The blog post below is the first in our Player Customization series. Here we cover how and why a Twitter feed overlay boosts a video’s business value. 

 

I have spent the last six months talking to customers and fans about how various player interactions can forward their business goals. Player technology has come a long way, and these days, player interactions are only limited by your imagination.

This week, I’m going to focus on our Twitter Feed Player. If your day job includes marketing, social media or video production, then this particular player theme deserves consideration for adding to your overall player library. It’s not only simple to implement, but it can also drive significant business results as measured with several key metrics.

Why a Twitter Feed Player?

If your role is video production, the above player may look like tweets overlaid on a video. If your role is social marketing, you might see the flipside – a video underlying a twitter stream. Think of that old Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup commercial (“You got chocolate in my peanut butter! Well you got peanut butter in my chocolate!”). Either way, it’s two great tastes that taste great together. The two can mutually reinforce each other, creating a 1 + 1 = 3 scenario, with results greater than the sum of the individual parts.

5 Business Outcomes of a Twitter Feed Player

Here are five ways that purposefully mashing up Twitter streams inside your videos could add value to your business:

1. INCREASE YOUR TRIBE OF FOLLOWERS. If you are looking for a new way to acquire more fans and followers, then the Twitter Feed Player can help. Rather than a passive “Like” or “Follow” button, which often goes ignored, placing your actual Twitter Feed inside a player invites users into the stream, where they can find deeper content of value. This will help them opt in to any number of communications from your company, and at a minimum, should net you a new follower on Twitter!
2. MULTIPLY THE EFFECT OF YOUR VIDEO WITH SOCIAL SHARING. If your video is share-worthy (and if you read the uStudio blog, we’re betting it is!), then having the Twitter stream layered into the player is a gentle reminder to tweet your video. This naturally multiplies your video’s reach.
3. PROMOTE A MARKETING HASHTAG. If you’ve got a great #hashtag campaign idea, then layer it over the related video; you’re not constrained to just your @handle. Audiences can watch the videos and interact live, with participants tweeting and seeing their tweets appearing “onscreen”. What a great way to illustrate a campaign gaining traction!
4. TURN THIRD-PARTY AUDIENCES INTO YOUR OWN. Your videos probably live multiple places, from your website, to your corporate intranet, to YouTube or other third party sites.
   While audiences on your website are somewhat captive, gaining attention and mindshare in a crowded marketplace like YouTube or iTunes can be a challenge. Adding an interactive element to your videos, such as the Twitter feed, can help create stickier video experiences – ones that get more follows - especially in these competitive third party content environments. With the Twitter-Feed Player (and all of uStudio’s player framework-supported players) your interactive features travel with your video, giving you a unique advantage, anywhere your videos go.
5. SAVE PRODUCTION DOLLARS BY MAKING OLDER CONTENT MORE RELEVANT NOW. Video is a fixed medium; once you publish it, it doesn’t change much. But with a strong social team, your Twitter feed is always on and current. Adding the feed can give older videos staying power, extending their overall life without having to shoot new videos as frequently. If you’ve been owning a particular topic for months or years, the video serves as proof, and the fresh and up-to-date stream proves the topic’s ongoing market relevance. This delivers a higher overall return on your original video production investment.

When To Use a Twitter Feed Player

Now let’s talk about timing. Should every video include the Twitter Feed? As our head of marketing, Lisa Stuardi, mentioned recently, an easy way to think about designing players is to create some for Pervasive Use Cases and others for Special Occasions. Here is an example of how you may want to use a Twitter Feed Player for each.

Pervasive Use Case

Does your organization host events or conferences regularly – for customers, partners, employees or the press perhaps? If so, you probably record or stream those events to remote stakeholders. Why not create a Twitter Feed Player theme that can be used at all of your events and then embed the pertinent #hashtag stream from each event in the relevant player?

Special Occasion

Do you have a New Product Launch on the calendar? Will it be accompanied by a powerful promotional video? And also a social campaign? Then bring the two together inside a Twitter Feed Player. As audiences watch the promotional videos, they can also experience the real-time enthusiasm and market response of retweets, @mentions, and commentary, which serve to amplify the perceived impact of your content.

That’s certainly no exhaustive list, but – for any initiative – ask yourself “would audience participation in my video’s story make the message resonate more?” If the answer is yes, then you owe it to your team to consider player customization options like the Twitter-Feed Player.

Interactive Players Work for the Multi-Screen Audience

Now whether you’re a Marketer, Maker, Manager, or Video Leader, you might just have a skeptical side that wonders whether viewers would like this kind of thing. Would the Twitter feed feel intrusive? Might it be a turn-off? We considered that (even though, obviously, the viewer can hide the Twitter stream at will and just watch the video). But there’s a wealth of data now showing that people have developed multi-screen viewing habits (e.g. here’s a great infographic from FastCoCreate ). 81% of Americans use a smartphone while simultaneously watching TV. 66% combine smartphone use with a laptop or PC.  Many audiences want more than passive video consumption. And since we want more interaction from our videos, the Twitter Feed Player may be an excellent opportunity to invite more audience participation.

And don’t just take our word for it; here’s a great quote from eConsultancy: “Having content that’s a good compliment to the primary screen is the place to start, but it’s not the finish line. Experiences have to be easy to access, compelling, and timely.” They conclude with a great call-to-action for long-term success:  “Brands that move to rapidly embrace this reality will have a clear advantage. They’ll have an edge in understanding how to introduce their messaging to multi-screen consumers regardless of the evolution of their devices, behaviors and interests.” I couldn’t say it better myself.

In closing, I urge you to call together your video and social teams to imagine the possibilities – collaboratively. Share this post with your digital and social marketing colleagues, and discuss how you can make 1 + 1 = 3 at your organization.