Reality television star Khloe Kardashian has recently broken her silence following the scare that sister Kim Kardashian had when she was robbed in Paris. The two sisters, who have appeared on various E! reality shows including Keeping Up With the Kardashians, are known for their social media presence. It was no surprise that Khloe chose to use that venue to finally speak, even if it wasn’t necessarily about the incident.

According to Daily Mail of the UK, Khloe took to social media Thursday to post a video. It was the first time Kim’s sister really said or did much of anything since the robbery occurred in France. Rather than mentioning the actual robbery incident, Khloe was back to self-promotion. She posted a brand new video to help promote the launch of her label called Good American.

Countdown to the launch of my denim brand @goodamerican begins! 12 days until you can shop goodamerican.com #goodsquad

A video posted by Khloé (@khloekardashian) on Oct 6, 2016 at 9:01am PDT

As Hollywood Life reported on Thursday, Good American will officially launch on October 18. The denim brand is specifically marketed towards curvy girls. Khloe later followed that with another post to proudly announce that Jordyn Woods would be connected with the brand. As mentioned, these were the first social media posts from Khloe in six days time, seemingly to distance them from the incident her sister went through. Just a week ago, she had posted a photo of her two sisters sitting at an event.

Earlier this week, Khloe’s sister Kim Kardashian was tied up and robbed by several masked men in Paris. Reportedly, the armed gunmen took off with more than $10 million in jewelry during the robbery. Also, two smartphones were said to be taken from Kardashian. The gunmen apparently forced their way to her hotel room after handcuffing a concierge and making him lead them to the room Kim K was staying in. She was then tied up, and the men made off with various items totaling over $10 million. Those men are still being hunted by the authorities investigating the incident.

Kardashian had been in France to attend fashion shows for Paris Fashion Week. Early Monday morning she boarded a private plane to head back home. The robbery incident also caused her husband, hip-hop star Kanye West, to immediately stop and cancel a performance he was doing at the Meadows Music and Arts Festival in New York City.

Since the incident took place, new footage has become available, according to US Magazine. Apparently, the authorities recovered surveillance camera footage from a store across the street. Paris police are now on the hunt for a blacked-out limo that was spotted circling the building that Kardashian was robbed at gunpoint in. There were also reports that Kim K was followed in a gray Fiat 500 before the robbery occurred. Police are continuing their investigation and attempting to determine if the heist was a possible “inside job” as well.

A lot of commotion has been made over the fact such a high-profile celebrity was robbed. It has led to some individuals questioning how much celebs flaunt their material possessions online via social media such as Instagram, Facebook, and Snapchat. As TMZ reported, it also appears the scare is causing Kim K to reconsider how she does things. The celeb will apparently take a month off from work to reevaluate her online presence.

Kardashian has been said by many to have first become famous due to a leaked sex tape that involved singer Ray J. Once the video footage became more and more viral, the daughter of former attorney Robert Kardashian, gained more fame and wealth. She built up her social media presence and has not only starred on reality TV shows, but also is an entrepreneur, model, and spokesperson for various endorsers.

Khloe and her other sister Kourtney have both been able to ride Kim’s coattails to become famous. The two have been a major part of the various reality television shows, even getting their own spin-offs. Khloe has also been known for dating several NBA stars including James Harden, Lamar Odom, and most recently Tristan Thompson. Khloe has an Instagram account with over 57 million followers. That’s about 27 million less than her sister Kim’s, showing just how large a reach they have online.

It seems that the latest scare will serve as a major cautionary lesson not only for the Kardashians but for all social media users in general: Always be careful with what you’re posting or how much you’re posting on those fun and easy-to-use social media platforms.

[Featured Image by Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images]

I want a good user experience when I watch video, no matter the platform or device I am using. It’s what all consumers want, and it’s something the online video industry has been promising for years. But when it comes to content that is supported by advertising, the market is completely broken, and the user experience is horrible. It’s been this way for years, with no signs of getting better. In fact, it’s getting worse—much worse.

There are almost no standards in the online video advertising market, which makes for a very poor user experience. Every website seems to treat video advertising differently, whether it’s the format, length, quality, or functionality of the ad. Ad-solution vendors promise things like targeting and high-quality engagement, but they fall severely short. It’s the whole reason why the average cost per mille (CPM) for nontargeted pre-roll videos has fallen over the years and now hovers at about $10. No advertiser wants to spend a lot of money, except in specific niche cases, because the targeting of the ad, the experience for the consumer, and the metrics given back to the advertisers are so poor. Some online sites can charge $25 CPM for pre-roll, but not many.

