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Why is video everywhere? Beyond social media

David: Welcome to episode Eleven of Nonprofit Video Comms. My name is David, and this is the show for nonprofits and video marketing to help you be seen, get funded and be more helpful.

Thanks for sticking with me all the way to episode Eleven. This is exciting. We just got past the number ten mark.


Intro

So why does videos seem to be everywhere and it's ubiquitous? It's on all of our screens. And it seems to be that organizations believe organizations finally realize that there's something about it and we should be considering it. It would be easy to think that social media is behind. Video’s rise. on the surface when we log into any platform, It's video video video, whether it's entertaining videos or informational videos or brand videos. You're seeing your peers do selfie videos to educate the audience about something, you're seeing headlines about “this video got X million number of views overnight”, you're seeing successful fundraising campaigns with emotional stories attached to it. So it would be easy to think that video is sort of driven or really linked to social media. And that's true. But I would like to spend this episode saying why that's only a fraction of why video is so powerful... why video seems to be taking over. It's just not only about social media, I'd like you to think about it a little bit differently so that you can see how this fits into your overall plan. You might find it less intimidating after this episode.


People demand video in other areas outside social media

So the first thing is video is being pushed by the search platforms like Facebook and Google anywhere that there's a high number of users that service provider is going to push what people seem to like. It knows, and it's tracking our behavior. We like videos. Therefore, we're going to favor videos. So it's not just that on social media, people like to share videos with us. It is that the more we do it, the more the service providers see it, know it and try to do it more for us.

The other thing about video is that I know many of you go to news websites and probably like me, feel annoyed by videos popping up. Well, there's a reason they pop up, and that is someone at that news agency or that publisher knows that video is being used by their readers. If the traffic results and data did not show that they would not be pushing, video publishers and newspapers, especially right now, are on a knife edge of trying to figure out how to stay relevant. So they would not be gambling with things that are potentially harmful to their viewership. So if there's video there, you can bet that it's for a strong or convincing reason.

You'll notice also that on Google searches, anything that you search, it could be roofing. It could be a new stroller. It could be a recipe. And in the past year, the top results are videos. That's another sign. And this has nothing to do with social media. It's because video is a preferred format for taking in information. Maybe not by you and maybe not by me, but to somebody, to enough people. For many, many reasons. It could be that they want to put on a video in the background. They want to put it next to them on the counter in the kitchen so that they can follow the instructions. Or maybe it's a more visceral experience to look at a roofing tutorial instead of reading about it and imagining it, you get to see it actually happen.

So video is showing up on Google because Google is pushing it because the people want it, same as in social media.


Video is a human experience

A second thing you should know about this to wrap this idea up is that throughout the evolution of communication and media formats and channels between publishers and people, there's always been sort of a back and forth feedback between the publisher and the audience. That sort of has led to wanting more and more of a human touch, a human experience, but without the actual human contact. I know it sounds kind of dark and weird, but from recorded music on vinyl to TV and film and to voice messaging to texting, everything we do is kind of always moving towards how can I communicate at my own convenience, but also get as much of the human experience as possible. want to see faces, hear voices, watch them put on that roof with their own hands, but all of it is not live. It's not in real life or face to face or actual content. It's at our own convenience. So this is what video provides. The combination of photos and text and audio works in many different contexts. But video brings that all together with movement, and that's why it's so ubiquitous. Now. People don't love video just because it's video. They love it because of a passive asynchronous human experience to absorb knowledge and information. It's because of all of the options of taking in information. For most people, video does everything it needs for them. In terms of the human senses and convenience.

You can already see the next step of communication happening. And that is virtual reality and augmented reality. It is leveling up at a speed that is very hard to explain. But before you know it, that's going to be the next thing.


Conclusion

So to wrap that up, we talked about video being more than just social media. It's about what the people want and service providers putting video to the forefront of our search results.


Secondly, it's about getting the most human experience possible in our search for information and knowledge without the actual [human] contact. It's a passive experience.


A final note to leave you with about this is that this episode was not about hyping video or saying that you're going to miss out on something. This video is just to help you understand that there is so much more happening than just social media. Video is not for everybody. Many people are succeeding without it. But if you're ever going to consider video, think about it not in just social media terms, but in your visibility on search, your ability to show up as a human at every touch point. For example, when somebody is searching or looking at your website for one of your nonprofits services, how can you show up in the most human way possible that they want that your audience wants, and this audience might not even be on Instagram looking at your nonprofit. So you see what I mean here, that it's not just about social media. It is about showing up at the desired touch points in the way that they want.


Thank you. That was episode Eleven. My name is David Phu, P-H-U. I would love for you to connect on LinkedIn. And if you feel like learning about about our services and how we can help you all the way from training to full video service production, I invite you to nonprofitvideocomms.ca.


Thank you and see you next time. Bye


[end]


Learn about our services at Nonprofit Video Comms or follow David on LinkedIn.


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