I recently moderated a webinar that explored online video, with an amazing trio of participants including Bart Feder from the FeedRoom, Stephen Harris from TLC, and Lee LeFever from Common Craft. It turned out to be a raging success and were flooded with questions that we didn’t have the time to answer due to time constraints, so I’m posting the responses here:

In addition to myself, we had the following speakers:

1. Bart Feder has served as The FeedRoom’s President and CEO since November 2004. Before moving into new media, Bart spent more than 20 years in broadcasting management and production, including positions as News Director at WABC-TV, the Disney/ABC flagship station in New York where he received numerous local and national journalism awards, including the prestigious DuPont-Columbia Silver Baton in 1998. Before that, Bart served as News Director for network-affiliated stations in Boston, Sacramento and Jacksonville.
2. Stephen Harris, Executive Producer, Discovery Channel/TLC, is an accomplished an award-winning producer, director and screenwriter with over 20 years of film, music video and television industry experience. He has worked in reality television, talk shows, documentaries, commercials and music videos. His projects and clients include Vera Wang, Wife Swap, Trading Spaces, The Wayans Brothers and Oprah Winfrey. In addition to producing and/or directing over 20 reality and talk shows, Stephen has also produced/directed music videos featuring Coolio, Big Pun, Ashanti, Bobby Brown and Flava Flav. Awards he has received include the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame; The Communicator Award and the Filmfest DC Rosebud Award.
3. Lee LeFever, Principal of Common Craft, has been working in a consulting capacity with online communities since 1999 and launched his consulting firm in 2003 to provide clients with assistance in social media. Since then, Lee has worked with a range of clients including Microsoft, Geffen Records, Boeing, the March of Dimes and Vocus/PRWeb! Common Craft has gained a great deal of exposure for its work explaining sophisticated Internet technologies like RSS and Wikis using short, entertaining videos in a format they call Paperworks. Recently, Vocus asked Common Craft to help us explain PRWeb – our news distribution service – using their Paperworks. The video that will be available in September.

Here we go!

Content

1. What types of videos tend to be successful on YouTube as far as length, tone, etc?

Steve: I don’t know the stats exactly, but the ones that my friends and I tend to be attracted to are the spoofs. I notice that satire of iconic pop culture topics like Star Wars, Star Trek, Harry Potter, The 300, etc. get a ridiculous amount of impressions. And things that are political and controversial also attract attention – postings like the radical racial remarks by Kramer or the current political advertisements. The fact of the matter is that life as we once knew it will never be the same with the invention of sharing videos and content in the online space. It has become the true equalizer of almost all social and economic lines of division.

Lee: I think length is a key factor, and under four minutes is a benchmark we use. People grow tired of marketing messages that don’t sound like a real person. From our perspective, the best tone is personal and fun.

Jiyan: I think shorter, more irreverent videos receive greater traction on video sharing sites like YouTube. Most tend to be three minutes or less. Jeremiah Owyang, a prominent blogger, recently posted a list of the top 10 viral videos that you can view at http://www.Web-strategist.com/blog/2007/07/31/top-10-viral-video-advertisements/.

2. How can you keep corporate videos engaging despite their often dry topic matter?

Bart: Know your audience and fit the production to the topic. Check out the videos at http://sun.feedroom.com. Servers and hardware can be a very dry topic – or a lot of fun.
Another person to learn on-line video production from is David Pogue of the New York Times. His cost of production is very low, but he makes everything very entertaining (http://pogue.blogs.nytimes.com/).

Steve: If you are the video producer and hired by the corporation, just talk to the client before hand and try to brainstorm ways in which it can be interesting. If you are the corporation, then it’s your responsibility to try to make this creative and entertaining. Yes, it’s easy to be basic and do what you’ve done before. But if you are trying to use this to generate sales and brand awareness, then spend the extra buck to hire a producer that is going to put on their thinking cap and pitch you some fabulous ways to make your corporate video more engaging.

Lee: My advice – don’t point the camera at someone and have them read a script. That is only slightly different than text. Use video to combine dynamic movement and voice. Keep the video moving. Use metaphor, symbolism and humor to surprise people. Read “Made to Stick” by Chip and Dan Heath – it was very inspirational to us.

Jiyan: That is where the creativity comes in. I think the UPS Whiteboard commercials (http://whiteboard.ups.com/) are a great example of how corporate processes can be explained in an entertaining video format. Of course, Common Craft is another great example of how relatively dry topics can be made fun and engaging.

3. Which file formats should you use for online video?

Lee: As Jiyan mentions below, if you are using a site like YouTube, your video is “transcoded” into a format for the Web – Flash – and format doesn’t matter. I had this same question recently and learned that Apple’s QuickTime (.mov) format is the standard, but most everyone can use Windows Media too. Jake Ludington’s MediaBlab is a great resource for video tech advice (http://www.jakeludington.com/).