Day after day, site after site, I get the same pre-roll ad delivered to me 10 times in a row. On the CNN, ESPN, and NFL websites, I’ll often see the same ad on every clip I watch. On some sites, the content I want to watch is available in HD quality, but the pre-roll ad is delivered in SD quality. Some websites will deliver a 4:3 ad inside a 16:9 player. One site will run a 30-second pre-roll ad before a video clip that is only 30 seconds in length, but another will stick to only 15-second pre-rolls for short-form content.

You can skip some pre-rolls, but not others. And when it comes to the player itself, some ads can go full-screen, while others can’t. Some you can pause, some not. And then you have the problem that some sites won’t let you turn off auto-play videos that start with a pre-roll. I will read an article on a website only to notice later that a video was playing someplace else on the page the whole time. I didn’t see the ad or engage with the video at all, but an advertiser paid to deliver that ad anyway. Last year, Google said that 46 percent of the video ads running across the desktop and mobile web (outside of YouTube) never had a chance to be seen. All online video advertising vendors talk about is engagement, yet the metrics they use to measure engagement are different, or there is no real engagement taking place at all.

The live streaming experience is even worse. Server-side ad insertion is very hard to do, many vendor solutions in the market do not work, and the consumer experience is poor. If I want to watch a live stream of an event that has already started, I want to get to the stream as quickly as possible because I feel like I am missing out. And yet, for example, when I watched the Democratic National Convention stream on foxnews .com, I had to sit through the page loading (6 seconds), the player loading the ad (5 seconds), the ad itself (30 seconds), and then the live stream buffering (5 seconds). So 46 seconds after clicking the live stream link, I finally got the content. What is it about that experience that publishers and video advertising vendors think is good?

Nine years ago, I wrote a blog post titled, “The Five Biggest Technical Issues Hurting the Growth of Online Video Advertising. » Sadly, almost a decade later, the industry is struggling with the same issues. Nothing has truly changed. Seven years ago, I commented that there is a shortage of online video advertising inventory, and that’s still a problem today. And the reason for all of this, the dirty little secret that no one wants to address, is that the cost of dealing with the ad network and technology is, in most cases, larger than the revenue from the advertising. At a $10 average CPM, there isn’t a lot of revenue to split up among everyone who has to get a piece of the pie. Sure, a site like Hulu can do well with video advertising because of the premium content it offers, but very few sites have content as valuable as Hulu. So you can get high CPMs in the $20–$25 range, but that’s only for high-quality video offerings, which isn’t a vast majority of videos on the web.

Demographics is key with advertising—we all know that, and yet almost no targeting is taking place. I get ads for physical stores that are more than a hundred miles from where I live. I get ads for senior citizens, which isn’t me. I get ads for kids, which I don’t have. And now I know why so many ads start off with questions like, “Are you …,” “Do you …,” etc. They don’t know whom that ad is reaching. So not only is there a whole host of technical problems preventing online video advertising from being truly successful, but we also have quite a few business problems as well. Hence, the use of ad-blocking software by consumers continues to climb.

Some will argue by telling me how big the online video advertising market is, but that doesn’t mean the consumer experience is a good one. It’s been a bad experience for the past 10 years, and I see nothing on the horizon that gives any indication it’s going to get better. We’ve seen a lot of promises made, but very little in the way of actual advancement. We’d all better get used to seeing the same nontargeted ads, over and over, because they aren’t going away anytime soon.

[This article appears in the October 2016 issue of Streaming Media magazine.]

Video marketing has never been more effective at converting prospects into leads. Studies say it’s 50 times easier to reach Google’s first page with a video.

Related: By 2019, Video Marketing Will Be Everything. You’ve Got to Get in on the Trend — Now.

Video marketing also offers the most engaging form of content you can come up with, and it’s perfectly suited to any and all devices. But some people wrongly believe that video marketing is a silver bullet. Video marketing won’t automatically get attention for your business, and you’re never going to succeed just because you happen to have a video online.

So, if you’re not getting the results you want, it’s time to think about some of the things you can do. This guide will introduce you to some top tips that can double the success of your next video marketing campaign.

