Everyday I get to engage with marketers discussing how to best create apps for use on their websites to convert more site visitors. In our case those apps leverage video. In general they are all intrigued by the opportunity but terrified at the prospect of creating (or being in) video content and potential cost.

Their concerns are based on their perception and experience in producing traditional business formal video content. Those were the corporate videos that cost ten of thousands of dollars to produce, requiring outside crews and very expensive equipment.

All content must be authentic and engaging. That is what converts visitors. Business formal content is like going to the office in a suit. Most places moved to business casual in the 90’s and it is time for video content to do the same. This business casual content is easily produced on small high definition capable cameras (Cisco Flip, Kodak Zi8) that are simple to use and cost $150 to purchase. The quality is terrific.

Here is an example of business casual video content from a recent webinar promotion – http://www.visiblegains.com/steve-garfield.html

Yes, the first time you are on camera can be a source of anxiety. But it is like riding a bike or learning to give your first presentation to a room of people. Pretty quickly you get comfortable.

Today, when visitors see this business casual content they find it genuine and engaging. The results are excellent. It becomes easy to produce and clients establish their own rhythm.

So, make the investment of $150 in a camera and try it. You may also want to get a copy of Steve Garfield’s book - www.stevegarfield.com/getseen.

I’m always looking out for great uses of video at B2B companies that help to create awareness, showcase company culture, educate prospects and customers, or generate leads. When you see a great video experience that really feels right, there always seems to be a person or two inside the organization that gets it. The “it” I’m referring to is not just the basics of shooting, editing and producing video, but the creative ways that video can enhance the branding, marketing, and culture of a company.

After discovering the “Awareness, Inc. 2010 Kickoff Video”, I found their internal video champion in Marketing & Communications Manager, Christine Major. I had the pleasure of chatting with Christine to see what she’s doing to create a video culture at the company.

Matt: How long have you been creating video and how did you get started?
Christine: I’ve only been working with video for a year now since 2009 SXSW. I was inspired by Steve Garfield’s video montage “27 People, One Question“, so I thought it would be fun to capture attendee’s thoughts about the show in just two words (Watch the video). I brought my Kodak Zi6 camera with me and just started filming. The people at SXSW saw the video I produced and liked it so much, they wanted to use it on their blog.

Matt: Did you have any video training? Where do you go for help?
Christine: I had no formal training. I’m just doing it by trial and error. I look to Steve Garfield as my mentor. He’s given me some great advice on choosing a good camera to start with, shooting the right way, lighting, sound, and editing techniques.

Matt: Did you think a year ago that you would be doing so much with video in your job?
Christine: No, not at all. It’s been a lot of fun to be able to do it for work now. I’m learning more as I go. Everyone likes video, it’s that rich content that everyone is interested in. It’s always more effective than a 500 word blog post. Personally, I get more out of watching a short video than reading about it.

Matt: What are you doing to get video ingrained in the Awareness culture?
Christine: I bring my camera with me everywhere I go, as there are so many opportunities to capture some great footage with employees, customers and partners. If I shoot a video Q&A with someone, I then write a blog post around it, with my take on the discussion. I’m editing a video testimonial right now that I recently shot.

Matt: What have others in your organization said about your video work?
Christine: I’ve gotten kudos from our founder who’s hearing a lot of comments from people saying that Awareness looks like a fun place to work.

Matt: How much time do you usually spend on producing a video?
Christine: The Awareness 2010 Kickoff video took about 4 hours of time to produce. I’m kind of picky and I had to find and upload a lot of the pictures, so collecting content was time consuming. I was thinking about using Animoto, but because I was incorporating video, I ended up using iMovie.

Matt: How do you get people to watch the videos?
Christine: They go on my blog. What’s great about that is that it feeds right into the Awareness blog. I’ll throw it out on Twitter and get people to see it. I typically put it on YouTube, but since it can’t take anything more than 10 minutes, I opened up an account with BlipTV. I haven’t yet used something like TubeMogul to distribute it widely, but the more channels we can get it out to, the greater the benefit.

Matt: As a marketer, what would you like to see related to video usage?
Christine: For us it’s more of an awareness thing and we can’t see where people drop off. I always like to see what I’m doing wrong. It would also be beneficial to see how many leads were drawn from the video and how much buzz it’s generating.

Matt: Looking out a year from now, what improvements do you hope to make with your B2B video initiatives?
Christine: I hope to have a really streamlined process for creating, editing and distributing video. One other initiative is to do a live web show. We do live webinars every other week and would like to supplement those with a live show with guests. Tracking video views to leads would be fantastic. It’s all about driving traffic and leads to our site.