VIDEO FOR BUSINESS 2
MAKING VIDEO FOR PROFIT
by Val Whitter
Copyright V.J.Whitter 2011.
Smashwords Edition
Cover design by E.W.Whitter
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you are reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
Ch.1. From VHS to Tablet
Ch.2. YouTube, Vimeo and so much more
Ch.3. From me to You.
Ch.4. Your Brand
Ch.5. Content is Everything
Ch.6. The Piece to Camera
Ch.7. The Corporate Video
Ch.8. Scripting
Ch.9. Video and Social media – part of the mix
Ch.10. From Toe in the Water to Taking the Plunge
Appendix: About the Author.
ooOoo
Chapter 1.
Don't Miss Out on Using Video for Business.
With video cameras available on almost everything nowadays, most people are used to shooting some video, on a phone, a tablet, a domestic video or still camera, and new models are arriving all the time. I assume you have access to an HD camera and possibly a tripod, and even a microphone for the keen amongst you.
Making a credible video for your business is another matter and that is where this book starts and takes you through ideas and techniques to end up with exciting and useful media. It is not a technical read as that is the easy part. But this book will give you more important skills and knowledge to boost your business through using video productively.
Your Communication Strategy.
Whether you operate directly with customers, (B2C), or supply goods or services to other businesses, (B2B), it is necessary to appreciate the increasingly rapid changes to technology when considering your own communications strategy.
To get these developments into proportion, black and white TV became accessible to the general public at the time of the queen’s coronation almost 50 years ago. The screen in the living room has changed in capability and scope since, but has remained the same in principle and supply of content has been dominated by corporate and State broadcasters. That is, until now! More of this later…
Business communication took a large leap forward in the nineties with the advent of the web and access for all. A bit of surfing will expose the archaeology of it as there are many generations of websites out there, from the one page/one photo site, to the Flash entry barrier style. These all worked in their time. We had them all too and received DVD orders from around the world and calls from customers with extensive budgets. We were proud of our websites, they matched the service we offered at the time, they looked nice, they worked, and they hauled in customers.
What you are up against.
In the olden days, six or seven years ago, everything was so simple for businesses: build the website and they will come. Now a website has to be all singing and all dancing, seducing the prospect towards a purchase with arresting pop-ups, brilliant photography, flash images, and supported by and integrated with email marketing, loyalty ploys and social media. Large businesses have sponsored positions on first pages of search, or achieved by SEO experts.
Serried ranks of people sit in air conditioned rooms to achieve all this. However not all of us can invest so stupendously in our marketing. Forgive me if I am wrong, but I take it that you are reading this because the competition is scorching, and nearly every area of business is well covered by highly financed and sponsored internet giants.
The world has changed, have you?
We started off thinking about the ‘Telly’. Well it’s still there, glistening in the lounge with its amazing pictures, HD or even 3D, its astonishing reach opening our eyes to news, sport and entertainment from all over the world. It is still a screen and it has survived with a lot of convergence along the way – the internet and the TV- playing DVDs rather than VHS- satellite as well as terrestrial, video on demand and so on. It has spawned a generation, who, including ourselves, have become accustomed to getting their information via a screen, whether it’s a Wiki search or a documentary, or a reality show, or the news on a Smartphone.
Now you might think I am going off on an irrelevant tangent, but we need to think about the website dinosaurs of the early 2000s. Did they fail to see the technology developments creeping up on them? What is out there creeping up on us? Do we know what it is and how to deal with it? Do we have the skills to make modern technological developments our saviour or will it be our enemy? Is this too dramatic for you? Then whatever happened to the record player?
I am sure you already have a well designed latest generation web site. Nowadays a web presence needs constant refreshing. No doubt you have a copywriter with the SEO skills who does some of this so you that you can try to be on that elusive first page of Google. No doubt you have used email marketing that links back to your web site. No doubt you blog. No doubt you have a presence in appropriate directories. Does your website stand out in the increasingly overcrowded World Wide Web? It would be understandable if it did not, at least not as much as you would like.