Jiyan: If you are posting to a video sharing site, of course you won’t have to worry about this. Traditionally, if you offer your video in Windows Media Player and RealPlayer, everyone will have access. There are many noted advantages to Flash Video and QuickTime has been rapidly growing in usage of late as well.

4: Can you suggest a camera and software to make videos for those with limited experience and few resources?

Steve: Any inexpensive mini DV camera. You can pick one up for as low as $700 dollars. If you really want the ability to control iris settings, frame rates and XLR audio inputs, you will need to spend between $2,500 – $6,000. You can snag a very nice professional consumer HD for $6000. For inexpensive editing software, check out Apple. Their introductory packages like iMovie are great. If you are serious about trying to edit, then you’ll need Final Cut or Avid Express. Rather than name brands and model numbers, I recommend you visit their store in New York City called B&H Photo. If you can’t get to their store, visit their Web site, www.bhphotovideo.com.

Lee: Apple is the leader in creative software and iMovie is a great video editing platform for beginners on a Mac (and it comes free with the computer). I used Windows Movie Maker (which comes on all PCs) for a while and it was unstable – lots of crashed and issues. Adobe Premier is one of the higher-end editing tools for the PC. We use Final Cut Express for the Mac (about $300) and it’s a joy to use.

Measurement

5. How do you measure the effectiveness of your online video?

Bart: It’s critical that you get metrics to measure engagement. Getting to know how much time people spend with each story and how much time they spend watching your video overall is critical to generating a ROI. Another key metric is referrals – which gives you a sense of where your audience is coming from.

Steve: If you have posted your video on YouTube or other video share sites, tracking the performance of online video can be done by counting the impressions. For Web sites it’s a little easier to measure how many visitors you receive as well as how long they stay to surf around.

Lee: We use a lot of social indicators aside from views and hits. We watch incoming links on Technorati.com and how video impacts our Technorati rank (a measure of the # of sites linking to ours). We watch our RSS subscriber numbers to see how many new people subscribed after watching. Further, we track the # of times the page was “Dugg” for Digg.com and how many times it was bookmarked on Delicious.com.

Jiyan: Obviously, it is important to know how many people have watched and streamed your video. Beyond that, I believe the overall indicators of success are fairly subjective to the strategy and/or campaign. Indicators could involve online hits, back links, leads, etc.

6. If you use third-party sites for your video, how can you gauge traction of the video?

Lee: We count on views as the biggest indicator. Comments are a lesser factor. It’s important to understand that sites like YouTube count hits that happen in other places than youtube.com. Even though videos are shared via “players” across a number of sites like blogs, the hits still only count at the host’s site. So, when I watch a video on someone’s blog, it makes the number of views tracked by You Tube go up by 1. So, YouTube (as an example) is able to track views across the Web via its player.

Jiyan: Most video sharing sites will, at the very least, show how many people have viewed the video. I know YouTube also shows how many Web sites have linked to the video and how many click-throughs have transpired from those Web sites.

Marketing

7. What are the various ways you can let people know about your video once it has been posted to the Web?

Bart: We work with our customers on distribution from their own sites using RSS and XML feeds and making sure the metadata is available through natural search and in video search engines. As an example, if you search for HP Integrity Servers on Yahoo Video you would get this page http://video.yahoo.com/search/video?p=HP+Integrity&ei=UTF-8.

Steve: Good old fashion grass roots methods. The modern day translation for word of mouth is an email blast to friends, family and business associates. Also, social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook are cool ways to build an army of fans and colleagues. For Makeover Train we enlisted the help of PRWeb to issue a news release with embedded video. The viral buzz we received was amazing!

Lee: Share it on a number of video sites like YouTube, Blip.tv, Revver, DailyMotion, etc. Post it on your Web site and in your blog if you have one. Link to it in newsletters.

Jiyan: A PRWeb news release is always a great option because it allows you to actually embed the video in the body of your release. 

8. What are some other options besides YouTube for distributing your video online?

Lee: I like Blip.tv – they have a nice player and the video quality is better than YouTube. Vimeo.com is nice because it lets you control who can see your video. If you’d like an international presence, check out DotSub.com – it enables you to add subtitles that can then be translated by volunteers into multiple languages – an amazing service.

Jiyan: Yahoo! Video, MySpace, and Metacafe are all good considerations. Of course, you also want to consider how you can use your own online properties to distribute your online video content.

9. What would you recommend for non-profit organizations or companies on a budget who want to get involved with online video?

