.
Coming soon: Another blog post with tips on optimizing your videos for search engine indexing. Stay tuned!
Excellent post Nishita and you hit on many great points about video. We actually added video tours to our website and products just a few months ago for many of the reasons you’ve mentioned in your post. I’d highly recommend people to check out Jing and Camtasia as two ways actually create professional looking videos to add to their websites.
Thank you for the feedback, Marvin. Camtasia is a very user-friendly software. I am a fan. Will check out Jing.
Thanks again!
Nishita
Reached your webblog through Digg. You know I will be signing up to your rss feed.
Thank you, Todd.
Quality tips! I have been seeking for things like this for a time finally. Regards!
Thanks!
Great post. We have two markets, “travel” and other small businesses and are always preaching about how every small business out there should be using video on their website!
Thank you, Adam.