According to the report in question, the final word in social media may soon be lots fewer words — and a whole lot more video.

Animoto researchers weren’t shocked. After all, they had heard Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg say in a recent earning call that “Ten years ago, most of what we shared and consumed online was text. Now it’s photos, and soon most of it will be video.”

Today, “video-first” has become a reality for consumers and marketers alike.

“After Animoto surveyed 1,000 consumers and 500 marketers to find out how video is making an impact, the data showed that 64 percent of consumers say watching a marketing video on Facebook has influenced a purchase decision in the last month,” the report explains. “And 81 percent of marketers are optimizing their social videos for mobile viewership, including 39% that are creating square and/or vertical videos.”

The top three channels for social video? Facebook, Instagram Stories, and Snapchat are currently the leaders of the pack.

Check out the full infographic below.

The post If You’re Marketing on Social Media, It’s Time to Get Serious About Video appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

According to the report in question, the final word in social media may soon be lots fewer words — and a whole lot more video.

Animoto researchers weren’t shocked. After all, they had heard Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg say in a recent earning call that “Ten years ago, most of what we shared and consumed online was text. Now it’s photos, and soon most of it will be video.”

Today, “video-first” has become a reality for consumers and marketers alike.

“After Animoto surveyed 1,000 consumers and 500 marketers to find out how video is making an impact, the data showed that 64 percent of consumers say watching a marketing video on Facebook has influenced a purchase decision in the last month,” the report explains. “And 81 percent of marketers are optimizing their social videos for mobile viewership, including 39% that are creating square and/or vertical videos.”

The top three channels for social video? Facebook, Instagram Stories, and Snapchat are currently the leaders of the pack.

Check out the full infographic below.

The post Infographic: Video More Important Than Ever in Social Media appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

Millennials — often called Generation Y — is that highly coveted cohort of consumers born between 1980-2000. They will be spending more than $200 billion annually starting in 2017 — about $10 trillion in their lifetimes.

Animoto gets this. One of the leading online video creation applications that empowers anyone to create and share extraordinary videos, just released new data from its “2015 Animoto Online and Social Video Marketing Study.”

The upshot? Video is no longer optional.

“The study revealed seven in 10 millennials are likely to watch a video when shopping online and 80 percent of millennials find video helpful when researching a purchase decision online,” the Animoto team says.

“There are 80 million millennials in the U.S. alone and their craving for online video as a preferred communication channel is growing” said Brad Jefferson, CEO and co-founder of Animoto. “Video is an effective way for businesses to share their brand voice and story. With accessible video creation tools and platforms, companies of any size can create professional-grade videos to reach the millennial audience and increase business.”

Other takeaways from the study showed that 85 percent of millennials find product demo videos helpful and nearly 75 percent find video helpful when comparison shopping.

And get this: millennials are 264 percent “more likely to share videos about a product, service, or company while shopping online than baby boomers.” If you want some help video marketing, millennials look like today’s best bet.

Yes, millennials can read. But why, when a video is so efficient and so entertaining?

“Nearly two-thirds of millennials (62 percent) prefer to watch a video from a company instead of reading text, and more than half of millennials are likely to watch a video from a brand if they receive it in an email. With this directive, businesses can incorporate video into traditional components of the marketing mix to effectively reach Gen Y-ers,” the company concludes.

Yep, “video killed the radio star.” Now it looks like the only way to make a killing marketing to millennials.

The post Can Brands Reach Millennials Without Video? Fat Chance, as Gen Y Prefers Video to Text appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.