Video Shmideo

There's no doubt, online video consumption is booming. According to comScore, a company that measures digital trends, "174 million U.S. Internet users watched online video content in March (2011) for an average of 14.8 hours per viewer. The total U.S. Internet audience engaged in more than 5.7 billion viewing sessions during the course of the month." (comScore, http://www.comscore.com/Press_Events/Press_Releases/2011/4/comScore_Releases_March_2011_U.S._Online_Video_Rankings?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+comscore+%28comScore%2C+Inc.%29)
ComScore also reports Americans watch 4.3-billion ads in March.

But just because a lot of people produce videos doesn't mean you should jump on the bandwagon.

The second commandment in the Watch Out for Vlogs (Video Create) chapter of The Social Media Bible says "Thou Shalt create a video."

One of my commandments is "Think it over long and hard before you create a video."

There's a lot of really bad videos out. For every hilarious Old Spice guy commercial, there are a million poorly shot videos of cats doing crazy things.

The reason I say that is because I constantly hear clients say, "I want a video" and after discussing the idea, they realize they don't really know WHAT they want. Here are some of my tips for deciding if you should put the time and energy into a video.

• Who is the audience? We often get requests for videos that will appeal to students, alumni and parents. Those are different audiences with different concerns and you simply can't make one video that will work for all audiences.
• How will the video be used? Is it going on-line? Are you showing it an event? Are you inserting it in a power point? The "how" will help answer questions about length, content and delivery.
  
• What do you want to happen as a result of the video? Do you want to drive people to your website? Send you money? Be specific about your goals.
• How do you want people to feel after they watch the video? The best videos trigger emotion: laughter, excitement, chills. That's what you're after. If you want to simply provide information, you probably want a brochure, not a video.

It's true that prices of equipment and ease of shooting and editing video make it possible for amateurs to produce videos. But that's no excuse for bad video. Here are a few rookie mistakes that should be avoided at all costs.

• Don't make it too long. You won't get many people to sit through something that is over 3 minutes. The shorter the better.
• Make sure you have good lighting and good audio. If your subject is in the dark and trying to shout over the wind, no one will watch your video.
• Spend time planning and writing. "Winging it" is never a good strategy.