Supply Chain Technology
Web Video on the Cheap
Add video, complete with analytics, for free
Free tools and millions of viewers
In a move to become the de facto platform for video on the Web, the company has rolled out a series of free tools that essentially enable any firm to edit, post and analyze viewership of a promotional video at absolutely no cost.
It’s an offer worthy of serious consideration, given that more than 10 billion videos were watched by 141 million U.S. viewers in December 2007, according to Web research firm Comscore (www.comscore.com).
Equally persuasive: By 2012, 88 percent of all U.S. Internet users are expected to be watching video online, according to Web research firm eMarketer (www.emarketer.com).
Ports already using YouTube
A number of cargo industry firms have already taken YouTube up on its offer.
• The Port of Prince Rupert posted a slickly produced video on its services on YouTube (www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRAs9B4EV84).
• A video posted on the service by the Port of Long Beach gives potential shippers a walk-through on how containers make it through the port (www.youtube.com/watch?v=L1nZNIeF2uc).
• The Port of Virginia offers a detailed look at its operations in its YouTube video (www.youtube.com/watch?v=x3MktODi99A).
• The Association of Canadian Port Authorities has a video promoting all of its members (www.youtube.com/watch?v=slJ6A88KHdw).
See who’s watching
YouTube’s most recent introduction of free analytics tools, dubbed “Insight,” is what has really begun turning heads in the business community.
“Uploaders can see how often their videos are viewed in different geographic regions, as well as how popular they are relative to all videos in the market over a given period of time,” says Tracy Chan, YouTube’s product manager.
“You can also delve deeper into the life cycle of your videos, like how long it takes for a video to become popular, and what happens to video views as popularity peaks.”
Essentially, whether you’re looking to experiment with Web video for the first time, or you’re an experienced user looking to cut costs while increasing the sophistication of your Web video promotions, YouTube’s free solution is tough to beat.
How it works
Here’s a breakdown of how the service works:
• Getting your raw footage on the site. Once your raw video footage has been shot, YouTube offers a helpful editing tips section on its site (www.youtube.com/video_toolbox) with advice on how to get the lighting, transitions and sound just right.
There’s also specific detail on how to upload a video from a cell phone or other mobile devices and a forum you can use to ask others to help brainstorm a particular editing problem.
• Creating the video player. Once you’ve posted your completed video to the YouTube site, you can cut and paste a snippet of YouTube-provided code that will enable you to create a YouTube player on your website in seconds.
The player, which is also free, can be quickly dropped into your corporate blog as well, onto a company social network, or in virtually any other Web-based environment.
• Customizing your player. You have the option of posting the YouTube player “as is,” or your Web designer can customize the player with its own “skin.” That customized look can feature your company’s logo, as well as a look and feel that’s distinctive to your company or company’s website. (With either option, a faint YouTube watermark appears in the right-hand corner of your video.)
The player creation tool also enables you to optimize your video for the search engines by allowing you to include titles, descriptions, ratings and viewer comments associated with your video.
• Adding the player to your website. For a how-to video on how to add the YouTube player to your website, check out www.youtube.com/youtubeonyoursite. There’s also a separate how-to video on how to customize your player at www.youtube.com/watch?v=uTwWEtVtu58.
No hosting costs
The technology enables you to offer a window on your company’s videos on your own site, while shifting the hosting and transmission costs associated with the viewing of that video to YouTube.
The reason? While the player is embedded on your website, your actual video is uploaded onto YouTube’s servers. That means every time someone views the video, it’s YouTube’s servers that are actually transmitting video — not your company’s Web servers.
That scenario is especially ideal for small businesses that are interested in reaching out to Web video viewers with a number of offerings but that have little or no budget to do so.
Hitting it big
It’s also an excellent insurance policy for any firm that happens to produce a video that goes “viral” – i.e., a video that becomes an overnight sensation on the Web that is viewed by hundreds of thousands or even millions of viewers.
For most firms, the onslaught of that kind of attention generally results in crashed servers and countless missed sales/public relations opportunities. For YouTube, it’s nearly an everyday event that the firm has learned to accommodate easily.
Free “Insight” analytics
Once your video and player are in place, you’ll also be able to use YouTube’s free video analytics service (Insight) to glean deep insight into the popularity of your video, who’s viewing the video and where those people are coming from.
• A fresh analytics report is issued each day, so you can track spikes in viewership against your roll-out of new marketing campaigns or any media coverage your company happens to receive.
• You can see how viewers found your video — whether by searching on YouTube or Google, or via a link to the video from your own e-mail marketing campaign or from another website.
• You can tell if viewers are watching your video from the YouTube site or from your site.
• You can identify the search queries visitors use on the search engines to find your video — information that can be used to make informed decisions on the kind of keywords your company may want to bid for on Google-sponsored links and on similar sponsored links programs on other search engines.
And, according to YouTube’s corporate blog, you can expect more analytics features in the future.
YouTube users with a free account can find the Insight tool by clicking “My Account,” then “Videos.” You’ll find a button there labeled “Insight.”
For a video tutorial on all Insight has to offer, check out www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xo6HBKTyIzQ.
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