With a little help, online video needn't be intimidating

By Jonny Buroker

How far has online video come? Consider the Presidential elections of 2004 and 2008. The 2008 primary debates were sponsored by YouTube, which didn't even exist in 2004.

Videos of Sen. Obama's victory speech were viewed more than 6.8 million times in the first 36 hours (not including live streams or broadcast feeds other than NBC.com). The online infrastructure could not have supported that volume four short years ago.

eMarketer predicts the U.S. online video audience will grow to 190 million by 2012 — that's 88 percent of the online population, with almost 81 percent of those viewing online video advertising.

Following the TV model

"After some false starts with ill-fated transactional experiments, online video content owners and distributors are pursuing a strategy that closely follows the standard TV business model," notes Paul Verna, eMarketer senior analyst and author of the new report, Video Content: Harnessing a Mass Audience. "The bulk of online video programming is now supported by advertising, with ad formats ranging from in-stream ads — prerolls, midrolls and postrolls — to in-text and in-banner ads."

But will users view the online ads? Similar to the TV model, many consumers are loath to sit through ads while watching online video, but they are even less willing to pay directly for content.

Some businesses create own videos

Small- and medium-sized companies are getting in on the act and are using online videos to promote their business. They want professional-looking video profiles that differentiate themselves from their competition. Including videos on your Web site is a great way for potential customers to "see" your business as compared to a text description, a phone number, an e-mail or a few pictures. These 1-minute videos may look like a TV ad or may take on a documentary styled approach. These videos may focus on your business approach, your products, your employees, or your customers (including customer testimonials), or a combination of these.

How to get started

Read the Guidelines: The Interactive Advertising Bureau has created a new set of video advertising guidelines including best practices, format guidelines, and measurement standards so that advertisers won't have to create a whole slew of formats for various online video sites.

Select your message: What do you want to get across to your viewers? Who should deliver that message? The CEO, an employee, your own customers?

Create your video: There are many videographers who can help you develop and edit professional videos that help tell your story online.

Post your video: Understand what limitations, if any, your Web site may have as it relates to getting your video online and having your site visitors view it. Find other sites to post your videos, like YouTube.

Optimize your Web site for the video: There are certain steps you can take to help the search engines find and index your video such that people searching for keywords within your video will find your site.

A video project can take anywhere from a few weeks to a few months to complete. Have a strategy, get started, and soon they'll be viewing your videos on the Internet.

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