Chapter 48
Videos and YouTube
You can't do today's job with yesterday's methods and be in business tomorrow.
—Anonymous
Of all of the things you can include on your website and Facebook page to attract and retain viewers, it turns out that adding video is just about the best, most effective, and most engaging option. It makes a site, as they say, sticky; that is, video is that magic thing that causes people to spend more time on a site—to stick around. And after all, that's what we want—to have people spend more time on our website. By getting people to stick, you have a greater chance to make an impression.
How sticky is video? Consider that almost two in three Americans now watch videos online every month. In addition, according to the online video production site TurnHere.com:
- You are 50 times more likely to appear on the first page of Google with video on your home page.
- 26 percent of video viewers will visit the physical store.
- 21 percent of video viewers will make a purchase.
- YouTube ranks behind only Google as the world's most popular search engine.
Now, why is video so popular and powerful online? If you think about it for a moment, it makes perfect sense. Web 1.0 was a static place where all you could do was read a website. Most small business sites back then (circa 2000) were nothing more than an e-version of the company's Yellow Page ad. But the Web 2.0 world we are living in now is very different. People expect to interact with a site these days—to respond to a blog ...
