Video for business has become a powerful way to inform, entertain and educate and videos channels like YouTube – the second largest search engine on the planet after Google – provide answers to questions in a visual format. Type in keywords or a search terms like “how to” and someone is delivering an answer. Not all are good answers or complete answers, but it’s easy to keep searching – right?

There’s your opportunity. Can you provide an interesting and complete answer to a customer’s question? You can also include your brand and links to your website – bonus!

You can create video that tells your businesses’ story. This video does not have to be epic or highly produced, but good video does need to follow some rules:

• Focus on decent lighting on your subject and be aware of your sound. If you don’t use a microphone, try to do your video capture in a small room without a lot of hard surfaces to minimize the echo effect.  Good audio is essential to making your video watchable.
• Create a simple script to keep you on topic and make the most efficient use of time.
• Get to the point quickly.  Don’t waste the viewer’s time with long introductions or animations. Save your branding for the end (and the video description and tags).
• Keep the final edited video relatively short.  I try to keep it around 3 minutes. If the subject is lengthy, consider a series of short videos that would link to each other.
• Invest in video editing software to clean up and enhance your product. Best are Final Cut, Adobe Premiere and Avid; simpler and lower cost is Sony Vegas.  Even Windows Movie Maker 2012 (free) can produce simple videos with a soundtrack, captions and credits.
• You need to host your video somewhere so upload to YouTube, Vimeo or other hosting sites. Don’t forget to write a detailed description, a solid headline with a keyword that someone might use in a search, and tags that best describe what the video is about. The keywords and tags will help searchers (customers) find your video in search results. You’d be surprised how many good videos have little or no description.
• Include your website URL in your video description (www.mywebsite.com) at the very beginning.  This hyperlink will show up in the short view so that it can be clicked on immediately if the viewer wants to know more about your business.

The key is molding raw video into something meaningful and useful. When you’ve created good video you have created evergreen content – permanent, eye-catching and sharable messaging about your business. Video is an easy introduction to your products and services that can be delivered in an email, anchored on your website or linked to your social media channels

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The hardest part about setting up the Cloud was getting it to install properly on the Mac.  The Adobe Installer detects upgrades and downloads them to your machine.  But for some reason the download would not install on the Mac.  It was pretty frustrating.  By researching support communities and finally I ended up creating a new profile and somehow that made the Adobe Installer work.  So I have to choose a profile at start up, but that is the only change.

Membership in the Creative Cloud is discounted for a year for current Adobe CS customers ($30).  Next year the annual subscription will renew at the regular price ($50), which I still think is reasonable for being able to work on the most current version.  Lots of opportunity with play and create!  Love working in the Cloud!

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I’ve always admired scouts and especially the ones that stay with the program and earn their Eagle Scout rank.  So when I heard that one of our high school theater tech students was planning an Eagle project, I was intrigued.  But when I heard that he wanted to design and construct a memorial for his fellow students that tragically lost their lives, I thought that was a great undertaking for a young kid.  Yet Greg Hall provided the leadership, and with the help of volunteers, he coordinated with the city of Sylvania, Ohio to secure space in a park, raised funds to help with the cost of construction and put in many hours to build a beautiful gazebo in a quiet park for the community to reflect and remember.

The Sylvania Youth Memorial was officially dedicated on September 1, 2012. The family and friends of the lost students came to thank Greg for his efforts.  I luckily brought my camera and was able to create the story of the event.  It was a story that needed to be told.  It was my thank you and my good turn for a Eagle Scout extraordinaire – Greg Hall.

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Momsen was a star high school athlete in the Toledo area in the late 1940s that went on to play for Ohio State and eventually the NFL.  He was famous for his role in the 1950 Snow Bowl, in which Ohio State played their rivals, Michigan during outrageous blizzard conditions.  The match up was unique in that Bob played against his brother Tony, who started for Michigan.  Both brothers had a major role in the outcome of the game. Bob recovered a blocked Wolverine kick. and brother, Tony of Michigan blocked a Buckeye punt and fell on it in the end zone for a touchdown that won the game for Michigan 9 to 3.

