[Brian Linton]

After doing a ton of research about online media and ways to promote your website brand and personal brand...I decided to start an online video show about entrepreneurship.

I'm calling the show 'The Entrepreneur Road Show' and it will air every Tuesday on brianlinton.com.

I wanted to start this forum to ask you all if you believe whether or not video is the future of online promotion, and whether or not you are more influenced by video than you are by static images or text. Are you?

So what do you think? Is video the future of the Internet?


Cheers,
Brian Linton

In the meantime, please check out the first episode of my online show, and let me know what you think of it: Nothing to Lose » The Entrepreneur Road Show Episode 1.1 - Elephants and Art

[DrMoney]

**********Clap*************8

[iVideoLocal]

Here are a few quotes to support how powerful online video is for your business.

Of the 80% of viewers who had watched an online video ad, just over half had taken some sort of action. Nearly a third had checked out a Web site, while 22% had searched for more information, 15% had gone into a store and 12% had actually made a purchase. * Source: OPA

Here is another that compares stand alone text ad and audio ad to video:

Did you know that people remember just 20% of what they hear and 30% of what they see, but a powerful 70% of what they hear and see? Video advertising has overnight become a necessary advertising medium, marketing, and communication tool for your businesses.

The shame has been that small local companies have not been able to take advantage of online ad campaigns but now we can! We have all seen the large companies video ads online.

We look forward to watching your road show.

[Brian Linton]

Thanks for the great stats iVideoLocal.

I just further developed this topic into a full article about online video and how launching my show has initially effected my websites traffic. I've also used one of the statistics you gave here and made a link back to this forum from my site.

For all of you that want to see that article it is right here: Nothing to Lose » Video is Essential for Online Promotion – Why I Started Using Video Online


Cheers,
Brian

[JohnPetrozzi]

I completely agree with you Brian. I think video media, is not only the future for promotion but i believe not to far from now it will be the standard for almost everything. phone communication I believe will switch to all video style, I mean look at all you can do with a cell phone right now! Video is the future errr well I guess it cant be the future if it's technically already here.

[JohnPetrozzi]

Also as a little ad-on to that. My brother works more on the executive side of the music industry and one of his DJ's is getting into music video mash ups at clubs and events to go along with the music. Pretty cool stuff, very difficult to pull off, but if done properly makes clubs even more energetic.

[TheBigIdea]

yea it is the future. interactive video is the next mashup of this - basically a whole package where the user gets to do what he/she wants.

[greggomatic76]

Absolutely, video is not the future...it is now. If we are yet to integrate video into our marketing and sales plans I'm afraid we're already behind.

As far as whether or not we think we are influenced by video over static content...the answer is...there is really no way to truly know how much you are influenced. We may think we can tell when we are influenced and when we are not, but that is not a very accurate question to ask someone to answer about themselves.

[orentodoros]

I can talk to you about SeoVice.com which is my New Media Daily video blog, I wanted to reach an audience across multiple video sites since I knew that that's where they would be spending most of their free time, so they were looking for something informative and fun to watch. I post on almost all video sites through Tubemogul.com which is an easy broadcaster of video. Seovice episode 24: People are not traffic went absolutly viral with over 22k views. So video is for the masses, once you leverage your videos+Microblogs+Forums. You're reaching a massive audience.

[Britt Raynor]

Video is definitely the future. Right now Google is putting a lot of weight on video so you have the ability to get good rankings if the targeting is done correctly.

There are a number of video hosting sites as well as podcast sites, podcast directories, blogs, social bookmarking sites, etc where your video can be hosted.

We have found that creating a clear, concise and compelling video message works great for gaining qualified customers. This works the best for small businesses searching for local customers.

Typically the websites for local businesses are not as rich in content as an online business so it is easier to penetrate the top 10 rankings.

With an online business there is usually more content on the websites so it may take targeting longer tail keywords to get similar results.

[SophieM]

I love video on websites, it makes the site seem a lot more informative and like there's a real person behind it.

However, I think it only works for some types of sites, for example your blog Brian, I love the video series you are doing. On the website GetLaunched I also think it works well because it is essentially what they are offering and demonstrates it in a real life setting.

However, if it was a local book shop website, I really don't think video promotion would help, because the audience (in my opinion) isn't there.

Sophie
FindCollege.info

[Britt Raynor]

You are totally right. People need to be searching for what it is you have to offer, as if they were looking in the yellow pages.

The thing is, people don't use the yellow pages anymore, they are searching on the internet for local products and services.

When they do, they are more likely to call a chiropractor after seeing his video with an exclusive offer than they would after clicking on his website (assuming he could break into the top 10) and finding out it looks like all the other chiropractor websites.

Any type of business (Plumbers, Electricians, Lawyers, Locksmiths, Insurance Agents, etc.) looking for local customers and who spend money on Adwords know the value of being on the first page of Google. These are the businesses that benefit from a video offer due to the retention rate video has and trust factor. People trust the organic results over the paid ads.

[graymkt]

Video is Definitely Now I use it on all of my sites.....

[The Stealthy One]

Brian, I caution against the belief that online video is a substitute for basic online marketing components such as textual keywords. However, you are right in that online video can be a great influencer in the online world.

Just bear in mind that when it comes time to buy, video won't help much. It turns people on to you, but you must use "text and images" to actually close the sale.

[TylerBakerllc]

Viral video is a tool for marketing... The same as email is a tool for marketing... The same as a forum is a tool for marketing... And so on.

I agree with The Stealthy One... No marketing tool by itself is a substitute for another. You must combine all methods to really harness the true potential.

-Tyler