Twitter Unveils Video Widget For Publishers

Video and broader digital distribution are great ways to engage new audiences. On a mission to do just that, Twitter this week is rolling out an embedded video widget for publishers.

“Video embeds are available for videos captured and uploaded through Twitter’s applications for iOS and Android as well as Twitter Amplify partners,” Niall Kennedy, a developer advocate at Twitter, explains in a new blog post.

With the widget, publishers can highlight Twitter-hosted video on their sites. The new feature relies on the same JavaScript used to render Tweet buttons and embedded Tweets.

The widget is part of an ongoing effort by Twitter to connect with consumers who don’t officially use the social network, but who still encounter its content across various media channels.

In that vein, Twitter recently released a WordPress plugin so publishers can more easily add tweety features to their Web sites. With the offering, WordPress publishers can now more easily tap into Twitter’s advertising system with conversion tracking support, and the ability to create tailored audiences.

On the ad side, the social giant also recently announced plans to expand Promoted Tweets to third-party sites -- a move that marketing executives said was quite significant. “The sheer scale of [the third-party expansion] changes the way Twitter is measured,” Craig Elimeliah, SVP and director of creative technology at marketing agency RAPP, recently told Social Media & Marketing Daily. “Growing outside of the stream and syndicating promoted tweets on other properties is a game changer.”

Long a growth engine for digital advertising, video has become increasingly key to the fortunes of social giants like Facebook and Twitter. Indeed, video will drive Twitter’s advertising business in 2015, according to a recent report from the equity research team at J.P. Morgan.

In 2015, “Twitter … will likely become an increasingly important form of engagement for brands given the ability to communicate with consumers in real-time and now to utilize video more effectively on the platform,” the team at J.P. Morgan predicted.

Despite its promise, Twitter only recently introduced a video platform. Videos can be 30 seconds long and be uploaded, edited and shared directly from Twitter’s flagship platform.

At least on the surface, rivals say they welcome increased competition from Twitter and other video newcomers. At a recent industry event, Robert Kyncl, YouTube’s head of content, estimated the digital video market to be worth between $200 billion and $400 billion -- more than enough to go around, he said.

While estimating that a more modest $7.7 billion will go to digital video, this year, eMarketer suggested that 2015 is shaping up to be the year that social and video truly converge.

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