GlobalBX

Lights, Camera, Action – Grab the consumer’s attention and hold it with video. Educational, informational, how-to videos can be quickly, economically produced and posted on the Web to not only get your product message across but to use in your customer support area to help consumers resolve their own problems, answer their questions.

Until recently, you exchanged information, ideas in words, pictures, diagrams.

You talked in meetings, you sent emails, you showed pictures/ppts. All the while, you were thinking, talking visually.

Today, people are increasingly going online to watch all types of videos – entertainment, education, information. According to recent projections by eMarketer, more than 87% of the Internet users watch video content online:

• news
• comedy
• movies, TV
• music videos
• sports
• commercials (honest!)
• non-professional videos (think dumb, dumber YouTube)
• podcasts
• animation
• education

As you move more of your consumer communications to the Web, you need to make your information, your messages more interesting, more entertaining by adding video content. Short videos — product demonstrations, applications, installation, troubleshooting, technical discussions – are meeting this need. In addition, many organizations that have integrated video into their social media activities have seen their material go viral. It is being used by channel partners, linked by blogs and other social media sites and shared by viewers everywhere.

Online consumers share the video:

• email to friends/family – 50%
• send to social network friends – 23%
• IM to friends/family – 21%
• Send to friends on video-sharing sites – 14%
• Link them to a blog – 12%
• Add comments in other blogs/social network groups – 9%

“Best practice” (most credible) is not done by the video professional that uses costly studio time, tons of cameras/lights, expensive/time-consuming post production.

Be Believable
The believable videos that are watched and passed around the Web are shot in a minimalized office, engineering lab, natural user environment.

New compact cameras like the Flip can be used by virtually anyone in the organization to produce real-people mini-stories quickly, easily, economically.

Products like muvee’s Reveal 8 do most of the work automatically.

Business-Grade Consumer Products – For departments on a tight budget, low-cost cameras, simple business environment locations, homegrown talent and automated video production software can be used to produce interesting, informative product/service videos that can be uploaded to the company’s Website and social media locations. The key is to tell the story quickly, effectively … then stop.

Muvee and similar products analyze photos and video, style and choice of music and automatically create a video synced to the beat of the music with transitions and effects built in.

Interesting, informational, short videos – even with minor mistakes — are more believable than polished ads. The software helps you explain products, develop SEO (search engine optimization) links and visually assist customers in efficiently, effectively using your products/services.

Reality Video
Using staff members taking viewers through the product/service story not only adds credibility, it encourages people to share the videos and links with others.

Viral videos on your Web site, Facebook page, posted on YouTube, inserted in blogs quickly, effectively tell the product, application story. They can also help customers who have to assemble products, install them.

Product descriptions, how-to, technical videos helps the consumer feel connected to the company, the brand because they allow person to share information, ideas, rather than being advertised to/pitched/sold.

Monitoring the consumer’s feedback/inputs on the videos and the information presented is all part of the changing social media environment.

It’s only a small step forward but it’s a start in building company/product reputation equity.

Best of all…it’s easy, it’s economical, it’s fun!