As more customers share their photos and videos for public viewing, marketers are finding new ways to profit from these shares.
According to a report released by Pew Internet & American Life Project, in 2013, more than 50% of the adults in the US shared self-created photos and videos using Internet connectivity, and most of these shares were from mobile devices such as iPhones or iPads.
Pew Internet’s Maeve Duggan is the author of this report. He believes that the Internet has brought people’s life events to real-time visuals that are posted as they happen, developing a new form of social communication.
Types of Sharing Behaviors
The above-mentioned report revealed two major types of social behaviors: one of the creator and the other of the curator.
The creator is the originator of the photo or video; the one who snaps a picture or creates a video file. He is also the one who initially shares his digital media on social networks.
Meanwhile, the curator is the person who finds these randomly shared images and posts and spreads them even further, making them accessible to an even wider audience.
Enhancement of Marketing Opportunities
Mobile devices have made content creation and sharing easier and more readily accessible. As a result, online marketers can use this to their advantage by connecting with new customers and joining online photo and video-sharing communities. This can help them better determine their customers’ social behaviors and understand them.
Many eCommerce sites have expanded their marketing to social media sites like Facebook, where they provide information about their products and their descriptions, show tutorials for using the products, or display images of their customers as they make their purchases.
For eCommerce sites, the source of the digital media does not matter. They will contact their customers and other sources to obtain the applicable photos and videos for their own marketing promotions.
There have even been incidences when marketers have contacted people who wish to use their photos, and even though the person has never heard of the company, once they post his photo, he will most definitely start keeping tabs on it.
One more way of promoting marketing through photos and videos is to offer apps that allow people to capture themselves in unique images and backgrounds. When potential clients post these photos, the company automatically receives more viewership in the public’s eyes.
Another means of promoting sales is to offer quizzes and visual games related to the store’s products. A ‘hidden objects’ game that has the products hidden within it can work well. If any of the people viewing it find a product, the company can post the price and description of it underneath, allowing for additional marketing of the goods.
These are just a few examples of how video and photo sharing have improved and modified marketing opportunities for online marketers everywhere.