Video Distribution and Community

IFood.tv uses Drupal, a content management system, to integrate social networking tools with video distribution.

According to eMarketer, more than 82 million people in the U.S. created content online during 2008, a number expected to grow to nearly 115 million by 2013. Out of this massive group, more than 27 million user-generated videos are expected to hit the Web in the next five years. While the huge volume of user-generated content signals a tremendous opportunity for independent content creators to get in front of audiences, it also creates an incredibly noisy and often un-navigable sea of content, making it extremely easy for your video to get lost in the fray.

Video aggregators such as YouTube (for viral video creators) and Blip.tv (for professional creators) are excellent tools and are responsible for making user-generated video accessible to any type of content creator. In only a few short years, they have turned the Web into a screening room for some of the hottest and most popular content. While YouTube and the like have been game-changers for drawing viewers online, they have also created crowds of hungry audiences looking for more social, community-oriented venues to view online video, and in many ways, they aren't able to truly feed that appetite. People are looking to video sites to be virtual living rooms where community is just as important as the content.

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For all of these reasons, today's video content creators need to focus on creating a viewing experience that will encourage not only eyeballs, but commenting and networking amongst their audiences. And while creators who incorporate comments, forums, blogs, user profiles, and social networks with video content might think that they are doing everything they should, building a lasting community that works for the video isn't that easy. While all of these tools are great, if they aren't harnessed together, a creator has no way to direct those discussions back to the video itself.

For example, you post a great video on an aggregator site, then 50 separate blog discussions, thousands of Tweets, and countless reposts on Facebook pop up about it. The conversations are happening, but chances are you're not a part of them in any intimate way. But what if this entire buzz was happening right in your backyard, on your community site designed specifically as a forum for collaboration and discussion? What you need is to effectively turn all of the discussions into branded channels to spread your video's visibility and acceptance in realtime.

IFood.tv and many other sites prove that the user-generated video landscape has become a new ballgame in a few quick years.

So where should content creators look to turn their web videos into optimized social media forums? Here's our three-step program to turn any web video into a social networking success.

• Start with building the right online forum for viewers to not only watch your video, but become intimately engaged with it. Consider a platform such as Drupal, which has built-in functionality to accommodate today's social networking channels (Twitter, Facebook, blogs) but is also flexible enough to support tomorrow's next social media tool.
• Once you've got people engaged with your video on your community site, leverage every ounce of viewer feedback to create even more content. Allow viewers to create profiles, share their own content, and collaborate to make content more valuable. Drupal allows users to easily share, distribute, rate, and discuss their ideas with others who have similar interests, making it a strong viral branding tool that ensures maximum impact.
• Realize you can no longer take an either-or approach. Aggregator sites got you to where you are; now it's time to turn up the volume and turn the aggregator channel to a thriving community of viewers that can help you not only spread the word, but give depth and context to your video content.

For a great example of these best practices in action, check out iFood.tv. It has used Drupal to make what would otherwise be an ordinary cooking site into a social hub for foodies, amateur cooks, and culinary professionals all around some great user-generated video.

IFood.tv and many other sites prove that the user-generated video landscape has become a new ballgame in a few quick years. Make sure you're making the most of every piece of content you create by building a web community around it that can help you market to the masses.