Putting videos on your website, or on external sites like YouTube, is a way to add pizzazz to your online marketing and be on the leading edge. 

A video can boost your SEO ranking and the popularity of your company and products, which is why so many marketers hope to score a hit by going viral on YouTube.

As Daryn Zack of Total Traffic Source relates, “Video marketing is one of the hottest marketing tools on the net right now. If you don’t have a video working for you on some of the most popular video sites out there, you are missing major traffic and exposure.”

What types of video might you post or circulate? Tutorials, product demos, engaging commentary on issues in your field, either serious or humorous, are possibilities.

Video, however, is an order of magnitude more difficult than posting an image or blog to your website.  While some small businesses may have that rare employee with a knack for recording, converting, editing, and posting a video, most small businesses lack the necessary technical and artistic ability.

For those willing to try, tutorials abound on how to create and post videos.  However, the tutorials only seem to highlight the complexity of creating online video, which involves digesting and choosing among a bevy of tools, techniques, and formats—then mastering those tools and techniques.

The alternative to rolling your own is to engage a professional video service. These can be found by searching online under “video services,” “corporate video services,” etc., and locating firms in your area. Some video agencies require you to call to discuss pricing, while others freely publish their pricing. The cost of a 60-second video typically ranges from $300 to $400, with a 90-second video in the $600 to $700 range.

These prices are certainly affordable, and for many resource-challenged small businesses will be the best way to go.

Comparz provides user reviews and rankings of software services and tools for small and mid-sized businesses. Click here to view Comparz' business software reviews and rankings.

Texas governor Rick Perry experienced what could be his “macaca” moment last night when he could not recall one of three government agencies he vowed to eliminate.

As The New York Times reported, “It remains an open question whether Mr. Perry will be able to move beyond the moment, particularly given that the video was already looping around the Internet and television broadcasts.”

Perry’s faux pas once again demonstrates the power of online video to giveth and taketh away.

Internet video killed George Allen’s 2006 Virginia senate campaign when he was caught on camera attacking an opposition Democratic campaign worker with the “macaca” slur.

Similarly, Vermont governor Howard Dean’s 2004 presidential campaign disintegrated after clips of his “Yaah!” rally scream went viral.  

Companies as well as candidates today are one slip and a viral video away from disaster. This lesson was learned the hard way by the likes of Dominos Pizza (when employees posted a video doing disgusting things in a Dominos kitchen) and United Airlines (when a musician issued a “United Breaks Guitars” video after his request for reimbursement for his guitar damaged by baggage handlers was repeatedly denied).  

To counter these episodes, social media damage control, including viral video response, is now a formal discipline practiced by many corporate PR teams.  

Dominos was able to rehabilitate its reputation by issuing a video response from its president, and indeed, the company began employing video to its advantage, achieving the 10th-ranked video of 2010 through self-deprecating humor that featured U.S. customers explaining why they didn’t like Dominos old pizza recipe.

Employing YouTube videos for viral marketing was pioneered by companies like Blendtec with its famous “Will It Blend?” series. Today, having a video go viral is something marketers routinely strive for, and achieving one is the equivalent of hitting a home run.

Like Billboard top-100 albums, we now have viral video rankings from sources like “Top Viral Video Ad Campaigns of the Week” by Ad Age, the Viral Video Chart on Mashable, the Top Viral Videos on Marketingcharts.com, and The Web’s Most Shared Viral Videos on viralvideo.com.

A look at these lists shows that, like social media in general, a viral Internet video can be a positive or negative force, a two-edged sword that can sweep a company to victory or cut it off at the knees.

Comparz provides user reviews and rankings of software services and tools for small and mid-sized businesses. Click here to view Comparz' business software reviews and rankings.

Aren’t we all looking for ways to increase our productivity at work?  One simple way is to use video more.

Here are three great ways that video can improve your business productivity:

1. Videoconferencing.  If you haven’t started to use videoconferencing, you should.  The easiest way to do a one-on-one video conference is to use Skype.  It’s free and it’s a fabulous way to have a face-to face-conversation without leaving your desk.  If you have a larger group, there are plenty of web conferencing solutions that are not too expensive.  The top-5 web conferencing solutions Comparz.com has reviewed include: Join.me, WebEx, GoToWebinar, LotusLive, and Adobe Connect.  User reviews of these 5 tools are listed here.

2. Interviewing.  Interviewing of any type is so crucial to your business success.  Interviewing is an enormous time sink, yet it is so crucial to the success of your business.  This includes hiring team members, hiring contractors, or hiring vendors of any type.  There is a great new tool called TaketheInterview.com that can assist with all of these situations, using video to improve interviewing results and save time.  Taketheinterview.com is extremely easy to use and allows you to decide which questions you want your candidates to respond to.  Then the candidates can video their answers using their own simple video cam on their computers and provide you with an easy, quick way to narrow the playing field. 

3. Sales and Customer Support.  An informative video on your website can eliminate a ton of questions funneled to your sales or customer service lines.  You don’t have to spend thousands of dollars to produce the video.  Use screen capture technologies such as Jing by Techsmith.  Create a simple video explaining how your product works or why a user would use it.  Then you can host it on YouTube and embed it in your site (very easily).  Answering common sales and support questions via video can reduce the time your sales and support personnel spend answering simple questions and allow them to focus on more value-added activity, thereby improving your business results dramatically.

Comparz provides user reviews and rankings of software services and tools for small and mid-sized businesses. Click here to view Comparz' business software reviews and rankings.