Video will continue to beat static content in 2016.
“2015 started with the news that Facebook users were posting 75 percent more videos than they were posting the previous year. In the US, it was closer to 100 percent, and Facebook was pushing 360 percent more video content into people’s news feeds. Between April and November 2015, Facebook doubled average daily video views from 4 billion to 8 billion. Even though the company counts a three-second glimpse as a “view,” that’s still a huge amount of video-watching and it shows how keen Mark Zuckerberg is to eat YouTube’s lunch.
Those figures are only going to grow. Facebook has already made clear that it prefers video content to link posts and even images so to build any kind of successful social media campaign, you will need to pull out a video camera and get shooting this year.” (Credit Inc.com)
How can you capitalise on this latest trend?
There are two main types of videos that you could post on your websites:
- High quality commercial videos that are made by a production company
- User-generated content videos. Videos made by users “such as yourself, your staff or your guests” who contribute content and are free!
Visitors are looking for authentic content, real people enjoying the experience they are considering purchasing. Therefore, you should consider “user-generated” content for your site.
What makes a successful video?
A successful video should aim to convert your online visitors from prospects into guests.
Just like photos, videos are there to tell a story to the person who watches them. They evoke emotion and should allow the viewer to identify themselves with what they are watching. This is best done by ensuring there are people in the videos, instead of just scenery.
Just like photos, the message you are trying to express using videos should convey an enjoyable and positive experience. Showing guests having a fabulous time is a great way to achieve this.
Your message in your videos needs to support the information available on the web page you are going to display it on. Your videos should be short (maximum one and a half minutes), be real and teach your prospects something new or unexpected about your tourism product.
