Tierney Rocky's Blog

As marketing students, we are often asked by aunts/grandpas/friends/ __(name your skeptical acquaintance here)__ “Why should I take social media seriously?” Usually I know what to say, like: it can make your company stronger by allowing you to listen to consumers, react, and build faster and more efficiently. It gives you constant visibility with an audience, and allows you to create and build a community surrounding your brand, increasing loyalty. It even helps lower the time it takes to convince customers to desire your brand; when someone from social media lands on your site to make a purchase, they do it faster.

But I have to admit; at times I am at a loss for words, especially when the conversation takes a turn towards some specific social media sites. For example, Viddy, a new social network that is catching on, is an example of how the value added by social media tactics is not always readily apparent. Viddy is like Instagram for 15 seconds (or less) videos. Take a look at a campaign 6S Marketing (click here) attempted to test out Viddy’s effectiveness. Personally, I see little value in their $5 To Pay It Forward campaign. I understand the sentiment behind trying to spark the trend of random acts of kindness, where others follow their lead and make their own Pay It Forward video clips. However, 5-second clips do not seem like the most powerful way to do this. Longer videos would at least allow for more explanation to each story, and recognition to those paying it forward. Although Viddy is clever to cater to our short attention spans, let’s face it: people usually need more than a quick example to embrace the sentiment of charity (like a specific cause they relate to from their own experiences, or a longer story they can build up sympathy towards).

In general, the purpose of creating a promotional or entertaining video is to hope that it goes viral, spreading awareness and likability of your company, brand, or cause, as far as possible. This is why Youtube became so popular. But a five second video? Anything that can go viral on Viddy, can go viral on YouTube. I fail to see the differentiated benefits. One can argue that any picture posted on Pinterest can be posted on Facebook, yet Pinterest is now considered to be a well-known social media platform– Why can’t Viddy do the same? However, Facebook is perceived as a way to share personal photo albums, to show off your life to friends and family. Although some do post static images with words and designs, that was never a part of Facebook’s original purpose, and it is not necessarily what customers expect from it. That is why Pinterest was able to differentiate itself, by creating a platform specifically for sharing bulletins of images. Alternatively, I believe Viddy will struggle to convince consumers that a platform for sharing tiny video clips will be of long term benefit.

To check out more examples from Viddy yourself, go to www.viddy.com