The Power of Video Conference was held on Monday 6th June in the newly finished Waterfront Belfast and brought together some of the internet’s biggest stars, including Casey Neistat (Youtuber of the year) and our very own Cian Twomey (Facebook superstar).

The conference kicked off in typical David Meade style, with the audience being told to get up and shake out all those Monday blues. With the crowd suitably warmed up, the conference began in earnest with the first guest speakers, Casey Neistat and Matt Hackett, creators of the new content sharing app, Beme. They highlighted some interesting facts about how social media can be all consuming and that how it has become too much about gaining the adoration of people you might not even know. Promoting the sharing of genuine content for the simple reason that sharing your experience with others is more valuable than trying to gain as many “Likes as possible”. Whether this will take off for business use is another matter, as was made clear by Facebook expert Peter McNicholl.

Peter showed the value of using video on Facebook, especially when used together with the advert promotion tool. He showed a staggering difference to the interactions of people on Facebook regarding ads with, and without video, with video being the most effective.

Next we learned the true power of affiliate links on YouTube with jack-of-all-trades Zack Nelson (YouTube channel: jerryrigeverything). Affiliate links to Amazon and eBay etc are a great way of earning continuous income from your YouTube channel, especially if you use Amazon as a reseller of any of your products. They work by tracking if a customer has come from your channel and awarding you with up to 10% of the total basket price if they go on to buy! This also means that if a customer goes from YouTube to Amazon to buy one of you’re own products, you can earn 10% additional to the sale of the actual item.

We had a great time learning the ins and outs of how video can benefit our customers, and are looking forward to putting some of the techniques into practice.