What are CMOs and senior marketers sharing online today? More and more video content.

Video content is hot with marketing leaders, according to new research from Leadtail. The social insights agency analyzed 207,306 tweets from more than 1,300 CMOs and senior marketers posted to Twitter during the second quarter of 2016. The findings provide a snapshot of the issues, influencers and sites that CMOs are most focused on. Leadtail found that YouTube was the most shared channel.

Video content on top

YouTube links were passed along by 38 percent of the marketers, followed by LinkedIn (33 percent), according to Leadtail. “With more than a third of the CMOs we looked at sharing YouTube videos on Twitter, it’s safe to extrapolate that video is an increasingly effective way for fellow marketing professionals to get their messages out,” says Karri Carlson, Leadtail’s vice president of social insights.

Generally, I would say content without any video or visuals is at a distinct disadvantage today,” Carlson continues. “As a marketer, you're not competing with three or four other brands, you're competing with literally every other thing online that is trying to get your target audience’s attention.”

Follow the leaders

One way for marketers to better understand what they can do with video is to simply keep up with what industry leaders are doing. Carlson notes that a frequently shared piece of content by marketing leaders is this video from the Above the Clutter series with Pete Krainik, founder of The CMO Club.

“It is a great example of video content by and for marketers,” Carlson says. “The Pete Krainik video has high production value, integrated marketing and branding, and the sharing of interesting perspectives from accomplished marketing experts. It would be hard to make this content as engaging in any other format besides video.”

But according to noted branding expert and Thulium CEO Tamara McCleary, you need not break the bank to create good video content for the web. "The demand for powerful video to tell a brand story, especially in the social media space, continues to grow exponentially,” says McCleary, a top influencer of CMOs (see chart below). “My advice to marketers is to just do it. As long as you are creating videos that mirror your brand message, are compelling, and are efficient in their use of time (90 seconds or less), get the videos out. Start putting together videos no matter your budget.”

“What I experience regularly with brands is this idea that they can only create video for social media if they have a broadcast budget,” she adds. “This simply isn’t the case and it isn’t expected from viewers.”

Leadtail’s Carlson advises checking out what VaynerMedia CEO Gary Vaynerchuk does with video. “Gary’s daily video web series is basically a running documentary of his life,” Carlson says. “He captures his interactions with staff, clients, his phone conversations, his daily routine — and it's engaging as hell. The lesson for marketers is that things you may think are boring or too insidery can actually make for great video content if your audience is entertained or informed by it.”

​Rand Fishkin, founder of Moz, is another one to watch. In his longstanding Whiteboard Friday video series, Fishkin or a guest dives deep into a topic surrounding SEO best practices. Says Carlson: “We’ve all heard that it’s better to show than tell and that is particularly true when talking about technical topics such as search engine optimization. So consider doing a videocast along with the next webinar you host.”

The bottom line is that there are any number of smart approaches to using video content to promote yourself or the brands you work on. Not sure where to start? Heed McCleary’s closing advice: “Keep it simple! Have fun and try different approaches.”

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