Capturing a video interview with a client, partner, or industry guru is the foundation for valuable content.  A couple of important tips when capturing the interview:

1.  Prepare your questions -  Think about what you want to communicate,  so you can ask questions that get you the right content.  Write down your questions and make sure you have a few open ended questions – you will often be pleasantly surprised with gems of an answer.

2.  Identify themselves – Ask them to share their name, company and role. This is always a good lead into any final piece.

3.  Easy Question -  Ask one or two easy questions to get things started and flowing.

4.  Be Quiet   -  When the interviewee is talking, be quiet.  It is okay to nod, but you want the sound only to have their voice.  Much easier for using this later on.

5.  Discussion or Interview -  You need to decide upfront if this is a discussion or interview.  As an interview, you are trying to ask questions and get answers.  Those answers will be what you use in your video. You will not be on camera or heard on the sound track.

6.  Microphone – It often helps to put a microphone on your subject.  Good sound is very important in making a video engaging.

7. Authorization -  Ask them on camera if it is okay for you to post this online.  You want to get clearance to use the content. For more information on authorization, watch this clip featuring David Meerman Scott sharing recording tips.

Interviews with customers, employees, partners, or industry experts is very effective for creating and sharing content. This approach can be especially compelling, especially when you learn some easy interviewing techniques.  Your goal is to make the interviewee comfortable on camera and help them to bring out the passion in their topic.  One easy approach is the Casual Interview Format (CIF).

When interviewing a simple way to set up the shoot, is to place yourself across from the interviewee, with the camera to one side of you, focused on the interviewee.   In this manner, the person is really having a conversation with you. They are not looking into the camera, but dialoging with you as the interviewer.   You will often see this approach used by news and investigative reporters.

There are several advantages to this approach:

1. Comfort -  It is much easier for both people to relax, as it feels like a conversation.  Neither of you is looking directly at the camera.   It is much easier to fall into a rhythm and forget the camera is there.
2. More engaging -  As the viewer, you feel like you are in the room,  just sitting in another chair listening to the conversation.  You get very engaged in listening, as well as viewing.
3. Easy  -  As the interviewer, you can focus on having the conversation – no need to take notes.
4. Result -  It is very easy to edit this format.  You can ask many questions,  use the ones that work best.

If you want to try it,  after watching the video above, try it with one of your family members or friends.  Let us know how it goes and any ideas you learned.  Also, if are experienced and have some additional tips, please share them.

Can I learn to ride a bike?

The concept of using video in B2B marketing and sales is getting attention. Understandably, like anything new, marketers are concerned about how to get started. They are looking for low risk, high payoff.

So how is learning to use video similar to learning to ride a bike?  Well,  there’s the shiny new bike, it looks great, people riding other bikes are having fun, but will you be able to learn to ride.

Today, you enjoy riding, but can hardly remember learning.  Well, remember, we all started out on a tricycle or bike with training wheels.

Quite simply, our recommended approach to video combines two components:

1. Easy formats
2. Proven coaching model (our goal is to teach you to fish and not fish for you). (link to jump start)

Our goals for you:
1. A good first experience,
2. Build confidence,
3. Solid return on investment.

An example of a “bike with training wheels” format is adding the opportunity to watch a video as part of an email invite to a webinar. This is a 30 second piece where the goal is to increase attendance at the webinar. The content is simple – one of the members of the company talking about the value the attendee will get from attending.  You can see an example in this post.

Also, because the content is simple and it is being used in a low key location, it will not require the review and agreement of the entire executive team.  With a bit of good structured coaching, tips and best practices, you will be zipping down the street and back in no time. You can easily use this approach for other email marketing programs, customer newsletter, sign up for a white paper, etc.

For those who want to think back about learning to ride – with all the fears leading to triumph – here is an excellent post  post by Whitney Johnson.

What simple ideas do you have for getting started with video?

Photo Credit: Go Automobiles
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Hey folks,  Actionscripter and Engineer extraordinaire Doug Hogan here to talk to you about the latest and greatest in office customer support, GetSatisfaction. Okay, so it may not be the latest, and whether it’s the greatest is certainly up for debate, but it’s certainly proven at least to be a satisfactory solution for most of our customer support needs.

Long ago when we began serious discussions of how we were going to handle our support, there were a myriad of options available: your standard wiki, regular HTML help pages and FAQs; we even considered doing an all video approach. In the end there were a number of things that made our decision a bit easier:

• We didn’t want to do any work. That is, we did not want to waste time we could be spending improving our own product on building and up-keeping some infrastructure just to handle our support or help system.
• We wanted something that was easy to create and update. Wikis fit this, but you still do have to know some markup code and dealing with organizing and managing public/community access can be a real pain.
• We wanted a public community where not only is help readily and quickly available, but past issues are kept with the intention of helping future users with the same problem. Sure we could keep track of emails or calls from our customers and then update an FAQ with the questions and answers, and hope that future users are able to find that topic before asking the question again, but that sounds like way too much fun; our employees fighting over this task would create tension within the office that we just can’t afford.
• Some nice-to-haves included a light ticketing system, a way to notify employees of customer questions or needed support, and a place for people to suggest new features or ideas for our product.

