In a time of economic downturn and an ever changing online universe,  the end consumer has always dictated what the future holds for businesses and technologies alike.  According to some recent Nielsen ratings and Lightspeed research, video is becoming the hottest social medium on the web.  With over 116 million consumers watching and interacting with online video, you can now say that online video viewership is comparable to television viewership.

Consumers are now not only watching videos but sharing them with others.  According to Lightspeed research the most popular methods consumers are using to share videos include : email to friends (50%) , Send to a social network friend (23%) and Instant message a video clip to a friend or colleague (21%)

In conclusion, if your watching videos online your interacting with them more than ever. If your an online business or product online without video optimization and distribution you are definitely missing the picture or should I say online video!

Receiving information via television is so 2000 Late! If you want to view your favorite TV shows, movies, trailers, etc, you can do it by going to Hulu.com, download them from your iTunes account, PS3 video store, Amazon video, YouTube, and now you can even view videos through Twitter. Social Media is becoming more than anyone ever imagined!

There is a new site called twitmatic that allows you to search for any search term you want. It then performs a search from all tweets posted with a video link and presents them to you in a nice legible format. If you type in Star Wars for example, you are presented with trailers, spoofs, Star Trek vs Star Wars video, and much more. This is why Social Media for businesses are becoming so vital.

Business who have not embraced Social Media yet, need to know that everyone else is embracing it. If your business has a video online, it is important that it is a compelling video you want to showcase to the world. If you want it to be found via YouTube, ot in this case via twitmatic from posted tweets – it needs to be compelling.

Social Media is here to stay. It has been embraced by radio stations, newscasters, celebrities, and pretty soon everyone else around you.

Optimized video content is a key element in a well rounded search engine optimization campaign.  With Google’s newest algorithms and Universal Search features, a company must optimize not only it’s website but also ALL other digital assets such as video content.  YouTube.com videos are some of the best video content to embed on a website because Google gives them the most relevance. 

Video files can be optimized in the same way you optimize a web page with title tags, meta descriptions, etc.  Those videos then can be blasted out through networks such as Tube Mogul.  The idea being that when users run searches, they may not get your website everytime but a video result can be just as powerful.  Video optimization is a great Internet marketing tactic that enhances brand image and supports both SEO and social media strategies.

Here are some great tips for optimizing videos:

Upload the video to YouTube and write an optimized title and description, plus add a link to your site from that YouTube page

Video should ALSO be located within one of the company’s domains, IF POSSIBLE, and have the page itself optimized for the video which includes the Title Tags, META Description, & content.

Embed both the YouTube video and a link to the raw video on the client server

Video should not be in FLASH

Have all videos within one subdirectory or subdomain

Create a video XML feed file for iTunes and other podcast readers, to include BOTH the YouTube video AND the client server download URL for readers – adding the video location to both the site’s current HTML & XML sitemap would be an added benefit

The XML file should contain the description, Title, Client Server URL, YouTube embed, link to blog post/client page and other meta data

Enable a CALL TO ACTION be located in the video, especially a link to where they could purchase something similar to what’s in the video

If there are issues hosting videos on the client server then YouTube videos alone should suffice but its best if you can have both in tandem since there will NOT be duplication penalties applied

NOTE – The YouTube video will rank fairly quickly while the client hosted video would be a slow climb in the rankings

Related Blogs

• Related Blogs on Internet Marketing
• 25 Internet Marketing Articles For You To Buy With Your Own Price.
• Learn the #1 marketing tactic from a master for free | Create a …
• eBooks With Reseller Rights » Blog Archive » Internet Marketing …
• Internet Marketing – The 4 Most Important Steps
• Why Does a Company Need Internet Marketing?

• Related Blogs on Video Optimization
• External Incoming Link Flow – Search Engine Optimization SEO …
• SEO Social Media Roadmap | Search Engine Optimization

People are always asking more about video optimization these days.  It makes sense…even my 2 year old watches videos of trash trucks and airplanes on YouTube.com all the time.  We live in an interactive age where people expect their media messages to come in all forms, especially video.

Video optimization is a great Internet marketing tool which is not only viral but supports the organic search engine optimization efforts.  The video below is from a new campaign launched by T-Mobile.  This was shot live at a train station in Liverpool, England.  Only the dancers knew what was about to happen!

As search engines like Google continue to upgrade their search experience and algorithms users will gradually see many different types of results appearing on page one.  Google’s Universal Search is a perfect example.  We can expect to see more video content appearing in the SERPs for all kinds of keywords as the use of video content becomes more and more popular.  Over the past two years video content on the web has increased incredibly, especially due to the popularity of sites like YouTube.

OK, so we know video content is important to users but how does a company get it out there so people can find it?  We can expect video content to be very useful in the orgainc search engine optimization process from now on.  But just like any other Internet marketing strategy, it must be done correctly to add value to the search results.

Relevant Information: Much of the video optimization strategy follows the basic guidelines of good SEO.  Website content is very important for providing information to users as well as to the search engines when they are assessing the level of relevance of your site.  Video is no different.  As the search engines become smarter, there are fewer and fewer ways to take short cuts in optimization tactics (nor should an SEO consultant even try).  ALL content must provide relavant value to the target audience.  That is the first and most important step.  Uploading vodes for the sake of having video content won’t cut it.

Video titles: The title of the video is important much in the same way that page titles are important for SEO.  Important keywords that coincide with the video content should be used in the title.

Vertical search: Use other vertical search engines like You Tube to post your videos and have them link back to pages on your site with content and/or other videos.  So far, You Tube videos are found as some of the most relevant video content out there (to Google of course).

Keyword optimization: Use important keywords that you want the content to appear for in the SERPs when tagging the video.  Also, consider naming the file using keywords.

HTML content is always King: While video is great and becoming more of a player in the SERPs, HTML content is always very important.  Videos should be accompanied by transcripts on the same page or at least well-written keyword rich (not stuffed) content relevant to the video.  All the on page SEO rules still apply.

Short and sweet: Keep the videos nice and short (under five minutes).  This applies to all Internet marketing tactics where the goal is to give the user valuable information is as few steps as possible, and keep them wanting more.  If videos are longer, consider breaking them up into smaller pieces and tagging each piece with keywords.

Viral marketing: Give users the ability to embed your videos on their site just like You Tube does.  This is a great way to build viral marketing “buzz” and create brand awareness.

Ratings:  Another great social media practice is to provide users the ability to give ratings to products and services.   This gets people talking and interacting on the website.  This is a great way to help with video optimization as well.  Videos with great ratings will be more likely to be embeded, saved, and sent to friends.

The most important aspect to take away from this is that the content should always add value to the target audience and user experience.  Other than that, bacis SEO rules apply.