Hearst Corporation’s Good Housekeeping magazine is launching a series of paid how-to video classes through social media to extend the title’s reach and capitalize on the growing possibilities of mobile.

GoodHousekeeping.TV is available on its dedicated mobile-optimized Web site along with pages on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and YouTube and planned applications for iOS, Android, Roku and Amazon Fire. A range of paid and free videos will be featured, focusing on Good Housekeeping’s facets of content such as DIY, crafts, cooking and event planning.

“Mobile and social are central to Goodhousekeeping.TV,” said Chris Grosso, senior vice president and general manager of video at Hearst Digital Studios. “We designed a fully responsive Web site because we expect consumers will want to watch their class videos across their devices, on their phone in their kitchen or on their tablet at their craft table.

“As for social, we will publish extensively on Pinterest, Facebook and YouTube and our instructors include many of the Web’s best makers with large social followings,” he said. “We want to bring together the best ideas on social media with the experience and insights of Good Housekeeping’s editors.

The service is pay-as-you-go, ranging from $2.99 to $5.99 and each paid class comes with downloadable materials such as stencils, patterns and instructions. The service is a continuation of the brand’s content on the magazine, after Good Housekeeping recognized the market available for its demographic on mobile and more importantly through video.

A bigger brand
The service is looking for the largest possible audience and is accomplishing this through these numerous platforms, the more places to view the higher the chance of attracting viewers.

These videos feature a wide range of content that coincide with Good Housekeeping’s original content such as classes surrounding home improvement ideas and crafts. For example, “Learn to master gallery wall 101” is a beginner level class offered for $4.99 and is a 59-minute video that details how to decorate an eye-catching wall in a home, reflecting a student’s style, taught by Will Taylor of Bright Bazaar, a well-known interior design blog.

Editors on the project are from Good Housekeeping and are focusing on featuring teachers such as Mr. Taylor that have a large following on the Internet in an effort to reach the largest online audience possible. The personalities associated with the videos currently combine a following of 5 million.

Other experts showcased are Debbie Stoller, founder of an online knitting community, Paul Lower, editor-in-chief of Sweet Paul, a food and crafting magazine and DIY/home décor blog, Handmade Charlotte founder, Rachel Faucett.

The video series will also include short-sharable videos featuring tricks and trips for simple DIY projects. These videos are only two to three minutes and shared throughout all social media to draw in consumers, who are attracted to snackable content in the hopes it will lead to greater interest in the paid classes.

This is the latest for the Hearst Digital Studios, which launched last July and produces content in the same video format as GoodHousekeeping.TV with streaming on-demand video material.

Mobile video possiblities
Content producers from all spectrums are deciphering how to best capitalize in the mobile sphere and how to navigate in the new reality. The Lucky Group launched its digital style content on the new LuckyShops.com, which makes all of the items shoppable, entering the brand into a new source of revenue following recent staff layoffs and a kick to the curb from Condé Nast last fall (see more).

Hearst is a leader in mobile innovation. While Snapchat has been a hit with millennials, brands and publishers are finally realizing the potential to target specific segments of its 100 million-plus monthly users with forms of traditional content as Hearst’s Cosmopolitan and other publishers join with its discover feature (see more).

Mobile video is essential to any brand, whether it is mobile advertising or paid and free video publisher content.

“As Good Housekeeping’s editor, Jane Francisco, puts it, we want to deliver ‘a constant stream of genius ideas,'” Mr. Grosso said. “That includes video shorts that inspire people with great project ideas and tips.

“It also includes providing valuable, long form instructional classes at an affordable cost,” he said. “The smartphone is a natural home for this kind of content.

“People cook, craft, and do DIY projects throughout their home and need their instructional videos and text readily available at their finger-tips.”

Final take
Brielle Jaekel is editorial assistant at Mobile Marketer and Mobile Commerce Daily