The social media environment is the next wave of effective marketing. Social media is defined as ‘information content created by people using highly accessible and scalable publishing technologies that is intended to facilitate communications, influence adn interaction with peers adn public audiences, typically via the internet and mobile communications. (Wikipedia, 2009). One of the most popular forms of socail media is making a video and posting them online.
Almost all internet users have either viewed or posted this form of social media online. Some of most popular video postings sites on the net today include YouTube, Google Video, Vimeo, and Yahoo Video. These sites allow users to post videos, some free of charge, as well as search and view and almost endless variety of videos. One of the nice things many of these sites allow a video viewer to do is add the video URL or video snippet code to their own personal site.
The eDirectory software allows many of its members to post videos to thier listings. The video feature, available via snippet code only, is pre-built into the Showcase business listings only. Here is an example of what the video snippet code looks like that needs to be entered into the eDirectory:
[message type=”custom”]<object width=”425″ height=”344″><param name=”movie” value=”http://www.youtube.com/v/lnRJlY2lKC0&hl=en&fs=1″></param><param name=”allowFullScreen” value=”true”></param><param name=”allowscriptaccess” value=”always”></param><embed src=”http://www.youtube.com/v/lnRJlY2lKC0&hl=en&fs=1″ type=”application/x-shockwave-flash” allowscriptaccess=”always” allowfullscreen=”true” width=”425″ height=”344″></embed></object>[/message]
Adding a video into a listing can be a great took to enhance the users experience while viewing their listing and information about their company. It allows for the user to gain a large amount of knowledge about the company in a short period of time and can be created to be catchy and entertaining as well. A video, accompanied with a strong write-up about the company can be a great partner in highlighting the visitor about the strenghts of the company and encourage visitors to contact or continue reading about the company.