You can tell by the way that I staged the above list that (Spoiler Alert) GetSatisfaction for the most part fulfills all of these points. We’ve been using it actively for about four or five months now (visit our community here) and aside from some less than ideal quirks on the admin side of things I think it’s generally been very successful.

Perhaps the most important aspect to me personally is that it’s given me and the other developers here a chance to see where the frequent questions and customer pains lie, without having to rely on hearing about them second or third hand. Acting as sort of a proxy, it allows us to jump in when we are needed, but not spend too much time away from our development cycle answering general support questions.

Have you used our (or anyone’s) GetSatisfaction community? What do you think of it? Do you have any suggestions on how we could use it better? Do you prefer grape jelly or strawberry?

Photo Credit: ICM

Is heavy branding in video the only way to promote your company in the right way? Many marketers are struggling with this balance between taking control and letting the brand speak for itself. The problem is, the decision is not really up to the marketers at all.

We recently had an event with BusinessWire and MediaMobz focusing on online video and branding. Judy Gern, Director of Conversion Marketing at Constant Contact and one of the panelists for the event, spoke about the importance of finding an appropriate level of branding in video.

Marketers are often tempted to intensively brand their videos to ensure that it is portrayed in the best possible way. They use video to reach their audience in an authentic way.

Unfortunately, branding accomplishes just the opposite. The transparency of video allows viewers to see the push for control, and the video’s “authenticity” seems forced. On the other hand, the accessibility of video provides consumers with the power to share their own opinions of your brand.

No matter how meticulously you script your video, there will be other conversations taking place externally that the public will be watching. As Gern explains, “Conversations about our brands are happening outside of our walls. We have to play, but we can’t control it.” It’s important for a company to have a strong presence by promoting and spreading its own content, but it must recognize that its influence may not necessarily be quite as dominating.

If you’re concerned about branding, you want to communicate a message that is as transparent as possible. Video does just that; it’s a lot harder to be vague or wordy when you’re speaking on-camera. So embrace it–and use online to your brand’s advantage to promote authenticity.

At a recent event with Business Wire and MediaMobz, panelist Joe Chernov, Global Director of Communications & Social Media at Eloqua, spoke about recent trends deemphasizing viral video.

When online video was initially gaining popularity among businesses, companies spent a lot of time, money, and effort in hopes of making their video(s) viral. Although this success is great for spreading the company’s name, it doesn’t leave much of a measurable, long-term impact when you look past the thousands or millions of views. An earlier survey of the audience at the event indicated that companies today are using online video as a tool for many additional purposes, including sales, PR, and even support. This switch from a viral focus to more practical applications in the business world is refreshing to see. Online video can be adapted and manipulated for purposes far beyond a YouTube trend; the faster companies realize this and take advantage of its versatility, the better.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/newsbiepix/ / CC BY 2.0

If you were not among the standing-room-only crowd in Waltham yesterday, you missed a great panel discussion with Tim Bradbury, American City Business Journals; Joe Chernov, Eloqua; Judy Gern, Constant Contact; David Meerman Scott, best-selling author; and Dave Toole of MEDIAmobz.  Our own Cliff Pollan moderated the session.

The event, sponsored by VisibleGains, Business Wire and MEDIAmobz, and graciously hosted by Constant Contact, generated many insights about the use of video. In fact, there was so much valuable content that we’ll likely explore topics in more detail in upcoming blog posts.  For now, however, we wanted to recap some of the important observations from the event in the hopes that it will spark ongoing dialogue.

Here are seven things you’ll want to know right away:

Video is no longer a novelty; it’s a necessity. 100% of those in attendance have watched a business-related video. If you’re trying to sell to any of the more than 100 attendees who were in the room (or companies like them), video would be a great tool.

Video is the new literacy.  According to Dave Toole from MEDIAmobz, “we’re just seeing the beginning” of video storytelling. Brands are using it for new product introductions, customer testimonials and to capture real people using their products.

Video has proven power down the marketing funnel. David Meerman Scott underscored the ability for video to drive higher conversion numbers. It’s not just an awareness-builder, it’s a lead generator and sales closer.

Prospects who consume video convert at higher rates. Judy Gern from Constant Contact shared her company’s experience with video, revealing that prospects who consume video become customers at a much higher rate.

A company of authors is a boon for SEO. Joe Chernov from Eloqua said companies should encourage more content contribution, especially optimized video. More authors, including video subjects, within your company means stronger search performance.

Soon everyone will be video “talent.” Cliff Pollan predicts that someday soon “we’ll all be talent.” At one point we all learned Powerpoint to communicate.  Soon we’ll all learn to communicate better through video.

Video is key to the future of news distribution. Tim Bradbury and his team at American City Business Journals encourage businesses to add video to news they distribute. Joe Chernov agreed, providing the staggering metric that companies that embed video into their press releases get a whopping 500% more views.

