The Digital Handshake: Seven Proven Strategies to Grow Your Business Using Social Media

Chapter 11. Lights! Camera! Action! Use Online Video to Market Your Business

YouTube was just the beginning. Now it's accompanied by sites like ooVoo, seesmic, Revver, Viddler, Kyte, Vimeo, and Fliqz, and the list just keeps growing. People are flocking to their computers to watch television programs on demand on sites like Hulu, Miro, and Joost. There is a constant stream of live video on Ustream, Stickam, and Justin.tv. And let me not forget video delivered via iTunes on portable devices like iPods and iPhones.

Video is everywhere we want it to be and available on demand when we choose to consume it. All of this points to the fact that, more than any other technology, including social networks, online video is the next killer app of the Web. The future of the Internet is video.

THE SMALL-CAMERA REVOLUTION

In the past, if you wanted to make a video for your business, you had to hire a production company or ad agency (who, in turn, hired the production company), spend tens of thousands of dollars, and, as often as not, end up with a product much different than you expected. Edits and retakes were costly, so you often had to settle for less than what you had hoped for.

This is no longer the case. Now, with a small, inexpensive camcorder and low-cost (or even free) video-editing software, you can create your own videos at a fraction of the cost. In fact, you can purchase easy-to-use, hand-held, ...