As content consumption changes, you need to come up with new and entertaining methods to keep your audience connected to your brand. People are using their smartphones and tablets to interact with content, so you need to come up with something that adds value while being easy to follow at any moment.

Videos are flexible and allow you to deliver high-quality content using an entertaining format. Video content is the king of digital marketing – it will account for as much as 80 percent of the internet traffic, by 2019.

The Power of Video Content

What’s so special about videos? They capture attention.

Have you seen how, after watching a video, you’re thirsty for more? You play the next one, and then another one, fascinated about each story. You could go on forever watching short (and sometimes funny) videos about everything. From cooking to DIY tutorials, there’s plenty of great video content you would keep watching, right from your smartphone.

And it’s not just you. YouTube has 1.3 billion users who watch an average of 5 billion videos every day. Better than that, more than half of internet users prefer watching video online instead of watching TV.

Video content is the tool every marketer dreams of:

• 80 percent of viewers can remember a video seen in the past month;
• According to Invodo, internet users who watch a video are almost twice more likely to make a purchase than users who don’t watch videos;
• 52 percent of marketers believe that video is the content with the best ROI;
• According to bombbomb.com, videos register 56 percent more referrals, 81 percent more replies, and 68 percent more conversions;
• 66 percent of SEO experts believe link building with videos is effective.

Video has become a priority for marketers in all niches. There’s no doubt that video content should be a major component of your digital marketing strategy this year.

5 Best Video Sharing Sites

YouTube is the second largest search engine after Google. It’s a crowded place, with more than 70 hours of video uploaded here every minute. If you’re not ready to start sharing your videos using this platform (or you want to have more options for video sharing), you can try your luck with other popular websites in this niche.

1. Vimeo

Vimeo is one of the largest video sharing sites, with over 35 million users and around 240 monthly viewers.

The difference between Vimeo and YouTube consists in the quality of the videos uploaded on this site. In fact, Vimeo uses better encoding techniques, so you get the highest quality for your videos.

This means that they have more rigid rules when it comes to the quality of your content. The good thing is that, with this move, Vimeo videos are perceived as better by most internet users. In simple words, you get to build a better reputation by posting on Video instead of YouTube.

But the best thing about Vimeo is that you can replace an old video while keeping the URL – together with all your old likes and comments.

2. Dailymotion

Dailymotion is the second largest video sharing website after YouTube, with 300 million monthly unique users. The site has 35 localized versions and is available in 18 different languages. It’s mostly popular in the US, France, and Japan.

Dailymotion and YouTube are similar channels. They have the same policy when it comes to restrictions and privacy. With the difference that Dailymotion accepts videos no longer than 60 minutes and smaller than 2Gb. This allows them to win the extra points for the better quality of their videos.

Another difference stays in the users’ age. Dailymotion is preferred by teenagers and young adults. It’s the perfect place to market your products if your target audience is between 12 and 24 years old.

3. Flickr

Mostly known as a good platform to share photos, Flickr allows you to share videos, as well. The website has over 90 million monthly users in more than 63 countries. You get to share high-quality videos with an audience that has a real interest in visuals. But, it’s less popular than other sites, so you may not reach the people you need using this channel alone.

To be able to upload and store unlimited videos, you’ll need a Flickr Pro membership. A free account is enough to start with, but you should consider the limits in the long run.

4. Veoh

Veoh is basically an online television service that gives you the option to share your videos. It puts together news, music, movies and various other topics to entertain their viewers. It has millions of users, most of them coming from Japan, the US, India, Germany, and the UK.

Besides video, on Veoh, you get to send voice messages and to chat inside the community. You also get access to channels and forums, where you can discuss topics with other members of the community.

5. Metacafe

Metacafe registers 12 million unique monthly users in the US alone. The site is also popular among American businesses, being used by over 2,000 small companies for advertising.

You can share short-form videos on various topics and categories, from commercials and entertainment to sports and video games.

A Word on Facebook

As digital video is booming, Facebook couldn’t live this niche uncovered. So, our favorite social network is also a great place to publish your videos. You get to share your content with a huge audience – a public you already know, if you have a social media marketing strategy.

Internet users watch around 8 billion videos on Facebook every day, including live videos. Better than that, video content on this social network has the potential to reach around 2 billion active users worldwide. Ignoring Facebook’s power to convert with video means losing the chance to connect with your public. Because Facebook is now one of the best video sharing sites for marketers.

To Sum Up

More than half of internet users watch videos online – mostly from their smartphones. If you ignore this fact, you miss huge business opportunities for your brand.

Whether you choose YouTube, Facebook or any other video sharing website to market your business, you must include video in your strategy. Because it has the power to keep your audience engaged as no other type of content. Even better, video content can increase brand awareness, improve conversion rates and, eventually, boost your revenues.