1. Start with a story people care about.

The reason why videos are so engaging is not because they regurgitate the same content found in written blogs. Instead, they tell an interesting story people want to hear about. The most effective videos always connect with a target audience through some form of inspiring story.

A simple video that shows your product is going to get you nothing but minor results. Combine that product into a story and your results are going to rocket your viewership.

Every viral video in the world today has a fun and engaging story. The brand is secondary, yet the video is still better for your company in the long-term.

Related: The 4 Pillars of Stellar Video Marketing

2. Keep the video short and punchy.

Video length is one aspect of marketing that many people have looked into. Studies have concluded that most customers have shorter attention spans than ever. That should come as no surprise. There’s so much content on the internet that the moment you view something, you’re pulled in another direction.

These days’ shorter videos have far higher conversion rates than longer ones. Remember that most people are going to be watching your video in a 30-second window before they get off the bus. So, the ideal length of a video today is about a minute. The longer your videos get, the higher the bounce rates.

Don’t lose the chance to get your message across because you’ve insisted on creating a feature.

3. Make your video interactive.

The behavior of your customers is always changing. Fail to keep up with it and you’re going to be left behind. Creating a video every time your fluid audience changes is expensive and time-consuming. The easiest way to create content that lasts longer is to make your videos interactive.

Interactive content has never been more popular. It puts the power in the hands of the viewer. Interactive videos essentially allow customers to take part in the video and determine in which direction it goes.

A dynamic story line can teach customers specific lessons and act as a fun distraction. This advanced technique doesn’t have a massive amount of participation from businesses yet, which makes it crucial for you to jump on this strategy now.

4. Add a ‘call to action’ button.

One of the biggest mistakes businesses make with video content is they allow the video to completely fade to black. Allowing that is the worst thing you can do because you’ve got a great video without any direction as to where you want your customers to go next.

The few seconds at the end of the video should be dedicated to adding contact information and a firm call to action. Make sure that that button takes viewers exactly where you want them to go.

Your video, after all, is just part of your sales funnel.

5. Make sure you post the video in multiple locations.

Are you not getting the results you want?

Where you’re distributing your video to could be a problem. Most of your target audience could be on a completely different network than you. It makes no sense to just post your video on your website if most of your targets are hanging out on Facebook or YouTube, for example.

So, think about how you can expand your distribution.

6. Use data to determine your next course of action.

Data is everything in the business world. It’s the only way you’re going to make sure that what you’re doing is right. You should have a data-gathering strategy in place so you can chart the progress of each video. Are people responding to your video in the right way or are they bouncing off the page immediately?

Such information can be vital for your next production.

Conclusion

When used correctly, video marketing can be remarkably effective. But it’s not going to happen without some careful consideration from you before you launch your next campaign.

Related: Leverage the Undeniable Power of Video Marketing on All Platforms

What are you going to do to improve the power of your videos?

Here are 10 ways to show and tell your brand’s story through video:

Find your audience. Although television advertisements still have a place in your overall marketing strategy, they may not reach as many people as an online video would. This is especially true with young viewers; it is estimated that YouTube reaches more young adults ages 18-34 than any cable television network. Before you adopt any new marketing strategy, you should consider where your target audience views content and what they are looking for.

Show and tell. If your video isn’t engaging, it won’t matter how much great information it contains about your products or service. Like any content you create, your video needs to inform the viewer while telling a compelling story. Take advantage of the opportunity presented by video and give your viewers a demonstration of your product or service. Instructional videos are the most frequently searched for and consumed content on YouTube with over 100 million hours viewed in 2015 alone. A good video begins with a script.

Shorter is sweeter. Even though you can upload over 15 minutes of video on YouTube with their permission, your viewers will have likely tuned out by then. You only have 10 seconds to grab your viewers’ attention and that attention will wane as your video goes on if you don’t keep them engaged. Every venue has different specifications for video length, as does every type of content. While you should be mindful of this, it is more important to focus on the content of the video, its target audience, and where it will be viewed. For example, a vlog is a longer format than a social media video advertisement. However, your viewer is likely taking the time to watch a vlog that is of interest to them rather than just scrolling past your video ad in their newsfeed on social media.

Go mobile. Smartphone owners are using their devices to consume video more than ever before. Half of all online video views occur on mobile devices. With that in mind, your videos should accommodate the needs of these viewers. Mobile video viewers prefer shorter content, as do the devices themselves since larger file sizes take longer to load. If your videos are featured on your website, make sure you use responsive design elements that allow them to adjust to the screen size they’re being viewed on.

