The 9 Secrets of Success with Social Video

Not another term that starts with the word “social”, please! Hear me out. This is not your average video story: we created a video, put it on YouTube and bang, thousands of people have viewed it.

This story is about how to make social part of the video experience from A to Z. It’s about engagement. It’s about interactions. The Worldwide Partner Organization at Cisco is a pioneer when it comes to interactive videos. I recently had the pleasure of interviewing Alexandra Krasne (@Cisco_Channels) on the team’s highly successful video chat program. The goal of this event is to provide a place for Cisco Partners to connect live with Cisco executives and other guests regardless of their physical location. The results? As of today, the 8 video chats have collectively generated close to 50,000 live views with many replays. These are the secrets behind their success.

1. Give a cool name to a cool concept

Webcast is so…20th century. Video chat is hip and perfectly describes what it aims to accomplish: bring people into the conversation real time. The Cisco video chat pioneers call their live broadcast Channels Chat. Easy to remember, right? We’re all familiar with simulated live online events and “save your questions until the end of the presentation”-like webcasts. But that’s not video chat. Video chat encourages viewers to ask questions LIVE as the discussion progresses and enables presenters to answer them as they come in.

2. Create an exciting offer

Giving direct access to hard-to-reach experts in a live, interactive venue is without a doubt compelling. Add to that the fact that users can save money by participating in these sessions free from the comfort of their homes or offices and watch again the recording at their leisure. Luanne Tierney’s, Vice President, Worldwide Partner Marketing, show in June 2010 had about 10,000 live viewers and approximately 1,500 replays.

“Besides discussing important issues on these forums, the team feels strongly about giving something new to the audience to think about”, said Alexandra. “As much as we hope that our audience participates in the conversation, we also hope that they walk away from the video chat with new information.” So how does the team choose their topics?

3. Prep your presenters

The good thing about video chats is that they allow people to interact with each other live. The bad thing about video chats is that they allow people to interact with each other live.

“Panelists need to think quickly on their feet, therefore, they need to be trained on how to handle different and unexpected situations. You just never know what kind of questions they will get. Showing tricks and tips to them prior to the video chat will help them as well as your program become successful”, said Alexandra.

4. Deliver the experience on a social platform

Channels Chat started in April 2010 and was initially hosted on the Cisco Systems Ustream channel. Driven by the success of the first video chat, the team decided to launch its own channel. The location is a “jaw dropper” when it comes to social media integration. Ustream’s capabilities include social streaming, the feed can be embedded on Facebook or a blog, viewers can submit questions in real time via Twitter or Facebook, and the platform lets you use a hash tag so viewers can follow the conversation. These features help amplify sharing on the social web as well as enable viewers to interact with the panel.

5. Know who you’re targeting

The Channels team knows that they shouldn’t try to be everything to everyone. They carefully select their topics and audience for each show. They target their audience by their role within the Partner segment or by their segment focus. For example, the June 2010 show attracted marketing professionals from Cisco Partner accounts and this month’s broadcast put the partners serving SMBs in the spotlight.

6. Integrate social media into your topic search

The Channels team has been using Twitter creatively to help augment their topic selection process. It would be easy to simply reach out for input to those that are talking directly to the target audience and stop there, but Alexandra’s team has taken their outreach to the next level. They monitor what the Partners are saying on Twitter and what triggers the most retweets, and are using this information to come up with the framework for their discussions.

7. Be human. Be social. Be authentic

As you have probably picked up on it by now, the key driver behind a successful social video program is engagement. And when engaging, remember that we’re humans first and employees next. Just because we work in corporate America, it doesn’t mean we need to act like robots. A human tone with unscripted (or maybe just a little scripting to help get your key points across) delivery brings more color into and makes the experience more enjoyable for viewers.

The Channels team learned early on that engaging people at the beginning of the session and periodically reminding them during the event to submit their questions helps increase participant engagement. It is quite common for panelists to give a shoutout to the audience asking for their questions and thoughts. While each session has received many audience comments, the Vice President, Worldwide Partner Marketing, Luanne Tierney and Cisco CTO, Padmasree Warrior’s chats each generated dozens of audience questions.

8. Keep it short and sweet

Many marketers fall in the trap of doing 60-minute or even longer shows. With adult ADD and multi-tasking sky-rocketing, it is getting increasingly harder to keep people engaged. The team has found that sessions around 30 minutes work well with their audience.

9. Continue the engagement post event

The event is over, now what? “We create a summary after each show and post it to our blog, the Channels blog. Our blog is the key go-to platform before and after the show. This is where people can find information about our past and upcoming video chats along with other information, and this is also the place they can read our answers to those questions we were unable to address on Channels Chat”, said Alexandra. In other words, this team closes the loop with their audience: all questions are addressed one way or another – either during the broadcast or on the blog.

In closing, I asked Alexandra if she had any last words of wisdom for marketers. Her response was: “starting promotion too early is just as bad as starting it late. We found that starting communication a week prior to the show is good enough. People get fatigued if you start too early and keep bombarding them with information about your event.”



Intrigued by Channels Chat? Experience it for yourself. Sign up to follow this program to be alerted to new sessions and updates at ustream.tv/ciscochannels.

Behind-the-Scenes at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics: NBC and Cisco Team Up to Show the Power of Collaboration and Social Media

Recently I had the pleasure of working with Zoya Fallah, Social Media Marketing Manager at Cisco, on a case study that shows the partnership between NBC and Cisco at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics.

Zoya, the one-person powerhouse behind Cisco's social media engagement for the Games, shared two pieces of good advice when I interviewed her. "COLLABORATION is key. SOCIAL is key. You cannot do one without the other. The more social channels that you can leverage, the better reach you will have. I truly believe that companies will benefit by understanding the importance of leveraging internal social media channels and other companies’ social media channels", she said.

