You probably didn’t even think about this possibility, but it was inevitable. I mean, people are finding new and unique ways to use video online every day.

It seems Viddler community evangelist, Colin Devroe has been putting together a WordPress plugin to allow the comments section of WordPress blogs to contain video.

Here’s a sample of what he’s put together on his own blog — with some folks already eagerly posting video comments. Interesting for sure!

Are you ready to adopt the idea? Are your readers ready to reply with video?

Well… I’m messing with Ustream.tv and CamTwist (a Mac application) to do a live broadcast today. Nothing too special, mostly just testing the limits of the system.

You might see me in action. You might see my desktop whilst I work away. Or you might just see a bunch of clips I’ve loaded up for playback.

Tune in… Today only! Too late. You missed the fun.

UPDATE: After a full afternoon of broadcasting nothing important, I have to say I’m impressed. I really liked the simplicity of Ustream, especially coupled with two Mac applications: CamTwist (which lets me pick different media sources like my web cam, my DV cam, my desktop, saved movies, or slide shows, and lets me add effects, images, text, etc… all on the fly) and Sound Flower. With Sound Flower I was able to jack my audio out, directly to my audio in so that pre-recorded movies could stream with sound over Ustream. The only bad part with Sound Flower is no “monitor” to actually hear what’s streaming. Guess I need another computer to listen in.

All in all, I had a couple dozen people pop in and out, and a few positive comments from folks who see the potential of this.

In the future, I do plan to stream some other things (and give people plenty of warning that I will be broadcasting). Today was just an experiment. Kind of fun too.

Interested? Try it out for yourself: Ustream.tv

1. Introductions

2. Presentations

3. Invitations

4. Testimonials: Customer testimonials are not only a powerful way to build trust with potential customers, but they’re a great way to reach out to your existing customers and show them that you are serious about earning one from them — it also gives you an opportunity to discuss any reasons why they might not be willing to provide you with one!

John Jantsch of Duct Tape Marketing believes that “…when a prospect reads a credible comment from another person, endorsing the promise of your marketing message, it does have an impact.”

Written testimonials are very effective, it’s true. However, by using Video testimonials, you allow potential customers to see and hear — and trust — what your existing customers have to say about you and your business.

I posted before about how video can be a great way to introduce yourself… but there is no denying the fact that an introduction by a third party is much more effective. Imagine, video testimonials allow your best customers to make introductions for you! And best of all, they can easily be shared with others at the click of a mouse — spreading them to people you may never have reached otherwise.

In a recent newspaper article, sales guru Jeffrey Gitomer said it simply, “In VIDEO format, customer testimonials are the single most powerful sales tool on the planet. They provide the proof that you can only brag about… Without video testimonials you are alone in the selling process. With them, you will have one thing the competition won’t have — the order.” (emphasis mine)

What story do your customers have to tell about you?

Additional reading:
Drew McLellan on making your clients the hero
Alfred Rocks! - by Andrew B. Clark

Next time: announcements 

Continuing my “web video focus” on the seven types of online video marketing…

1. Introductions

2. Presentations

3. Invitations: Recently I received an invitation in the mail to attend a charitable event. The invite was simple enough — date, time, location, brief mention of the reason for the event… but after reading it I was left feeling a bit puzzled regarding what the particular event was about, let alone why I should attend.

As business folks (and especially non-profits) we all periodically send out invitations to events, open houses, dinners, speaking engagements, etc. My question is, does the recipient really know why they should attend, or what to expect when they do? Do these invitations do much to inspire or excite people about the event?

In my view, it’s not really a problem of the message so much as it is the fact that the invitations are limited to one medium — print. Don’t get me wrong, I like printed invites. They’re handy. You can hang them on the fridge, or pin them on the bulletin board. Print is limited, however, to a very finite amount of space, so the message has to be very concise.

This is where I believe video can augment printed invitations, and in many cases can replace them altogether. Video invitations can do the same things paper can (who, what, when, where, why) but also improves the message in several ways:

1. Personal - Video invitations can include a very personal message from key people within the organization. Whether it be lighthearted or serious (depending on the spirit of the event) video helps the recipient make an emotional connection to the event.
2. Inspirational - Especially in regards to charity events, people want to be inspired to attend and inspired to open their checkbooks. So much more can be done to inspire attendance by using video.
3. Excitement - It’s difficult to get excited about an event by reading about it… but to visualize it — that can generate some excitement. I think you probably see my point by now… but you can show much more visually with video than with print.

Sound like it makes some sense? I’d be interested to know what you think, and would be thrilled to hear from someone who has tried it!

Next time: Testimonials

Continuing this week’s “web video focus” on the seven types of online video marketing…

1. Introductions

2. Presentations: Let’s face it. It can be difficult at best to try to explain a new product or service, especially if it’s totally new or really different than what people are used to. In addition, static web pages are not very effective at describing these things, and although adding photos and illustrations helps, it still takes a fair amount of a reader’s time and effort to absorb it all — which they are unlikely to do in today’s market of short attention spans!!

What can we do about that? Yup. Online video presentations.

Presentations of the video sort are very effective at quickly describing things that take too many words and pictures to make sense. They can be quite diverse too! Here are a few examples: Demonstrating your products, showing your team in action performing one of your services, explaining the importance of a particular feature or problem, training seminars… I could go on and on here, but I think you should be able to see some of the possibilities.

One of the things I try to encourage people to think about is the stuff they know about their particular field of expertise, and how they might re purpose that information to their audience as a helpful way to start a conversation. By turning your knowledge into short video clips, you showcase yourself as an expert, help others learn something new, and plant the seeds of new relationships (potential customers).

Presentations don’t have to be long or complicated to be effective, either. I have been working with Mike Sansone of ConverStations.com to get some of his great blogging tips on video. Here’s one on “blogging to the fringe” that only took a few minutes to shoot, and a few minutes to edit. It’s very simple, but effective!

Think about this. Online video presentations reach people 24 hours a day — while you work — and while you sleep. Can you think of a better way to connect with people, short of actually having a one-on-one in-person conversation? I can’t. So let’s all get started! The world is waiting to watch and learn!!

Next time: invitations