Get found. Did you know that YouTube is the world’s second largest search engine? You may not think of it that way, but it processes over 3 billion searches per month. Like any other search engine, there are rules that apply to its ranking. For video, the title, number of views, description, and ratings matter along with traditional search engine optimization (SEO) requirements like keywords.

Be social. Most social media platforms have their own form of native video. The platform you use will determine your video strategy. Snapchat videos are 10 seconds or less, limiting the time you have to share your message. Meanwhile, other platforms allow for longer videos but may have other limitations. Recently, Twitter changed their requirements so that videos no longer take up characters in tweets, leaving users all 140 to write a message with. Regardless of the platform you use, you should design with its specifications in mind in order to be successful.

Sharing is caring. Social media is about sharing everything, including videos. Your followers are sharing relevant content that you’ve created and you should return the favor. Even if you’ve created a video for another format, social media provides an opportunity for you to reach a wider audience through sharing.

Pay up. You want to use video advertising but are afraid it will be too expensive? It won’t be if you use YouTube or social media. Along with placing ads before videos on YouTube, social media platforms allow you to use video as part of their paid advertising features. Best of all, you can pay as much or as little as you’d like, making these options budget-friendly.

Go live. With the launch of live video services like Facebook Live and Periscope, marketers have a new video marketing tool available to them. These features can enhance events at your business by giving viewers a behind the scenes look. Be aware that timing is key with live video. Announce when the broadcast will be happening so your viewers won’t miss it.  

Analyze this. Like any other marketing strategy, collecting and analyzing data about your video informs your overall strategy. YouTube has its own free analytics feature built in that allows to you to customize reports for a set time period. Video data to collect and analyze includes the number of views, viewer demographics, and the view duration. To be most effective, only track data that is relevant to your goals.

As the most consumed content online, video can be one of the most valuable tools in your marketing toolbox. You have the opportunity to capture your viewers’ eyes, hearts, and minds through compelling visual content.

With online video exploding as the fastest medium for digital content, publishers are struggling to find ways to take advantage of their own libraries and keep more of their audience on their sites.

Right now audiences are being siphoned by Facebook, YouTube and Snapchat, costing publishers hundreds of thousands of dollars on the millions of page views generated by the content they own.

As publishers try to emphasize their own owned and operated channels for distribution, advertising media technology developers are scrambling to provide tools to give them more of their traffic back.

The latest company to jump into this breach is IRIS.TV with a new tool called “Campaign Manager.” IRIS.TV purports to be the first company to come to market with a product that allows in-stream placement of branded, premium videos.

Online traffic now includes more than 750 billion videos views per month, and roughly 70 percent of all traffic on the web now is video. That consumption is also growing at 24 percent year on year.

Publishers need to keep pace with the growth of video, and the toolkit that’s built on top of IRIS.TV‘s video personalization technology is one way they can keep browsers on their site without directing them to a one-off landing page or having them consume the content elsewhere. Sites like Facebook or YouTube pay out at a maximum of $180,000 and $83,000 per 10 million views at the high end, according to data from IRIS.TV. That number increases to $2.5 million for content consumed on owned and operated channels.

In-stream programming using a personalization engine similar to the Netflix suggestion algorithm for videos and content on the service lets publishers keep browsers on the site longer, according to IRIS.TV. The company’s in-stream programming isn’t subject to ad-blockers and is already targeting users who consumer similar content, the company claimed.

Branded content campaigns programmed using the new toolkit from IRIS.TV let publishers customize how many times a particular piece of content is served in the video stream, at what time of day, on what kind of device in which geography and for how long, according to the company.

Basically, the software enables publishers’ video players to target browsers with better, branded content that users will want to watch. Those claims are, in part, borne out by the company’s data, which indicates a 62 percent average increase in monthly video views for its customers.

“The inconsistent UX of video ads has led to poor performance of websites and apps and in many ways has contributed to the rise of ad blocking,” said Richie Hyden, the company’s chief operating officer. “Branded content has proven to perform substantially higher than pre-roll while also commanding a premium of more than 20x and is paid on a cost per view basis.”

Personalization and machine learning tools that IRIS.TV has rolled out let publishers create inventories that target individual users rather than large groups. That greater personalization can help keep users on the site rather than losing them to social media sites like Facebook and YouTube.

Ultimately, IRIS.TV sees its tools as a way to combat the rise of ad-blocking tools and improve the economics for publishers online.