Then she went on to explain how the collaboration between the 2 companies was born and what it entailed.

What were the key components of your event strategy?
We wanted to share behind-the-scenes footage from fans, journalists, and athletes with the public so that they could have an opportunity to experience the games virtually and to really get to know the athletes on a more personal level. The public wants “real” footage and not highly produced footage anymore. NBC distributing Flip cameras to US athletes, journalists, etc. created a perfect opportunity to obtain user-generated content while reducing that production time and cost.

What were the challenges you were trying to solve?
We wanted to extend the reach of the 2010 Winter Games beyond NBCOlympics.com as well as help speed up the delivery of online video content while reducing production cost.

Focusing on the social media aspects, what did you do to promote the Winter Games and what worked or didn’t work?
Cisco and NBC collaborated and leveraged each other’s social media channels. NBC displayed a Twitter Tracker on NBCOlympics.com to share these tweets with the public. The Flip footage was distributed via social channels with direct links. Without the use of NBC and Cisco social media promotions, the public would have to search for Flip footage on NBCOlympics.com.

Did you have any big surprises, or a-ha moments? If so, what were those?
Besides all of the amazing footage that we received from athletes, Brad Blanks captured Queen Latifah via Flip at the Games. It was very exciting to live the Games online and really be able to get to know the athletes personally.


If you'd like to learn more about this program or find out the 7 things we would do differently next time, take a look at this SlideShare presentation.

Case Study: 2010 Vancouver Olympics Behind-the-Scenes Story: NBC and Cisco Team Up to Show the Power of Collaboration and Social Media

View more presentations from Petra Neiger.

Congrats to Zoya and her counterparts at NBC on a social media program well done!

Localizing Your Marketing Tools in the Marketing 2.0 Era

If you work in a global marketing organization, you're probably often asked to localize your marketing assets. Often times I find that people think that localization is the same as translation and once the text is translated, you're done. But those of us who do localization on a regular basis understand that it's much more complex than just translating words. Especially today when many of our assets go beyond traditional white papers and "read only" documents, and include interactive features or videos.

So how should we go about localization in the "Marketing 2.0" era? I would categorize this process in 5 buckets: asset creation, preparation, translation, localization and integration.

1. Asset Creation:
It is best to build your deliverable with localization in mind. Here are some tips on how to do this. In the long run, these tips can help you save money and help speed up the process:
- If your video or assets contains on-screen text, make sure that you don't place the original text in the area that will need to be used for on-screen localized text.
- Our game is very "backend" and programming heavy. Since it's interactive, the commands you see on the screen are tied to codes in the backend. When programming your game or other interactive asset, make sure you leave enough space in the backend as well as on the screen to accommodate characters that take up more space than English.
- Use universal images, icons, references and terms, and avoid using slang in your piece as much as possible. For example, you may want to refer to "tax season" in general without using a date or name of a tax advisor.

2. Preparation:
This is the phase in which your finance department typically asks about your localization budget needs. In order to be able to get a good estimate, you will need to figure out to what extent you want to localize your asset and add up all the pieces. I'm going to use Cisco myPlanNet, a strategy "edugame" as an example.

2.A. Create a prioritized list of what exactly needs to be localized
Two key things here are identification and prioritization. Break down your project to identify the potential workflow. Prioritize which one is more important and/or will create the most value. Some of your priorities may be determined by your resource situation.

Cisco myPlanNet consists of 3 parts:
- Landing page which hosts the game, some copy, a few RSS feeds, a trailer video and a legal notice (terms and conditions)
- The game itself
- Backend of the game which includes server - client interaction, data capture in the backend, data feed back to the landing page (dynamic leader board)

2.B. Identify how you want to localize your asset(s)
The Cisco myPlanNet landing page has a trailer video. Do you just want to add subtitles to the video or do you want to integrate the translated text into the actual video? If your video has voiceover, you will need to decide whether or not you want to add on-screen subtitles or localized voiceover.

Your answer may depend on your budget and resources but unless you explore your options, you won't know what you can get for how much.

2.C. Identify area(s), if any, that will require localization
Some countries may or may not want to enable certain features, swap out certain copy or graphics that may not be applicable to them, have different legal requirements and/or may want to point people to a different location after performing a certain task. It is best to understand these requirements at the beginning of your localization project and add them to your list. This will help you more effectively estimate costs and timelines.

3. Translation:
This is the step that most people think of when they talk about localization. The recommendation here is that if you find a vendor you are happy with, work with them as much as you can because you may benefit from better pricing in the long run. Typically, agencies will charge you per word. And if you keep using the same words and work long enough with your localization agency, they will be able to build their vocabulary and in return, you may be able to get better long-term pricing.

If it is available to you, it is always a good idea to share the translated copy with a native speaker who resides in your target country and is a subject matter expert on the topic.

4. Localization:
In some ways, this can and will happen simultaneously with 3. Once you have identified the areas that require localization, you can start looking for appropriate visuals, update your Terms and Conditions, and so on.

If it is available to you, it is a good idea to include a local subject matter expert in this phase.

5. Integration:
Once your asset is translated and localized, you will need to "re-build" it. If your asset is more complicated, it is possible that your localization agency will not be able to integrate the localized copy, visuals, etc. into your final localized deliverable. Make sure you have the right people lined up to help you do this. Not only will you need help with integration, but you will also need help verifying that the right copy or visual goes in the right place. This means that you may need to keep your localization agency on board and/or enlist local support for review and testing during this phase. Who does the integration will also affect your overall project cost.

What is your experience with localization? Any gotchas or "a-ha" moments you'd like to share?