37 Essential Viral Video Tips, Posts and Sites

 

There is a lot of information and people on web talking about web video
marketing and viral video.

As you know, though, there's no easy route to web video success. But for someone who wants to learn as they go, here's a collection of links that will put you in the right direction. And, every good video needs direction.

This is not a be-all-and-end-all list. Please give me a comment about your site or post so that I can include it in the next 37 tips.  (Want more?  Go to 34 People and Posts To Help Your Video)

1. YouTube Most Viewed Will anyone ever knock down Avril Lavigne?
2. Top Ten Ted Talks Each talk represents over 1 million views each. There is something about smart people telling stories that make us see the world differently.  Something to consider with all your videos.
3. Vimeo Staff Picks I consistently see high quality videos on Vimeo. Here, staff (who must watch a lot of web video) pick their faves. Best part: RSS-able.
4. Ship's Biscuit Post This post deconstructs the patterns in successful web viral campaigns. Very thorough.  Understand this and you will have the keys to the kingdom.
5. Seth Godin Squidoo page Videos that can change your organization.  A neat collection. Lots of great information on how to make your organization better. And, it shows the power of aggregated video clips all on one theme.
6. NY Times Magazine on New Media A round table discussion of new age Mad Men and how the advertising game has changed.
7. Havel at Columbia In 2006, Vaclav Havel came to Columbia University for a seven week residency. To accompany Havel’s visit, the Arts Initiative and the Columbia Center for New Media Teaching and Learning (CCNMTL) created this online resource. It serves as a great model for a stunning combination of text, video, and user interaction.
8. Cwerty.com An interesting model of using high quality web video to teach and inspire.
9. lynda.com Another web site that uses web video to instruct. I know lots of editors who use this site to brush up their skills.
10. ScreenFlow The best screencasting software out there. Mac only.
11. Cannon Vixia HV30. Dependable HD consumer camera. Tape and Firewire. 'Nuff said.
12. Closed Captions on YouTube  A nice little video that allows you to put CC on all your Youtube vids. It's a nice option when at work to read your videos. Note how many people have seen this little helpful vid. Think of all that advertising for the maker of the video.
13. How to make and distribute web video. Matt Dickman has a helpful video series on how he makes and distributes his web videos.
14. Web Video Marketing. A handy hub for folks who want to find resources in helping get their videos seen.
15. Involver Distribute and track your web video campaign.
16. Flimp Get a second opinion from these guys when you want to track and distribute your web video campaign.
17. Michael Hoffman.  Blogger, marketer and  web video maker.
18. Thomas Baekdal Designer and technologist. Has a good eye and always finds a video or two that he finds interesting.
19. Like this one.
20. Steve Garfield. Prolific video blogger.
21. Gary Vaynerchuk Very prolific video blogger. People swear by this guy. Joe Pesci meets wine.  Not for everyone. But he's definitely built a brand.
22. Social Studies Blog. Smart PR people who work published for the Interactive, Emerging and Social Media Team at Weber Shandwick.
23. Dan Rayburn Streaming media blog deals with the business side of web video.
24. RealSeo Tips, Tricks and info for Video SEO, Online Video Marketing, Trends.
25. Google Video Blog showcasing cool video news from around the web.
26. Vlogmap a gateway to many vloggers.
27. Ticklebooth Every day they come up with a video that they've found that is worth seeing.
28. Vodpod With the vodpod firefox plug-in you can bookmark videos from any site and have them live on your vodpod page.  Essential.
29. Daisy Whitney Video blogger who covers the business of internet video.
30. My Dwindering Thoughts Judith must be on the web a lot. She finds beautiful images and a video every now and then. Always compelling.
31. Video Menu A very complete A to Z index of sites that feature good video content.
32. Nicholas Patten A well followed Twitterer. He trolls the web 24/7 (it seems) and tweets out great content.
33. Jim Long Feel what it's like to be a Washington DC camera man. Good tweets.
34. Jill Hanner. Web Video Content creator. Tweets of a fledgling NY content creator.
35. Viral Conversations A thought provoking post that asks the question, Why are good videos so challenging?
36. Skelliewag on why video is your chance to be a pioneer.
37. Thegirleffect.org A beauty of a site built around a video.

image credit: Jennifer Buehrer

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Comments

[openid.aol.com/BobbySoFamous]

Good list! I've been to some already and I'm checking out others now.

Here's my collaboration channel on YouTube featuring sketch comedy:

http://www.youtube.com/famousony0utube

[Christopher Ming Ryan]

Thanks for your comment. Keep making that video. I'll check it out.

[Patrick]

Great list of web video resources, thanks!

[Adam Singer]

Nice post, thanks for taking the time to aggregate all these resources, highly useful - will have to paw through these.

[Christopher Ming Ryan]

Patrick:

Thanks for taking a read. I like where your business is going. It's all merging and social media will play a big part going forward.

[Christopher Ming Ryan]

Adam: You must have a spare hour in there between posting, music writing, working, reading, tweeting, myspacing, and friendfeeding.

[Matt Dickman]

Christopher -- Thanks for including me in your list, I'm going to have to go through the rest of these and pick up some tips!

[Christopher Ming Ryan]

You're welcome, Matt. Looking forward to your future posts!

[Talmadge Boyd]

Christopher - looks like the Ship's Biscuit link is down. You didn't happen to make a copy of the keys to the kingdom and put them somewhere did you? Under a fern, fake rock...

[Christopher Ming Ryan]

Bummer man. Thanks for calling it to my attention. I don't know what happened - seems like the whole URL is down...

Just for the heck of it I looked up this time machine like web address at web.archive.org somehow they have an archive of web sites dating back to when Al Gore invented the internet.

Here's a URL that I think is the post:

http://web.archive.org/web/20080730065453/www.shipsbiscuit.com/2008/07/11/viral-marketing-god-patterns-in-viral-marketing/#more-82

It's missing the videos but you might be able to glean something.

In the meantime we just have to hope their server is down.

Chris

[Perry]

This list is a great resource. I bookmarking this page!
Internet video marketing allows your customers to get to know like and trust you. customers who know like and trust you are more inclined to purchase from you. Video is a very powerful tool. Even Twitter is getting it on with video now!

[Christopher Ming Ryan]

Perry,

Thanks for the comment. Agreed!

[Michael]

Wow...nice resources. Although, I don't understand an aspect... the thing with YouTube's most viewed... what do you mean with will anybody ever knock down Avril Lavigne ? Thanks.

[calvin klein underwear]

good stuff is taking place. i completely keep right here for means too long. your website is superb! do not let anybody attempt to say in any other case!

[sabrina]

great list. I've been checking a lot of this new site http://www.viralviralvideos.com/ . They have most of the top vids of youtube, and buzzfeed first. give it a look.

[video marketing]

Great job,thank you for sharing it

[Lindsay]

Awesome blog. I enjoyed reading your articles. This is truly a great read for me. I have bookmarked it and I am looking forward to read new articles. Keep up the good work!

[marketing con video]

Thank you very much, this is a great list. I think video marketing is an excellent strategy to get trust from our clients. I will see the web sites to improve my videos

Thank you

Yadira