YouTube/Ole Miss Rebels

Technology, I tell you what. Ole Miss took down Georgia in Week 4 and this 360-degree interactive video lets us see it from literally every angle.

Ole Miss’ video department does a pretty stellar job both with hype videos, general content and its feature product which is a series called The Season giving viewers a behind the scenes look at Ole Miss athletics.

This video is a little bit different however. Some of you may have seen one of these videos while others haven’t.

It is a 360-degree interactive video meaning that you literally control what you want to see. If watching on your mobile device, simply drag your finger around the screen and get a glimpse of whatever you want to. On desktop, just drag the screen with your mouse.

From the Walk of Champions through The Grove, to the pregame locker room speech from head coach Hugh Freeze to Demarkus Lodge’s fantastic touchdown grab, the video shows it all.

Week 6: College Football Power Rankings Top 10

10. Ole Miss (3-2)

They got their revenge win over Memphis 48-28 and now Chad Kelly and the Rebels head into a much needed bye week. They go to Arkansas and to LSU when they return to play.

In my previous post I took a look at the online video metrics that really matter for media companies, and video publishers and creators. But different industry sectors have different performance goals so let’s focus on the KPIs that B2B, and B2C brands and marketers should be taking into consideration when it comes to their digital video strategies. And with influencer marketing becoming a vital part of the mix, what metrics matter when it comes to that very special blend of earned and owned media?

Video Metrics: B2C and B2B Marketers

Before we tackle the metrics that matter to B2C and B2B marketers, we need to address why online video hasn’t really mattered to a significant portion of this segment. And this isn’t because they haven’t tried using videos or YouTube.

According to the Content Marketing Institute (CMI), 82% of B2C marketers use videos as a content marketing tactic and 82% use YouTube as a social media platform. But only 59% of B2C marketers rate videos as an effective tactic and just 53% rate YouTube as an effective platform. CMI also says that 79% of B2B marketers use videos as a content marketing tactic and 74% use YouTube as a social media platform. But only 62% rate videos as an effective tactic and just 51% rate YouTube as an effective platform.

Now, I realize that I’m looking at the 40% to 50% of the glass that’s empty, instead of the 50% to 60% that’s full. But this group represents one of the last remaining growth areas for the industry. And metrics really matter to B2C and B2B marketers just like they matter to the other two segments that we’ve already covered. However, a very different set of metrics matter.

B2C and B2B marketers – especially the inbound marketers at small and mid-sized businesses – see their websites as the center of their solar system. Yes, they know that YouTube, Facebook, and other video platforms are “out there.” But, they think of these as moons that are orbiting their websites – and some even see video taking precious marketing resources away from other inbound tactics that could drive more website traffic, generate better leads, and increase sales.

Why would they have such a website-centric view of the online video world? Well, their key metrics don’t come from YouTube Analytics or Google AdWords. Their key metrics generally come from Google Analytics (or from one of a handful of other web analytics services). Now, they probably know the “Will It Blend?” success story, which explains how a series of YouTube videos delivered a 700% increase in sales to Blendtec, a division of K-TEC. The ‘Will it Blend’ channel uploaded its first video 9 years ago, and its last one just days ago. Don’t fix what ain’t broken, right? (unless it’s this iPhone 7):

And, many marketers will also have read the Rokenbok case study, which tells the story of how YouTube became the number one source of traffic to the toy company’s website in just three years. Hey, more than four out of five B2C marketers and close to three out of four B2B marketers have a YouTube channel. So, they know that some of their competitors and peers have used video and YouTube effectively. But, far too many inbound marketers at small and mid-sized businesses look at their Google Analytics acquisition overview and see that the number of sessions and conversions generated by Social is small. And if they drill down into social, far too many will discover that the number of sessions and conversions generated by YouTube is minuscule.

YouTube.com is the second largest site on the web, behind only Google.com. So, why does it appear that so few of YouTube’s visitors go to a channel owner’s website next? Because, the only things that Google Analytics is tracking are the people who’ve clicked on a link in a video’s description or on an associated website card. It doesn’t track the people who visit your YouTube channel today and then visit your website 30 to 90 days later. So, go ahead, try explaining that to your executives or clients. And, then try to justify why they should give you a bigger share of the marketing budget to release video content frequently on a recurring schedule and maintain activity on their YouTube channel despite the fact that it will be hard to track the direct impact of these efforts on website traffic, leads, or sales. This is the elephant in the room. So, what metrics would make online video matter to this segment?

