The thing I want to see more of in 2016 - by Eric Wilson

As I reflect on the last year and look forward to the upcoming year, I know for sure that I want to see marketing departments use more video in the commercial real estate industry. It seems that every year we hear that video marketing will be used more and every year it’s the same companies that continue to utilize that marketing platform. Videos traffic makes up to 55% of all online internet traffic so why aren’t more companies using videos and/or using them correctly?

First, gone are the days of creating marketing videos that always correlate any brand videos to a specific brand advertisement. Promotional videos do not have to be advertisements. Second, any video that educates, entertains and engages your potential customers can be a promotional video.

Video marketing is not only confined to platforms such as YouTube or Vimeo, but should be used on all social platforms with tremendous effect on not only your video marketing campaigns but also your social media marketing campaigns. Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg stated in 2015 that “In five years most of Facebook will be video”. Facebook is not alone as Twitter has prioritized video with the launch of Twitter video, Periscope, and Vine. Not only Facebook and Twitter, but also the more mobile friendly platforms like Snapchat, Instagram, and Tumblr, have all prioritized video and we’ve seen the launch of multiple VOD platforms for example Vessel and YouTube Red.

The social platform I would like to see have a bigger leap into video marketing would be LinkedIn. For whatever reason you rarely see engaging video in your LinkedIn feed and this is where the B2B community really embraces social media.

Last, I would like to see more vertical video (shooting and watching videos while holding your smart phone vertically) is the next big thing in video. Clients or customers behavior is all about convenience and vertical video display taps into that behavior. Vertical video makes it easier for clients to view an ad and the brands that tap into that behavior will really shine in 2016!

Eric Wilson is the director of social media at the New England Real Estate Journal, Norwell, Mass.