I love video. I’ve been working with video for over thirty years and for over half of that time I’ve been involved in putting video on the internet. However I’ve usually used video to accomplish a specific goal. The goal may be trivial but I’ve always had a hard time making video unless it has a purpose. Over the next few blogs we are going to look at some specific goals and how video may help achieve those goals.

If generating traffic to your web site or converting customers is not as important as raising the awareness of the brand or cause then consider using off-site or viral videos. These are videos that are promoted and distributed on YouTube and Facebook. The idea is to get a lot of people to see the video not to get people to come to your web site. You want exposure but not necessarily new customers. These types of videos may be used in a broader marketing plan where for the first phase you raise awareness and the next phase you have a call to action. Perhaps you want to align your brand with a certain topic or issue and the video will be used to tie the two together so that when someone looks for a specific topic your video, and your name show up.

Videos that help achieve awareness often have these attributes:

Short Length: Usually under 2 minutes. If you want people to watch it, and spread it, on the internet you cannot take time coming to the point and you can’t waste people’s time. The shorter the better.

Compelling: The video must have a compelling message or be very funny. Why would anyone watch it? Not to find out about the features of your software. Ask why would someone who doesn’t know you want to show this video to their friends?

Social Media Friendly: The video must be easily shared and promoted in social media. You should be able to embed the video in a blog, post it to Facebook and send out a tweet about it.

Relevant: It must be relevant or related to your brand or cause. Why would people think about the video and your brand? I was once working with a nonprofit when the Haitian earthquake hit. Suddenly people wanted to do a video about Haiti. That is fine but there was no relationship between the earthquake and the goals of the nonprofit.

Measurable: Even if you are not trying to generate leads or sales you should have a way to measure your success. YouTube, for example, has ways of measuring how many people see a video. Have some way to measure your success.

Quality: Quality is often one of those “in the eye of the beholder” type of debates. I would concede that quality for viral videos is not as important as message but poor quality should not hinder message. If the message is obscured or quality prevents people from watching the video you have not achieved your goals.

Branding: You may or may not have a call to action but if you are trying to raise awareness of your brand or cause your brand should be very clear.

Even if your goal is not to increase web traffic to your site or convert visitors to customers you must have a plan on how you will use video on line.

You can download a Free e-book about different types of online videos and how to use them on the internet. Just follow this link for: 10 things you can do with video on the Internet.