Awareness: Let’s start where B2C and B2B marketers start: Google Analytics. How come inbound marketers at small and mid-sized businesses can’t see the data in YouTube Analytics somewhere, somehow in Google Analytics? Wait, let me amend that question. TrueView joined Search, Display, and Shopping campaigns within the core AdWords interface in September 2015. So, they can now drill down to see acquisition, behavior, and conversion data for each AdWords campaign, including the ones on YouTube. But, they still need to jump back and forth between YouTube Analytics and Google Analytics to get a picture of their organic results.

This isn’t a rhetorical question. Google’s Universal Analytics debuted in April 2014. It introduced a set of features that changed the way data was collected and organized in Google Analytics, so B2C and B2B marketers could get a better understanding of how users interact with their online content across desktops, smartphones, and tablets. So, why isn’t there a way to roll out the User ID feature to help inbound marketers at small and mid-sized businesses get a better understanding of how users interact with their online content across YouTube and websites? Now, this would be an online video metric that really matters.

Attitude: It’s also worth noting that Google Analytics is good at telling you “what” people did on your website. But, it doesn’t tell you “why” they did it. Fortunately, Google Consumer Surveys enable website owners to add customer surveys to their sites in order to measure attitudes.

Here’s how they work. You can place a free satisfaction survey directly on your website so you can get feedback right when it’s top of mind. And Google Consumer Surveys has created four questions that are ready for you to use. You give them your URL and create your survey, and they’ll give you the code to paste into your site. And, while these default questions are free, you can add customized questions for just $0.01 per response or $5.00 for 500 responses. So, inbound marketers at small and mid-sized businesses can add a question like, “How did you hear about us?” Then, among the possible answers, they could include “a video” or “YouTube.” Hey, for $5.00, wouldn’t you want to see the answers to that question from recent visitors to you website? Wouldn’t this also become an online video metric that really matters to this segment?

Behavior: CMI’s research recently asked B2C marketers, “What is THE MOST important metric that your organization uses?” The answers were: sales (30%), sales lead quality (13%), brand lift (12%), higher conversion rates (11%), website traffic (8%), data capture (5%), and other (21%). When CMI asked B2B marketers the same question, the answers were: sales lead quality (31%), sales (23%), higher conversion rates (9%), sales lead quantity (7%), brand lift (6%), website traffic (5%), subscriber growth (3%), SEO ranking (3%), and other (13%).

So, these behaviors are important bucket of metrics for this segment. This is why inbound marketers at small and mid-sized businesses are focused on Google Analytics. But, what’s the measurable impact of adding a YouTube video or playlist on your website by embedding it? Does a session last longer? If it does, then what goal value would you give that behavior? And, if someone watches an embedded YouTube video on your website and then clicks on one of your associated website cards, riddle me this: Will it take them right back to the page where your video is embedded or, since they’re already on that page, to some other page farther down the sales funnel? It doesn’t seem like the YouTube player was designed with this in mind.

Fortunately, there’s an alternative. And I wrote about it last year in a column entitled, “How GoPro and Ulta Beauty Get Video Embedding Right.” As I said back then, video marketers might want to add different calls to action (CTAs) to the same YouTube video or playlist in different places. On YouTube, you might ask viewers to like or share your video, add comments, watch more of your videos, or subscribe to your channel. On your website, you might ask customers to sign up for your newsletter, fill out a form to receive more information, or purchase your product.

So, how do you do this? Well, a few websites have started to brand-wrap their YouTube videos with other players. For example, the GoPro Channel – the one on its website, not the one on YouTube – uses a custom playlist and player. There are other options from JW Player, the largest independent video player in the world and the third largest overall behind YouTube and Facebook and Wistia, a commercial service for hosting and sharing videos online. Wrapping YouTube videos with other players can provide B2C and B2B marketers with online video metrics about website behavior that really matter.

Video Metrics: For Influencer Marketers

Awareness: In addition to writing for Tubular Insights, I’m also an instructor in the Rutgers Business School Executive Education (RBSEE) program. And I teach a module in the Mini-MBA certificate program on Social Media Marketing entitled, “Engaging influencers through social media.” And the first thing that I teach participants is how to identify the right influencers for their business.

