Play Ball with Social Video Marketing

For most Americans, the start of the baseball season is a sure sign that spring is here.  To kickoff the 2010 season, the Durham Bulls (yes, the same team immortalized in 1988 film Bull Durham) launched a flimp campaign to promote their Spring Training Showdown with the Tampa Bay Rays.

Since the FLIMP Platform makes it easy to distribute video landing pages and because there are no limits to the number of times a single video landing page can be distributed, flimp campaigns often consist of email distributions (video email), social media (social+video), and integration into websites and blogs.  While the Durham Bulls sent a flimp video email using the Bronto email system, they are also have been actively sharing the flimp with their Facebook fans.  Check out their post:

Now I learned something yesterday thanks in part to the Durham Bulls Facebook outreach.  I’ve been a Facebook user since 2006, so I feel a bit embarrassed to share this information.  But did you know that you can change the name of the links when you post content?
If you were going to post a flimp to your Facebook page, the name of the link would default to “Flimp Message Viewer.”  That’s great branding for Flimp Media, but you would probably want a message more specific to your organization.  By clicking on the black “Flimp Message Viewer” title, you can go in and change the name of the link!  The below screen shots illustrate this simple two-step process:
1.  Post the flimp using the “Link” option:

2.  Click on the link.  It will highlight in yellow.  Rename it!:

You can even change the subhead under the http://viewit.cc/ link to a more specific brand message, just like the Durham Bulls did.  Although we love to receive the branding, should you want to remove the Flimp logo, you can do that by selecting the “No Thumbnail” option.
Taking the time to customize the links you share on Facebook will further reinforce your brand or organization to your fans and followers. Plus, if your Facebook friends want to share the link with their Facebook friends, your branding remains.  So you might not only get more views on your flimp, but more Facebook friends to boot.  Check out my “share:”

Speaking of “sharing” content, did you know that when you activate the “Email to a Friend” option when you create a weblink on a flimp canvas, that the flimp can now be shared via either the Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn social networking sites?  Flimp viewers are presented with the distribution options whenever “Email to a Friend” is activated.  Here is what it looks like:

Web video marketing and social networking are two concurrent and constant themes that have dominated marketing this year.  The Center for Media Research published an article this week that video email and video social networking are keys for promoting small businesses in 2010.  Regardless of the medium (website content, video emails, social+video media), make sure you are leveraging online video to benefit your business, not video sharing sites. 
In the spirit of spring, check out the Durham Bulls flimp:

Durham Bulls fans should get tickets to the Spring Training Showdown while they are still get-able:  this flimp has generated a 48 percent watch to completion rate and the embedded links have been clicked on by more than 50 percent of the viewers!