The old adage of a picture replacing a thousand words is being writ large as the social media ecosystem mutates at astonishing speed to accommodate that old truism.
Millions of photos are uploaded every day, and marketers have recognised the value of visuals in posts, weather on personal blogs, platforms like facebook, and increasingly by corporates who are using social media to engage, like GE’s Tumblr blog.
The infographic, yesterdays hero, is becoming a bit tattered around the edges, even as they become commercialised by sites like Visual.ly, and services like slideshare and Pinterest continue to grow exponentially.
In January, there was a new kid on the block, when Twitters Vine app, a 6 second video bite was launched and is growing like a weed. Huge growth rates are compounding opening a new space in the social ecosystem. It will come as no surprise that Facebook responded, last week with the launch of an Instagram video app which has a 15 second duration.
Whoa, 15 seconds, suddenly the light dawns.
Facebook paid a billion for Instagram, and has not to date found a revenue model to justify that price, and Facebooks share price has reflected the problem. Now however, it seems likely to me that with a 15 second video capability they can start to charge for video ads, supported by the analytic capabilities they have.
SME’s who have hesitated in social media run both the risk of being left behind again by the big blokes who can afford the infrastructure to leverage this stuff. The flip side is facing the opportunity of mobile video marketing and engaging with it to leverage their competitive advantage, their agility, particularly in local and niche markets.
