Rethinking Online Video

from National Arts Marketing Project:

Rethinking Online Video: Content Matters

Six years after YouTube launched, many marketing professionals are still grappling with how to use online video. Social media experts promise a global audience of millions and the potential of viral marketing … it is all very enticing. Yet, many organizations that have eagerly posted videos have met with disappointment instead of Internet fame. Something isn’t working.

Despite all the excitement about online video as a marketing tool, a key detail has been conspicuously absent from most discussion: substance and content. This situation is reminiscent of the early days of the Internet boom, when the medium overshadowed content, and organizations and businesses rushed to get online with little apparent thought about what to actually put on their new websites. Eventually, the medium matured and most organizations today put considerable thought into the content and functionality of their websites. With billions of videos online, it is long past time that the conversations about web video move in a similar direction. So what’s next?