How to use video in your business

Video is changing the market. A few years ago it was too expensive to record things for small businesses. Professional cameras, capable of good enough quality were out of reach to Joe Public and bandwidth costs for hosting video on your website were outrageous. The game has now changed, you can get a flip camera for just over a hundred quid. These Internet friendly cameras allow you to point and shoot on one button, then via an inbuilt USB connector, upload direct to sites like YouTube or Vimeo or simply onto your computer to store for future use – oh and by the way that’s in HD too. They are quite simply the easiest pieces of technology ever!

At the time of writing this, Amazon actually have a sale on the HD version which is normally £160 and is now about £130. I’m not sure how long it’s on for so get yourself over there and get one quick – I promise you won’t regret it: http://amzn.to/cNBqGU (aff link)

So why and what should you be using Video for in your business?

Here’s a few ideas for you:

Video your clients giving your business/you testimonials (Here’s one YouGen.co.uk (a client of ours) gave Optix)
Video reviews of your products of services (Here’s one of a company reviewing the Ipad)
Video tips relating to your industry – this helps position yourself as an authority (A great guy @robin_dickinson does this brilliantly in his black chair series – these are awesome for business owners by the way)
Video people that attend seminars you’ve put on, to get good quality honest feedback (Here’s one we took at our Inbound Marketing seminar recenty)
Video ‘How To’s’ for you products (Here is a How To Use Twitter Video I found quickly)
Video your staff talking about working for your business

Here’s why it’s worth it:

The Optimisation Game - If you upload your video to YouTube you get two bites of the ‘optimisation cherry’ – Yes, Google own YouTube meaning they have dibs on two of the largest search engines in the world. More often than not you’ll see YouTube video’s shown in search engine results and guess what folks – those are free to get listed in (well apart from the time taken to video them of course) Doing a review of a product on video and uploading it to YouTube is likely to gain hundreds if not thousands of views. With a clever bit of manipulation and optimisation, you could be pulling in traffic you never thought possible.

Video adds credibility – A client of yours can speak more credibly about you than you can about yourself. You are bound to talk about your business with verve and vigour. Having a client talk about your service/product adds authenticity and credibility in bucket loads.

Video conveys more information – There are so many more dimensions on film. Mannerisms, passion and emotion can be seen and evoked with film.

Video shows personality - It can tell a story better than an flat image.

My online marketing business has it’s own YouTube channel over at: http://www.youtube.com/optixsolutions – check it out for a few ideas.

One thing I must say, is that however good flip cameras are, there are limits of what they can achieve for you and this is where I recommend working with a good video production company such as my friends over at KOR Communications who specialise in the production of high quality video and the services that surround that. Companies like KOR have a background in broadcast and can help you with media training (how to conduct yourself on film etc), they can write scripts and they can edit and brand – something you might not feel comfortable with yourself if you’re doing say a corporate video about your business – My experience tells me not to mess about with that kind of thing yourself – get the pros in