And I tell the executives in my class that the right influencers should combine:

• Reach: This is a measure of total audience size. Things like the number of YouTube subscribers go into this metric.
• Resonance: This is a measure of how much activity someone creates when they publish and the level of interaction with this person’s content. Things like engagements are good measures of someone’s resonance.
• Relevance: This is a measure of how relevant someone is to a topic and how much they talk about it. Relevance includes how often someone creates videos that use keywords; the recency of their keyword usage (more recent videos are weighed more heavily); the diversity of the keywords used by an influencer; and the placement of keywords (title vs. description).

These are the online video metrics that really matter for influencer discovery.

Attitude: But, you need a different set of metrics to measure the impact of your influencer marketing campaign on customer attitudes. Why? Because influencer engagement isn’t just a two-way relationship where both parties need to see the value for it to work. A successful influencer marketing campaign also needs to have a measurable impact on the people who trust these influencers.

Fortunately, there is a second set of metrics for this – and I wrote about them back in March in a column entitled, “Do You Really Know the Impact of Social Video on Your Brand?” As I said back then, the credit for developing these metrics belongs to Avinash Kaushik, the Digital Marketing Evangelist for Google. These metrics are:

• Conversation Rate, the ratio of comments per video to overall followers. Is what you are saying interesting enough to spark the most social of all things: a conversation?
• Amplification Rate, the ratio of shares per video to overall followers. Is what you are saying so incredible and of value that viewers will forward it to everyone they know?
• Applause Rate, the ratio of favorites per video to overall followers. Do viewers think the content you’ve posted is interesting, even if they won’t comment on it or forward it on?

Conversation, Amplification, and Applause rates will help you to measure the real active engagement of users with your influencer marketing campaign. And they provide the bucket of metrics that matter in the middle of this process.

Behavior: But, influencer marketing agencies and teams are increasingly being asked to connect their social media marketing metrics to business outcomes. And that means they need to connect what they’ve accomplished in YouTube, Facebook, and other social media with Google Analytics, so they can calculate the economic value of an influencer marketing campaign.

How do you do that – especially when your business or client already has active YouTube marketing and Facebook marketing campaigns that don’t involve influencers? Well, there’s more than one way to skin that cat, but here how I solve this problem. I use the Google Analytics Campaign URL Builder to easily add campaign parameters to URLs so I can track Custom Campaigns in Google Analytics. By adding campaign parameters to your URLs, you can identify the campaigns that send traffic to your site. When a user clicks a referral link, these parameters are sent to Analytics, so you can see the effectiveness of each campaign in your reports. Then, I use Bitly or the Google URL Shortener at goo.gl to take a long URL with three or more parameters and squeeze it into fewer characters to make a link that is easier to share, tweet, or email to friends. These short links are also more suitable for the description, annotations and cards, or end screen in an influencer’s video.

Then, the results of an influencer marketing campaign don’t get blended or buried somewhere in your Google Analytics Reports. You simply click on Campaigns (or Other) and drill down to see data on Acquisition, Behavior, and Conversions from each influencer marketing campaign.

I realize this appears a little “kludgy,” but it recently enabled me to report some interesting results to RBSEE for a modest, pro-bono campaign (which would have cost $2,323) to promote the launch of an accelerated certificate program that would explore the impact of the Internet of Things (IoT) on the next generation of supply chain strategy.  I was able to report that the video we had created to promote the program had received 1,715 views. That isn’t particularly impressive, is it? I also reported that the video and some outreach had helped us to engage two influencers, one a blogger and the other a reporter. Hey, for a geeky topic like this, that’s not especially surprising, is it? And by using the Google Analytics Campaign URL Builder, I was able to report that our campaign had generated 102 sessions on RBSEE’s website from 70 new users, who spent an average of 2:25 on the site looking at an average of 2.44 pages per session. Okay, that doesn’t sound remarkably amazing, does it? But, here are the results that totally astound my client. Our modest campaign generated six registrations at $4,995 per student for $29,970 in incremental revenue. That’s a short-term return on marketing investment (ROMI) of 12.9X. And this explains why our campaign has been shortlisted for one of the US Search Awards, which will be announced next month.

That’s what I mean by connecting social media marketing metrics to business outcomes. And that’s how you can connect what you’ve accomplished in YouTube, Facebook, and other video platforms with Google Analytics, so you can calculate the economic value of an influencer marketing campaign. And, yes, this is a very different set of metrics than other segments should use. But, they really matter, too.