Do you share videos? Anyone who has an email account, not to mention dabbles in social media knows how time-consuming it can become. Someone sends you a video or presentation. Do you open it or leave it waiting in your Inbox? Even worse do you hit “delete” before reading? What makes us open a video clip – and how well can viral marketing videos work?
The first factor in my personal decision-making process is “who sent it?”. If it is a friend or colleague whose opinion I trust, there is a good chance that I’ll check it out.
An example fresh in my mind is this “How NOT To Use PowerPoint” By Comedian Don McMillan video shared on Facebook by a friend. My friend is currently completing her doctorate at Cambridge and if she thought it “share worthy” than I guessed that it probably is!
On the other hand if the video clip arrives from someone who sends me four emails a day –
each one with an attached 4 MB video clip that takes forever to download – I tend to think twice (or more) about the value of these specific viral videos – and that’s before I’ve even viewed them.
There are other numerous factors – but what really makes viral marketing work?
Is there a recipe for a good viral marketing video? We all have our own perception of what a good video clip is and what makes us share a video but what do the professionals think?
Thanks to Kaitlyn Wilkins, VP at 360 Digital Influence who participated in the recent WPP Annual Stream Conference we can gain some insight into viral videos and how they spread. Kaitlyn wrote a great blog post: Stream 2009: The Myth of the Viral about YouTube’s presentation at the event.
What are your “video sharing criteria”? Please comment below.