Steve: Just do it. Video doesn’t require money, just creativity. If your segment is entertaining, it will catch on and promote itself. There are resources out there to assist you to get started. If you have no experience and little money, check around for schools or community organizations that offer courses. They are usually inexpensive. And for those in non-profit organizations, you will probably be eligible for discounts or even free attendance. Almost all cities have local cable access stations. They teach courses and have free camera and editing equipment that you can use.

Lee: Start experimenting now. The software is free or cheap, and the camera doesn’t matter that much. There are plenty of videos that are shot with point-and-shoot cameras. Find people in your organization that are passionate about video and give them time to be creative. Don’t expect perfection, just creativity and a clear message. Be a little risky and go outside of your comfort zone.

Jiyan: I suppose one of the advantages to the video sharing sites and online video is that it levels the playing field to a great extent. All of these video sharing sites are free to use, so there are no substantial financial constraints associated with posting and sharing video from these sites. As for production, I believe that the online aesthetic is not necessarily about creating highly edited and refined products. Many of the most successful viral videos were created with consumer-grade production equipment.

10. What should corporations know before posting their video to YouTube?

Lee: YouTube, like most social sites, is a “meritocracy”. If the community deems that your video has merit, it may get a lot of views. If not, the views may disappoint. In this way, it is a good testing ground for a concept. You may get feedback that you don’t want to hear. Your video will likely get spam in the comments and input from 12-year olds excited about profanity.

Also, remember that a lot of the views don’t actually happen on the YouTube Web site. Because YouTube makes it easy to add a video to another Web site or blog, the views actually come from bloggers’ Web sites. In this case, YouTube is just the host – it is the bloggers in your niche that give the video visibility by writing a post that includes the video.

Lastly, classify and tag the video well. Some people watch for videos in specific niches and tags help them find them.

Jiyan: As with all social forms of media, there is a loss of control associated with putting your content out there. If you want to be engaged in the discussion, then you have to be prepared for both negative and positive reactions. You can hedge your bets to a great extent by making sure you are familiar with the rules and etiquette associated with an online community before you engage with it.

11. Are there considerations with a video getting viewed too many times?

Steve: There’s no such thing as bad publicity. Having a great spin-doctor on your team can be priceless. Bad publicity did wonders for the product line sales of Allen Iverson, Martha Stewart and Dave Chappelle.

Lee: The concern here is being viewed too many times – for the wrong reasons.

Jiyan: I have yet to hear of any video producer concerned about excessive usage of their video content.

Other Considerations

12. How can state government entities take advantage of video use on Web sites? Bearing in mind that as a public sector entity, they can not engage in advertising and there is always a question of appropriateness.

Lee: Educate and inform. Have a goal of making a complex issue easier to understand.

Jiyan: State government entities can produce a public service announcement and distribute it via television or radio, so why wouldn’t they be able to disseminate via the Web? I’ve seen a number of government-sponsored PSAs on video sharing sites that have received good traction.

13. How can people with disabilities get involved with online video?

Steve: There are probably resources out there to assist you in getting started. If you have no experience and little money, check around for schools or community organizations that offer these courses. They are usually inexpensive and, for those with handicaps, you will probably be eligible for discounted or free attendance. Almost all cities have local cable access stations. They teach courses and have free camera and editing equipment that you can use.

14. Would online video be useful for emergency management with a need to communicate to disaster victims in a short time, from a site with no production facilities? Would a digital strategy be useful in this type of situation?

Jiyan: I believe this was an issue brought up during the network neutrality debate as a potential benefit to creating different levels of access to Internet networks. As far as I know, the current infrastructure would not be ideal as a primary platform for emergency management.

15. How do you get around the no-ad policy at YouTube?

Steve: I see ads on YouTube all the time. I’m not sure who is policing this or what the criteria are to classify as being an advertisement. The policy must be very lenient because it is definitely not getting enforced. Life as we once new it will never be the same again. The election of our next presidential candidate is closing in quickly. Ask yourself how many political advertisements you see on television these days? Now go to YouTube and type in political advertisements and you’ll see where the campaign is being is really playing out.

Lee: I have little experience with this – it has not been an issue so far. If you look at the videos Google (YouTube’s owner) has been posting, they are very much ads for their services. An example is Google Maps Street Views: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91wuBqlny50. The only difference I can see is that these services are free.

Jiyan: I’ve heard several references to this, but have yet to see anything substantive. I’ve read through the terms of use and the community guidelines and haven’t seen anything that would prevent an organization from posting video content, provided they own that content and that it is acceptable in nature. Now, you can’t go sell advertising on YouTube, but there is no reason you can’t share your video through YouTube from what I’ve seen.