Bob Johnson's Blog on Internet Marketing

Nancy Schwartz, who writes a fine blog at http://www.gettingattention.org/ about marketing and not-for-profit organizations, is gathering the thoughts of various marketing consultants about the role of video in online marketing. That question fits right in with my recent post listing several college presidents who have videos on YouTube and with various uses of video I've found on college websites over the past year.

And so here are my speculative thoughts based on what I've seen so far:

• The spread of broadband access in the home is making it easy for people to access video on their home computers. Broadband access is in large part responsible for the tremendous growth in YouTube, at a much higher rate than other social networking sites.
• Comcast, Yahoo, and similar websites have already made video an everyday expectation for websites. When people visit the websites of non-profit organizations, including colleges and universities, they will expect to find video used to help "tell the tale" of the organization.
• What kind of videos? Best are real examples of the organization at work building houses or saving animals or improving water quality or helping orphans or placing students in internship experiences.
• What videos won't work well? Don't spend time having your president or CEO or volunteer head filmed reading the equivalent of a "message from the president" or "our mission statement" or anything else that isn't "real" information that interests real people outside your organization. As with any effective content on the web, videos are best produced with the interests of the external audience in mind, rather than those within the organization.
• Invest in quality production. You'll find great and horrible videos on YouTube. You definitely want to be as near to the "great" end of the scale as resources permit. Just like the photography used in print publications, this isn't a place for amateur efforts.

Let me close with three examples of strong video use in higher education that can be adapted for any not-for-profit organization:

• Boston University uses videos on the home page at http://www.bu.edu/ under the heading of "Learn More about Boston University" to let faculty, students, and staff introduce academics, social life, and the Boston area to visitors. Much better than the usual "About Us" content on college websites.
• At the University of North Carolina, the Kenan-Flagler Business School at http://www.kenan-flagler.unc.edu/programs/emba/advance/roi.cfm uses video to let students talk about how they advance their careers. This is a good examples of "story telling" content that's more effective delivered in video than written out as text.
• Don't be too serious. Check this video from the president at Dickinson College on how to tie a bowtie at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unmiqRbEIUc (Dickinson has an elaborate plan for the use of video on YouTube that you'll find at http://www.dickinson.edu/news/video/)