Blog

YouTube, has introduced a “Breaking News” section on its homepage, it shows a collection of videos pertaining worldwide news and events. The feature appears on both mobile, as well as desktop.

Barcelona attack being the very recent major incident happened across the world, the Breaking News section was showing the videos related to it. The section shows region-specific videos displayed in horizontal scrollable format, the section includes options like ‘Recommended’, ‘Watch It Again’, and ‘Recently Uploaded’.

If users do not wish to see the Breaking News section, they can remove it from their homepage, by clicking on ‘X’ if using a desktop or ‘Not Interested’ if using mobile.

Still, it is not clear if the ‘Breaking News’ will appear daily or only when some major incident occurs. The feature is live on live on the iOS and Android YouTube apps, as well as the desktop site.
 

In December 2013, Facebook released Premium Video Ads, “designed for advertisers who want to reach a large audience with high-quality sight, sound and motion. Each 15-second video ad will start playing without sound as it appears on screen and stop if people scroll past.” Nice...but not affordable for small businesses. 

Facebook video ads no longer require a Fortune 500 budget. With expanded video capabilities, small businesses can use Facebook’s standard video ads to “encourage people to engage more deeply with their brand and products is by adding a call-to-action inviting people to learn more and visit a destination of their choice, like a specific page on a website, after viewing the video.” 

According to an article on Adweek.com, internet video ads have higher impact than TV ads. Click here to read more. 

​

Many companies use video to promote the brand, products and services. Some are taking it to the extreme, using pretty amazing cameras like the GoPro to demonstrate a product from the user’s point of view.

The GoPro camera was originally invented for surfers, to shoot the view inside the curl of a wave. But that was just the beginning. In the March 2013 edition of Forbes, Ryan Mac wrote: “The cinema-grade, panoramic, point-of-view footage that comes out of a GoPro transforms mere mortals into human highlight reels, without blowing a huge hole in the budget.”

Cameras like the GoPro let you get hugely creative, but a nicely produced video that highlights your company and your brand gives a strong boost to your SEO campaign. Video tends to be more engaging than text. And, video is a great way to add content to your website, attract organic traffic and build up your presence on YouTube.