Did you know, 41% of adult Internet users take photos or videos that they found online and repost them on sites designed for sharing images with many people? That means Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, Pinterest and the like. Internet users are Hunter-Gatherers! We hunt through the interwebs gathering news and information that is useful or interesting and then we share it with our communities. And you thought we had evolved…
Are you taking full advantage of this primal behavior? Your video needs a social sharing strategy; here are a way few simple ways to start building one today:
- Attract a crowd – First, attract the ‘hunters’ by posting your video on your website. Don’t bury it on a subpage, put it on the homepage, or on every sidebar, or even as a pop up feature. Make sure everyone who comes to your site, sees your video.
- Create a conversation – you want the gatherers to find your video and determine that it is worth sharing. Create some buzz around your video by sending an official release, posting it on Youtube, showing it at events or speaking engagements, promoting it in your email signatures. Get creative!
- Make sharing simple – Add ‘Share’ buttons that are easily visible beside, on top or below your video. It’s that simple. Also, think about adding a call to action; studies have proven that by telling people to ‘share’, you increase the probability that they will. Again, sounds very simple… but we, as humans, sometimes need to be told what to do. (Check out all the incredible videos in our Portfolio! … Did it work?)
- Use your Community – Start by sharing in your own community and set off a chain reaction. You wonder how those videos ever amass 50 million views on Youtube? It all started with someone posting it to show their friends. Their FRIENDS were the catalysts of their online success. If enough people are talking about it and sharing it, the hunter-gatherers of the interwebs will find it!
Make it simple.
Use your own networks.