There you have it, seven nuggets to ponder right away. We knew this panel would be interesting, but we had no idea how eager marketers are to incorporate video into the mix and how successfully many are already doing so.

To see more of the commentary during and after the event, please check out this hashtag on Twitter: #bwvidevent.

Yes, this is a plug, but it’s an important one. Yesterday we announced an important partnership for our growing company. While we continue to preach how easily and cost-effectively you can produce video, we realize that some companies could still benefit from professional guidance and/or extra arms and legs, at least early on.

As of today, our clients in the U.S., Europe and Asia can outsource the production of their video-enabled marketing apps, including event promotion, customer testimonials and product/service demos, to MEDIAmobz, a marketplace for creative services, particularly video production. Once you contact us (or them) you’ll immediately be matched with a team from their global network of video producers and you’ll be off and running. Video in less than 24 hours has never been easier.

To learn more about our partnership with MEDIAmobz and discover why they are such a strong global partner, please see the press release we jointly issued yesterday

Also, please don’t’ forget our upcoming Business Wire event on April 27 in Boston where MEDIAmobz will provide examples of how video-enabled marketing apps can be beneficial to your business. You can learn more about that event here.

Did we hit our top three messages hard enough? Did we include enough mentions of our brand and/or product name? These are often among the first few questions marketers ask as they review a near-finished video.  But are they THE most important criteria for judging the conversion potential for video? We don’t think so.

If you want your video to convert, it must first engage, at least long enough for the prospect to receive your call to action or offer. And the more personal a video feels to the prospect, the greater the likelihood of engagement. So, does this mean your messages and brand/product mentions aren’t important.  Certainly not, but it does mean that if you fail to create a personal connection and engagement, those messages and mentions will likely go in one ear and out the other.

So how do you make a video more personal and engaging? After all, you’re only shooting one video, right?  Wrong, you should think about shooting multiple videos (very short segments) that, when stitched together, create a branching experience that will appeal to (feel personal to) multiple personas.  This doesn’t have to be highly complex or technical and can often be accomplished with some thoughtful up-front scripting and shot planning.

To get you started, here are three tips for creating more personal and engaging video:

Speak directly to your buyers – all of them. When you’re on a sales call, you don’t talk about IT infrastructure to the non-technical end user. Instead, you appeal to them by discussing their problem and how, in simple terms, your solution can solve it. When you shoot your video, create an inventory of short video segments that appeal to as many of the key constituents in an organization you’re hoping to convert.

Let the user control the experience. Once you’ve built an inventory of segments that will appeal to various viewer types, make it easy for them to control the experience. Non-linear branching, enabled by simple on-screen interactivity, accepts user input and gives the viewer a much more personal experience.

Create a social experience. Today, buyers are learning the ways of social media, which means they are accustomed to engaging with your brand and your employees in multiple ways. It’s how they validate their potential decision. So give them clickable elements on and around the video that allow them to fully engage. This could include links to supporting content online and links to social media profiles on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook. The more they connect with you and the person in the video the more personal the experience will feel to them.

In the end, messages are important, but meaning (to each potential online prospect) is even more important. By creating a more personal, interactive experience – one that mirrors a conversation instead of a mass market commercial – you’ll turn you video into a powerful conversion engine that pulls prospects all the way through to your offer and, ultimately, the sale.

To read about other tips for using video to convert online visitors to leads, please download our eBook, Best Practices for Using Video to Convert Visitors to Leads, here.

And be sure to come back to our blog for more tips and tricks.

Click here for a video intro to the event

Can online video turn press releases into SEO gold? We don’t have an answer to that question. At least not yet. But with your help – and an esteemed group of experts – we’re hoping to get closer to understanding the role that video will play in the press release of the future.

On April 27, we’re hosting an event with Business Wire and MediaMobz entitled Combining SEO and Video to Drive Awareness and Lead Generation Online. You can watch a video intro for the event or learn more here and, if you’re in Boston, we encourage you to attend. At its core, the event is designed for marketing and communications professionals who are looking for innovative ways to generate new business leads. If that sounds like you, please come.

If you can’t attend, we’d still like to represent you at the event. Cliff Pollan, our CEO, is moderating the panel, and he’d welcome your questions, concerns and opinions in advance. What would you ask Tim Bradbury about his print media enterprise or David Meerman Scott about his recent book? How about asking Judy Gern from Constant Contact about ways video plays into their strategy or Joe Chernov from Eloqua about ways to link all this to marketing automation?

If you’d like Cliff to pose a question or broach a particular topic, please add it as a comment to this post.

As the event invite explains, unique content such as video has tremendous power to attract and convert new leads online. Because video is SEO-friendly and dynamic, many companies are using it to help generate and convert leads. But many companies still have questions that range from concerns about cost to the real conversion value. The event will address some of these questions and provide best practices for effectively using video and SEO in the press releases you distribute, whether it’s via a wire or in some other way.

We hope you’ll join us on April 27 or that you’ll send along some questions and insights for Cliff.