Engage, Entertain, Elevate: Use Online Video to Your Advantage

It's easy to lose track of time while watching your favorite classic "Saturday Night Live" skits, one after another, not on DVD but on Hulu.com. Use random keywords to search for clips on YouTube and you never know what you might come across. Online video is engaging, entertaining and can elevate your brand and awareness to new levels ... if you know how to make it happen.

Companies like General Mills (for Chex Party Mix), Fox News, Discovery Channel and Gardner Bender are seeing online video is a viable and cost effective option to build relationships with online audiences. And the best news is that it's measurable.

Playing with Emotion

Maybe it's obvious, but there are couple of merits inherent to the video medium: 1) the ability to capture emotion and 2) the ability to demonstrate complex processes or solutions that are difficult to explain. Both of these can be tough to communicate with words or pictures alone. If a picture is worth a thousand words, a video must be worth a million or trillion. Of course, video enables you to combine words, pictures, music, emotion and so much more.

So why does emotion matter? It engages the viewer and strengthens the brand connection. By drawing you in, it helps you remember the message. For example, think about the famous "Crying Indian" TV commercial to prevent litter by Keeping America Beautiful.

Viewing Trends

If your target audiences are online, they're probably watching video.

Nearly half (48%) of Internet users have visited video sharing sites like YouTube, according to a Pew Internet Project Data Memo from earlier this year. Across all age brackets Pew noted significant increases in the use of video sharing sites– 45% and higher – including a 76% increase in viewers ages 18-29. Women are flocking to online video sharing sites, demonstrating this point with an increase of 120% since 2006 (compared to an increase of 82% among men).

Why the dramatic increase? Broadband technology. Online videos are accessible by nearly every computer user – at work and at home. Also fueling this trend is the wide variety of video available online today, including news and sports, music and movies, commercials and even educational content.

Is the B-to-B community using online videos? In a joint research study by Knowledge Storm Inc. and Universal McCann, the emerging role of new media, particularly online video, social networks and Wikis, had a big impact on B-to-B technology purchase decisions.

According to the survey, 63% of respondents accessed online videos at least once a week. And, a majority of respondents are viewing online videos on a variety of business and technology topics. Webcasts top the list of most popular online video content with 70% of respondents using this format, according to the New Media Institute.

Experts agree that online video for the business-to-business community is a great way to open a new level of dialogue with customers. When developed to address specific customer needs, streaming video can be produced and promoted in the context of thought-leading segments – ultra relevant and progressive. Understanding your target audiences' video content wants and needs is critical before embarking on this type of initiative.

Tips

Start Simple
Begin with the video footage you already have. For example, a 30-minute corporate overview can be divided up into several brief clips focused on single topics. A segmented "Our History" clip could be presented on your corporate Web site under the "About Us" section. Add it to your media relations campaign when you announce the company's next milestone anniversary.