Business, YouTube & Creativity

[Chris Tomlinson]

Whether you run a small business out of your home or work for a large corporation, you can use YouTube to promote your company. And unless you've been living under a very dark rock for the last few years, you know that YouTube is a video sharing website where anyone, including yourself, can upload videos for others to view.

I'm well aware of this and I'm sure you are too. At this very moment I am seriously considering using it for my business, but as I sifted through some of the business videos on YouTube I was more than disappointed.

For starters I'm a creative and like to see creative things. So when I view a video with a poorly lit individual with echoing audio I'm immediately turned off. But I'm also not looking to create the next gimmick where a set of plastic eyeballs and a small stack of money stares me in the face during the video.

Secondly, every video I watched was "Me, me, me, us, we, we". Seasoned marketing and sales professionals will tell you that's not the direction you want to take. You need the viewer to feel safe, save them money, create a sense of urgency if they don't act immediately. Just stop talking about how wonderful YOU are and how you can solve a problem of theirs. Plain and simple.

I was on YouTube looking specifically at "design firm" videos to get a feel for what others were doing and how I could be different. They were boring, mundane attempts at trying to communicate some message. Some were nothing more than slide shows with screen shots of the sites they've done and not even a lick of music. Where is the creativity in that!?

So now I have a goal, to create an informative, entertaining and "call to action-type" video created by a creative that people want to watch.

Anyone have any examples of videos that truly were entertaining? Worth a dime at all?

[PK Koduri]

Joe - funny you mention authenticity. There was a case study on why some Viral marketing videos takeoff and some don't. It all came down to this - If the video looks too polished or slickly produced people assume the MAN is behind it :-) . But when you look at Vimeo and see what some amateurs are capable of creating - it is simply amazing.

[Joe Dager]

On my You Tube biz901 site I have certainly did a little marketing, but most of it is promoting others or a cause/theme. I have used Vimeo, like the quality and also have a friend that swears by Viddler and loves it.

Don't be disappointed in sloppy videos, that is the beauty of it all. Spontaneous, meaningful, authenticity, transparency is what social media is all about and video leaves it all hang out. If you are interested in it as a medium just start. Heck, a year from now you can show how far you have came.

[PK Koduri]

Chris - you can still use Youtube - you can't beat it on price, it is free. Vimeo does not get a lot of traffic because it is trying to be a niche player. Viddler and other whitebox solution providers will host your videos if you are interested in branding and running ads.

[Chris Tomlinson]

Well I'm guessing my video idea would fall into every element of those restrictions. That's not good.... LOL

[PK Koduri]

Chris - I don't think I follow your question. Here are the guidelines for content:


Commercial

* No commercial videos, which means videos selling a product or service. This includes real estate, MLM, Get Rich Quick, Cash Gifting, Home Business, and other dubious moneymaking ventures.
* Videos may not contain any ads before or after the video unless given explicit permission from Vimeo. Videos with any advertisements in them, including links to commercial sites, regardless of content, will be removed.
* Businesses may not use Vimeo to promote their business in any way. Businesses may not use Vimeo to host their videos if they have advertising on their site.
* Video makers may upload demo reels of their work. Musicians may promote their own music/music videos. Independent Production companies may promote the videos they create. Writers may promote their books.
* Non-profits, educational institutions, and churches may use Vimeo to host videos they create.

[Chris Tomlinson]

@PK,

Ok, well after seeing a couple of videos on Vimeo, the idea struck me to somehow incorporate the horrible confusion with how my company name is spelled and how we can help people. It's pronounced "Cone-ink" with a "G". I wonder if they would consider that commercialization?

[PK Koduri]

Vimeo has very standards as to what can or cannot be posted. For example anything considered blatantly commercial is yanked. They also allow only one HD video upload per week for a free account unlike Youtube. Having said that I am thinking about signing up for the pro account on Vimeo because the encoding quality is much better. Here is one of my video hosted on Vimeo:


Mira and her new phone from Prabhakar Koduri on Vimeo.

[Chris Tomlinson]

@Kyle,

Good point about Vimeo. I think I was a bit narrow minded in thinking "Online videos is YouTube" and I guess that's because they are THE place for video sharing. But I hear Vimeo is making a pretty good place for itself also. Let's see what they have....

[Chris Tomlinson]

@Jeren,

I think with your message a "me, me, me" attitude is not bad at all. I see your videos (I did watch BTW :o ) ) as more of an educational theme opposed to trying to market your services/products to a client. And that's what I was hoping to find. Some creative thinking on marketing businesses similar to mine.

[Kyle Lacy]

If I were you I would check out the other video sites as well. Vimeo is a good one. Just because there is crappy examples of videos on Youtube doesn't mean you can't make great ones! :-)