Combining old media, old video and Flip video, a loving tribute was made for the family and a short 3 minute snippet was made for the Bob Momsen Scholarship Fund featured on the alumni website.  And I found out that Bob Momsen was a pretty special guy, even if he was a Buckeye.

The Alumni Association said this:

I know it was a challenge working  with only audio recordings of our dearly departed friend.  Additionally, you overcame the difficulties of pulling together photos from various family members as well as making the effort to travel out of town to secure video of our narrator Jack Park for the introduction as well as his voice over for the famous “Snow Bowl” section.  You overcame these challenges with aplomb and produced a first-rate video that was moving for the entire family and all the friends of our wonderful Buckeye brother, Bob.

We are all pleased with the product and genuinely grateful to have this fine tribute to Bob that will live on in the future as our Momsen Scholarship grows and its disbursements assist Lucas County students who attend OSU for generations to come.

Rocky Roemer, Director

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What’s great about Wildcard games is that two of lower ranked teams win a chance to advance to the conference semi-finals to play against one of the top 2 teams in their conference.  In a sense it allows the little guy a chance at the big dance.  To move to the ultimate goal – reach the Super Bowl.

Think about your wildcard.  Could it be video?  Is it time to pull something out of your bag of talent to play against the competition?  Telling your business story can gain yards and score points with your audience.  The beauty of YouTube and Vimeo is that it is so easy to share on social platforms and link up in emails.  Your small little video can have just as much impact as the traditional marketing the big guys use.  How many times is a tv commercial skipped over with a DVR or  direct mail marketing piece tossed?  Online video can be tracked with analytics.  You are able to know if it connects or not.  Plus your audience has the opportunity to make comments and start a conversation.

Who says the wildcard team can’t win it all?  Consider how video can become part of  your playbook!

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For other things besides creativity, I think early mornings are the best time to exercise (you are done for the day), eat a big meal (you have all day to burn it off), and meditate or pray (you feel more connected).  I read a study that said early risers are called larks while late nighters are called owls.  Just the visual of a lark versus an owl tells me I am on the right path.  The early bird gets the churn, I’d say.  How about you?

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OK, so you’ve decided to cook up  a video for your blog or business.  You have the basic ingredients to get started: video camera, good lighting and decent sound. That’s the easy part.  The hard part is deciding what you want to tell your viewers. That’s the good stuff that goes inside your video to make it taste good for your audience. The question you must ask yourself is “why is someone going to watch this?”  Your video has to provide answers to a question that someone is searching for online. Anticipate what your audience might want to hear from you or your business.

Here are the ingredients to go inside your video omelet:

Answers. Many folks will stumble on videos that don’t get to the point.  How many times have you bounced out of a video because the introduction takes so darn long?  When I’m in search mode, I’m looking for the answer right at the beginning of the video. Don’t waste my time with unnecessary introductory talk.

Branding. I believe that a logo provides an additional visual peg to identify you.  People may not remember your face, but they might remember your logo.  It’s worth designing something that can be used in video as well as on other marketing materials.  Along with your logo, you need to show contact info of your website. Show this at the end of the video, show it at the beginning, show it in both spots, but don’t make it too long.  Remember what’s in the middle is what counts.

Personality. Try to explain your subject with a bit of flair.  That is the entertainment part of the video that makes it sing. Remember to relax and be yourself, but add some inflection and avoid monotone in your delivery.

Punch. In the editing process, add graphics, text or photos to help emphasize the topic or answers.  Seeing these elements helps add variation to a straight shot.

Keep these ingredients in mind and you can serve up great video for your blog or business.

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My client, Joan Canning, who is an Human Resource Advocate and Consultant wanted to do a video about harassment, since it is becoming topical in the HR management field.  Being a busy businessperson, she only had an hour or so.  We were able to put together enough content while sitting in my back office.  Within a day we had something up on her website and to share on her Twitter and Facebook page.  That is the beauty of one take video.

From my experience, here are some suggestions for a good video shoot:

1. Talk slower than you would normally.  Give folks a chance to absorb what you are saying.
2. Don’t worry if you screw up.  Take a breath and just do it again.  I can clean up a lot in the editing process.
3. When you finish your thought or presentation on camera, hold a pause for a few seconds. Too many times, I’ve had to do creative editing because someone blurted out right after they finished “was that good?”
4. Take a deep breath and relax and try to be yourself.  People will like you because you are not trying to be professional spokesperson.  Be real.

