Web Strategy: Future of Business Video –Authenticity is key
Participation Era
A few years ago, companies were making very ‘top-down’ style videos that used stock clips, actors, and heavy scripts. There’s a change happening in the style of video being created, primarily since the ‘amateurs’ are able to ‘participate’ in sites like MySpace, YouTube, and the growing Google Video. (there’s a ton of others that are emerging as well). Soon, publishing video on the internet will be a very common practice by the average cell phone user. Edit: Google has recently added “Video” to it’s homepage reports Techweb.
Authenticity is Key
Many of the effective videos are raw, real, and authentic. Many advertising agencies desperately try to recreate successful viral videos and copy ones that had the week long success –I’m looking for something different. That’s why I attended Vloggercon, and have started to upload my own raw videos –I learn from these conferences. Product videos now are being done by product managers and engineers, you don’t need an actor to make it real and come to life.
Model of Success: Microsoft’s Channel 9
I recently ran into Bob Snyder, who was one of the Channel 9 folks. I knew we would get along, we share many of the basic ideological believes on how web can be used to please customers. He’s one of the creative videographers that worked at Channel 9 a fantastic community site built by Microrosoft (Scoble was one of the four founders). Check out some of Bob Snyder’s work, they range from TV show type quality, then to the preludes for Channel 9.
Old Business Videos:
- Actors
- Heavily Scripted
- Heavily Polished
- Top Down
- Single Distribution points
- Titled
- Static
New Business Videos:
- Product Teams
- Behind the scenes
- Raw and Authentic (but still good video and audio quality)
- Bottom Up (by the people for the people)
- Mass Distribution through community
- Tagged
- Interactive (audience leaves comments, blogs back, repurposes, or mashes)
This trend is much like blogging, we know text evolves to audio, then to video, then in real time.
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“Product videos now are being done by product managers and engineers, you don’t need an actor to make it real and come to life.”
I also think videos, or even vlogging, could vastly help improve the customer experience for many. A company, for example, could visually show a user how to do something…something that could help reduce recurring customer service contacts in traditional cs channels(phones/email). The educational aspects of video are just as compelling as any potential entertainment value…
-Damon
[…] Brace yourself for Online Video and User uploaded content Social Networks gaining on Top Portals: “Membership at social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace is exploding. Everyone is doing it. Well… a lot of people are. In June, 2 out of every 3 people online visited a social networking site.” Just yesterday, Google added ‘Video’ as a premium tab on it’s homepage read more from Techweb. As a result, Bill Tancer from Hitwise sees growth traffic patterns showing a surge in traffic to the Video section, from my web managment experience, this surge will likely low and head back towards the steady growth curve. The fastest moving web brands are tied to User Generated Content. Andy Couch told me yesterday how his Tivo reccomended watching Bravo’s Outrageous and Contagious Viral Videosl. Web Marketers should already be experimenting I’ve also outlined some Web Strategies for Business Videos–like blogging, authenticity is key, duh. I’ve been experimenting heavily with online video, (boy is it fun!) and will be reducing my involvement with podcasting. If you have a camcorder, start recording and try uploading to these sites, For many of my videos, I’m simply using my digital camera (consumer grade) and easily upload without editing the files –it’s easy and it’s free. […]
Jerimiah’s View of Trends…
Some great insights from Jeremiah : Brace yourself for Online Video and User uploaded content Social Networks gaining on Top Portals : Membership at social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace is exploding….
[…] Future of <b>Business</b> Video Authenticity is key […]