Everyone has an opinion about brands, love them or hate them we all have something to say. The problem the industry is facing at the moment is the amount of opinions out there, where they’re taking place and how to successfully use them in order to improve brand image.

I’ve read many articles recently citing the growing number of Facebook brand pages and YouTube channels that marketers are creating, but the lack of engagement taking place on them. With more focus on social networking, brands need to be able to listen effectively to what customers are saying and engage with them in the most relevant way. By realising the power of conversation and how it can be used successfully, brands will be able to build advocacy and increase sales.

Conversation has for some time been able to spread brand messages and improve consumer engagement. For example catchphrases were heard on every street corner a few years ago and were responsible for the success of many brands and programmes. Catherine Tate’s “am I bovered” spread like wild-fire as did Tango’s “you’ve been tangoed” to the extent that it was banned in schools for kid’s ‘tango-ing’ each other.

Consumers, particularly children, like to enjoy content, personalise it and then share it with their friends. Cadbury’s drumming Gorilla inspired the creation of many different versions; one in particular integrated an X Factor audition. These conversational videos and catchphrases can be distributed across a variety of marketing channels. However there are so many channels available to brands nowadays and a whole new skill set and engagement needs to be considered for each. Particularly when that’s online video.

Branded online video is another powerful platform in its own right with enormous reach and potential. Recent Forrester research revealed that a minute of video is worth 1.8 million words – that’s a lot of social media conversations. With its breadth and diversity video used correctly can establish a personal connection with a customer and showcase products in real-life scenarios.

Working in separate silos both social media and online video can amplify a brands message. However combine the two together and you create something entirely new and innovative. Social video or ‘chatter’ as I like to refer to it.

Social video is a unique way for marketers to capture the sentiment from customers and embed this within video content. By finding the best conversations out there and amplifying them in a controlled way you’re effectively finding new and engaged brand advocates. The power of social is undeniable; we’ve measured up to 50% higher engagement in video recommended by peers in Facebook than those found via search engines.

Social video tools should be able to search, capture and curate relevant conversations about a particular topic from Facebook, Twitter and blogs. By creating a real-time flow of conversations embedded into branded video content this can be made available online, on mobiles, in-store and on outdoor broadcast platforms.

Effectively taking those conversations and catchphrases and placing them both online and off. By embracing the integration of social media and video a brand is empowering the consumer’s voice. In an era of increasing consumer empowerment inviting them to join in the conversation is the next stage in brand advertising.