I love learning about new social media tools, whether it is for business for pleasure. It’s pretty remarkable how these tools can make everyday life more convenient and make it easier to connect with others, both personally and professionally. For example, I’ve become pretty obsessed with Instagram lately. I just love how easy it makes it to edit and share photos on-the-go and in the moment. I can share photos from a social media conference for work, and pictures of fun times with friends. Needless to say, I was pretty excited when I learned about Socialcam, which is essentially like the video cousin of Instagram.
What is Socialcam?
So what is Socialcam? It is an application for smartphones that allows you to easily share videos with friends, coworkers, etc. and is mainly geared towards iPhone and Android users. You can download this free application on your smartphone, and once you open it you can take videos of any length using your phone’s video camera. Once you’ve recorded a video, you can post those videos to become part of your public stream that can be viewed by the general public and “followers” on Socialcam. This app also gives you the ability to set videos as private and to link your account (and videos) to other social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter for easy sharing. Socialcam also allows you to jazz up your videos using special filters, themes and even background sound tracks.
How Does it Compare to the Competition?
Many people have compared Socialcam to the video-sharing app Viddy. However, Socialcam has a distinct advantage in that there is no limit regarding video length. With Viddy, you can only share videos up to 15 seconds long.
The other inevitable question that comes up is how this tool stacks up to the video giant, YouTube. While Socialcam is similar to YouTube in that it is a network for sharing videos, it also brings something unique to the table when compared to YouTube and that is the fact that Socialcam is an application that not only allows you to share videos, but it helps you capture them. This is something that YouTube can’t compete with. At the same time, I don’t think there is any chance of Socialcam knocking YouTube out of the video marketing arena, but rather, these two tools can be used together to capture and share video on the appropriate channels. Socialcam is geared towards more “social” and of-the-moment videos due to its mobile nature, whereas YouTube will be best suited for longer and more “evergreen” content.
Thoughts on Using Socialcam for B2B Video Marketing
In terms of SocialCam vs. Viddy, SocialCam is definitely better for B2B. The 15-second time limit is not good for B2B — it really takes longer to explain products or services.
Great point Anish – I couldn’t agree more.
I’m impressed! This app is certainly the tool for live on demand video sharing, due mainly to the flexibility and ease of just shooting live video on demand. I particularly like the added special effects features. In my opinion Socialcam would compliment conventional Youtube video sharing.
Hi Mark, I agree with your points. I think that the two can complement each other well in terms of video marketing strategy. Social cam is best for on-the-go use and YouTube is a great fit for evergreen/long term (and lengthier) content.
We are getting ready to launch a new B2B video-based marketing tool called http://CrowdEngage.com. It really buts businesses with an upper hand in this new social/video realm.