For brands that wanna be big influencers on Facebook and YouTube (so … basically every brand), the Tubular Labs‘ State of Online Video Q2 2018 report is a veritable goldmine of information.
Here are the important bits:
Influencers (basically YouTube celebrities) wrack up way more views than brands and also upload way more than brands. In the first quarter of 2018, the breakdown for YouTube views was:
84% influencers
13% media companies
3% brands
Influencers clearly trounce companies, but they also uploaded way more content than media companies or brands. The breakdown for uploads is:
89% influencers
9% media companies
2% brands
When you consider those numbers, media companies and brands actually got pretty good bang for their buck considering how little they uploaded.
Over on Facebook, the viewing numbers were:
56% influencers
40% media companies
4% brands
That compares to the following upload numbers:
56% influencers
38% media companies
6% brands
So, brands fared slightly worse for the amount they were uploading on Facebook in Q1 this year.
Clearly, if brands want to be influential on social media platforms, it would be a good idea for them to partner with influencers on the sites. These influencers can have millions of views of their videos and any endorsement they give can be a huge boon to a brand.
Part of the reason they can accumulate so many views is that they either jump on or initiate trends that sweep through the platform they’re on. So, if you identify a type of video that is trending and you can somehow shoehorn your brand into an influencer video about that trend, you may find a winning combination.
One of the great things about social video is that it allows viewers to spend some time seeing how other people live. The category of Vicarious Living lets people step into the lives of these influencers (visually, anyway).
Food is something we all share in common. Nobody can live without it. A couple of big trends in food videos in 2018 are eating a lot and eating off the streets.
While tutorials are highly interesting and helpful, for entertainment value, influencers have gone in the other direction and have made anti-tutorials a big trend on Facebook and YouTube.
Autonomous sensory meridian response (ASMR) videos have been around for a decade now, but they are really taking off right now. These types of videos are basically just people doing quiet activities like whispering, tapping on things lightly or brushing their hair, for example. The quiet sounds are meant to stimulate a physical and emotional response in people. Many people love listening to the quiet audio stimulation and they can easily be crossed with other types of videos, like the makbang ones.