顏睿亭 陳芷涵 Advantages and drawbacks of using online video

We’ve all watched and laughed and the oddball videos on YouTube and other online video sites. But what about using online video at work? What would be the advantages and drawbacks of using online video?

Market 89 million people in the United States watch a total of 1.2 billion online videos on a daily basis Online video users are expected to double by 2016, to 1.5 billion Online video accounts for 50 percent of all mobile traffic 52 percent of consumers say watching product videos makes them more confident about online purchase decisions Only about 24 percent of national brands are using online video in their marketing efforts today

Advantages Video helps you reach more customers through search One of the biggest perks of promoting your brand or product with online video is that it adds an additional channel for potential customers to discover you via search. Not only are links that include video content more likely to show up near the top of Google Search results, but having content on YouTube will also help with discoverability.

Advantages Video is shareable by nature According to communications company M Booth, video is shared twelve times more than links and text posts combined. Your fans and customers are more likely to share video than text so you should be providing them with those videos to share.

Advantages Attention spans are on the decline With a plethora of content to choose from, the attention spans of your online audience are on the decline. Today’s web surfers would rather watch a short, engaging video than read pages of text.

Advantages Video gives your brand or product feel more “real” There’s something about video that lets you show the human side of your product or brand much better than text or video. If you’re selling a product, video can show potential customers what it’s like when a real person uses the product.

Advantages Video isn’t as expensive or time consuming as you think A big reason that currently only about a quarter of national brands are using online video in their marketing efforts is due to the fact that video has a reputation of being expensive and time consuming. However, today most of us have the technology to make amazing videos in our pockets. Smartphones let virtually anyone shoot great HD video and easy editing programs allow for the creation of professional-looking content with little or no tough post-production work.

Disadvantages Videos that are not searchable Oftentimes, there are numerous topics in one video. Without a way to search the video for the appropriate content, viewers may become frustrated since they cannot easily find what they are looking for. This becomes particularly troublesome if the video is long or if the viewer cannot remember where a certain thought was.

Disadvantages Little interaction with viewers Most on-demand videos are a one-way push of information to the viewer. Typically, there is little to no dialog with the viewer. As such, viewers may watch video content once and never look at it again because they are not prompted to start a conversation, collaborate with others, provide suggestions, or give their opinion. This can be OK if video retention isn’t one of your goals. However, this is normally not the case with today’s online media. Further, because the content creator has minimal feedback from the audience, they may continue to create online videos inappropriate or unattractive to the viewer, which does not do much for video viewership or engaged audience members.

Disadvantages Outdated content No matter what space you are in, information is always changing. Because of this, outdated videos may contain content irrelevant to the company or industry. If presented incorrectly, the online video may lead viewers to be misinformed or to go elsewhere to find the right information, placing your content and even your organization behind someone else in terms of expertise.