Show and tell

Of the social media tools, YouTube is one that offers a new, different, affordable and useful marketing channel.

Telling a story on video can add greatly to showcasing products and interviewing satisfied customers who are endorsing your products. So why are many b-2-b companies slow to utilise this great communications channel? There are many online video sites, but YouTube seems to be the leader and allows companies - well anyone really - to present and share their movie content online. Founded in February 2005 and bought by Google for $1.65 billion in November 2006 it is also not surprisingly given the ownership,  an important channel for search results. It offers a useful technology platform that neatly solves many production and delivery problems of the past.  Back in the 1970s VHS had won the format battle over Betamax as the de-facto market standard and marketing departments experimented with video in various ways. But production was then expensive. Cameras were expensive. Creative capability was expensive. Talent was expensive. So was post production, packaging, duplication and all the other stuff that had to be done, because most companies were aiming to produce broadcast standard work. And the reason they needed high quality material is because that was what people expected. It was what they were used to on their television at home as it was through the domestic television/VCR combination that customers would need to view the company video. Oh and because you had to hire cameramen, actors and some production crew the videos were quite long and of course had to compete with more compelling content served up by broadcasters. So video never really gained traction as a standard b-2-b marketing tool - it was an indulgence, a luxury.

But so much has happened since then. You no longer need the family VCR and TV to view content - more likely video content will be consumed on a PC, laptop, tablet or smart phone. Viewers are used to programme material that is user produced thanks to the popularity of reality TV. Cameras are more forgiving about lighting levels and quality and most people own one as well. To sum up - creation of content, delivery to users and options for users to view have created an opportunity to reconsider video. In fact not using video as a marketing tool is to pass up on a great communications opportunity.

Video allows products to be demonstrated to show functionality that static images would otherwise struggle to convey. It is also useful to to show how products are installed, or can be used as a service guide. Video for PR is taking off too through interviews, showing recent projects or explaining new ideas. Of the new social media sites YouTube provides a convenient means to get today's inexpensive video content online and distributed.