This year will be a big year for video.  Think about what you could say about your expertise and your brand.  The world is always ready for a new star!

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These days seem to be full of opportunities to show off your goods.  I have been doing designing and video editing for the past few years and have always had a problem with second guessing my work.  I have always wanted to be an artist and now that I have the time to do just that, I pause when presenting my work.  It is that fear factor that we have about affirmation.  I want to please my client and be told that my creative work is good.  But then I look at the works on YouTube and other sites and marvel how so many people will post absolutely anything and not even think about the fact that it is there for the world to see and judge.  I think about that term ‘the world to see and judge” and I tend to refrain from posting things unless they have been vetted by my husband, kids, cat etc…

I admire how kids naturally turn to the web for communication and affirmation.  It is their first option for crowd sourcing ideas.  I see many of my clients and friends hesitate to use social media or the web to showcase their talents.  It is essential that we don’t miss the opportunities available.

Am I missing the boat, or am I rightfully cautious?   Or is being spontaneous a good thing?  I believe I can be both.  The advantage I have is  my years of experience in creating designs that people like, the hurdle will be to trust my gut instinct and post more online.  The goal for me this year is to just create and not let the world dictate my fear.

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From 2009

The first videos created were simple. He would set the camera up and capture each take of himself singing the four parts of a barbershop arrangement (lead, tenor, baritone and bass). Using his sound editing software, he would then create a multitrack using each sound track blended together and then sync the sound up to the four video takes arranged in a 4 part split screen. Adam was purist about the sound. Babershop singing has always been about vocals and blending harmonies, he refused to alter or improve the sound with software or auto tuning. When he finally posted his videos, the voices were pure, the quality of video was mediocre but the results were were pretty amazing. One of his first videos, “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” has over 16,000 views.

The lesson learned for me is great video content will hit its mark regardless is the video quality. What shines through is simplicity and love. Adam is now a junior at Ohio University majoring in media communications. He still loves to sing and has improved his videos since his beginnings. He created a multitrack on New Year’s Eve and its energy will inspire me as we begin a new year of video adventures.

For 2012

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Recently, I had two opportunities to help two school districts. Both the Springfield Local School District and the Washington School District participated in a year-long wellness program to promote healthy options with their staff. Both districts needed to present a summary of their programs to their school boards, employees and most important, their sponsor, who provided dollars.

The first district approached me about creating a video. I suggested they borrow my FLIP video camera and shoot testimonials from their employees on how successful they were in achieving their goals with the program. I provided basic camera instructions (don’t shoot into the sun, try shooting outside, get close to your speaker etc.). Two weeks later they returned the camera and unfortunately, I discovered that I probably should had given even more detailed camera instructions. Most of the video was shot in low light, in wind and the FLIP camera was held sideways like an old Kodak Instamatic rather than vertically as designed. Yikes!

Faced with this dilemma, I decided to grab the best nuggets that were there. I decided that since the quality was lousy, why not use old time film effects to disguise the flaws? I was able to make something informative and entertaining from files that might have been tossed. The results brought applause from the audience at the year end meeting.

Lemons lead to Wellness

Only a few days later, I was shown a video file that was a compilation of video clips that were shot by another school district’s high school media class. I believe intentions were to make something entertaining to show the school board. However, the editors must had lost interest, because it ended up being 17 minutes of clips stitched together with 30 seconds of video editing. The Wellness Coordinator asked if there was anything I could do. She was pleased with my previous effort. Could I do it again in 24 hours?

Once again, I sat down with my editing software and started chopping. What I’ve learned over the years is that people have short attention spans. Say your message, be quick, be entertaining and get out. I took the best statements and used photos and graphics to disguise some of the breaks in clips. The result was maybe a bit choppy in spots, but had much more impact. The Wellness Coordinator was extremely happy and once more MrElshMedia saved the day.

Everybody loves lemonade. Send me your lemons and let me create something refreshing.

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