Feeding Mobile Video Addiction and 3 Apps that Can Help
I have an addiction to video. Though I’m not a crazy, old cat lady (yet), almost any night of the week, you can find me cuddling with my two cats, watching an episode of New Girl on my iPhone. If my husband decides to join us, we’re more likely to get stuck in a vortex of “best” Vine videos or whatever viral YouTube videos our coworkers shared with us during the day. It’s so much of a nightly ritual (read: addiction), it feels unnatural to go to bed without watching something.
If you’re part of my generation, you probably have or at least fight this addiction. If you’re not part of my generation and aren’t convinced the addiction exists, I’ve got some numbers for you. According to YouTube Video Insights published in August, “YouTube reaches more US adults aged 18-34 than any cable network,” and in the US, 40% of these users are accessing videos through a mobile device. Similarly, Harris Interactive found that of the 35% of US adults who watch videos on their mobile devices, 65% are between the ages of 18 and 34.
Bottom line: If your company can create an engaging online video and successfully distribute it, my generation will find, devour and share it with the help of our mobile devices.
Start Small with Three Mobile Apps
Before you start planning hour-long segments or extensive how-to videos, get familiar with a few popular mobile video apps. YouTube Capture, Vine and Instagram Video allow you to create videos for the small screen with a small screen. Utilizing these apps also means you can produce content with less investment in equipment and time.
And while you may be tempted to just try one, download all three. Each one offers different features and functions, and, more importantly, they are all still fairly new to the market, so it’s yet to be determined who will survive or die.
YouTube Capture (released December 2012)
Available on the iPhone, iPad (Mini), and iPod Touch, YouTube Capture allows you to record longer films and includes an optional Landscape Lock feature that won’t let you record videos with the dreaded portrait orientation. Other features like color correction, stabilization and trimming make it easy to edit short films. Also, you can choose from around 20 soundtrack options, making your cat video even more epic. Before uploading directly to your YouTube channel, you have the option to share with Google+, Facebook and Twitter, and once the video is online, you can set the category.
Vine (released January 2013)
Created by Twitter and available for iOS and Android devices, Vine lets you create 6.5 seconds of video. The latest version of the app includes a grid option for framing shots, a focus option and a ghost feature for stop-motion videos. Vine also has defined channels, so you can categorize your video, which makes it easier for users to find the videos they want to watch. For sharing, you can immediately post to Twitter and Facebook, and within the app, you can retweet other clips.
Instagram Video (released June 2013)
An extension of the regular Instagram app and also available for iOS and Android devices, these videos have a maximum length of 15 seconds. You can choose from 13 different filter options and select your cover frame from any of your shots. Videos can be shared on Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr simultaneously.
Now that you know which apps you can use to shoot video for mobile, you may be wondering what you should be shooting, but that’s for another post. For now, I’ll leave you with some examples from Honda and Red Vines.
Faith Jones – Project Manager
