There’s only difference between me and the pros—they know how to do all of that consistently, and I don’t.

This seems like a great analogy to illustrate one of the more common trends in video production. Without exaggeration, in the last two weeks I have met four people who claim to be “independent filmmakers”…and these are not people I work with in my industry. It seems that today, everyone is a filmmaker, and with the affordability of a Mac laptop and Final Cut, you will soon be hard pressed to take a ride on the train and not sit next to someone who believes themselves to be the next Scorsese.

Recently, a school teacher friend of mine proudly showed me a video he had made. He had managed to use every single transition and stock visual effect that came with his editing system. I couldn’t help but laugh at the randomness of it all. It resembled what I can only imagine Dr. Frankenstein would have created had he been a video editor. Ironically, some of the effects really did work well with the footage he had. But the others…not so much. And therein lies the difference between the Pros and the Joes.

What is truly surprising is that this do-it-yourself video approach is not only being produced in homes all over the world, but in businesses as well. What I am finding more and more is that businesses are deciding to give the “pro-sumer” platforms—and “expertise”—a chance. Of course you shouldn’t expect to see the next Super Bowl spot created with Premier Elements, but you are beginning to see a great number of companies buying a camera and software and assigning an intern the task of creating videos for internal use. While certainly economical, this is, often as not, a recipe for inadequate and ineffective video (and a frustrated intern).

Please understand, this is not a critique of any “creative services” department your company may have. Some of the most impressive work I have ever seen has been produced internally at certain corporations. To be fair, your internal department often has a better understanding of what might work for your internal audience than an outside agency. There are many times, however, that it makes more sense for your message, your medium, and your brand identity to allow an outside agency to create professional video to support your brand.

A few short years ago it was quite common, particularly in the larger corporations, for companies to invest heavily in professionally-produced, high-end internal video. This might include an internally streamed message from the CEO, an online training series or even a keepsake DVD of the company holiday party. You still often see high-end, professional video for some brand and product launches, and many company-wide initiatives. But in these days of smaller wallets and tighter belts, individual departments are becoming more likely to go the more cost-effective route of in-house video production.

So what has triggered this? Beyond economic concerns, a big factor is probably the popularity of online video services like YouTube. I heard a client recently use the term “YouTube-like” when referring to a style of video. It took a little while for what he meant to sink in. The “style” he was referring to was grainy, poorly lit video, and weak audio …but with highly creative content. I totally get the content side of it, but it was quite surprising to discover this new acceptability for lower production/post-production quality. Professionals in the television industry have been saying for years that “content is king.” And maybe the shifting economy and newer distribution structures are finally validating that.

It’s also really easy to become captivated by the prospect of millions of people watching the video you created on a shoestring budget, loving it, and sharing it with others. Still, how much audio and visual quality are businesses really willing to sacrifice? After all, all you’re usually going to get from a shoestring budget is…well, shoestrings.

To me, the decision of which direction to take and how much to invest in video solutions centers on how closely your brand is attached to the video you are creating. For instance, filming your own video of the company’s Oktoberfest celebration is probably a perfect opportunity to cut some financial corners. However, when it comes to your brand identity, quality should never be jeopardized. Whether it is a video used for training or recruitment, or an internal announcement for a new product launch, it’s essential to make the investment in acquiring the best footage…and creating a high quality video worthy of your brand.

Just think about how important this difference can be in an application like a training video series, where information retention is critical. This is certainly not the time for bland content and less-than-impressive audio and visuals. Working with an agency will certainly give you access to professional audio and visuals. But more than that, an agency can give you a professional, objective and strategic assessment of your content, messaging and visual cohesion. Finally, an agency can also help you develop processes for measuring results to gauge the effectiveness of your video.

I do believe there is a place for the “YouTube-like” videos in businesses. You are already seeing many businesses looking to this format to market themselves. Understand that creating effective viral video and using it in your marketing plan is still not a job for the inexperienced. Agencies around the world are becoming masters at how to do this effectively, and unless you have this kind of experience in-house, you will likely be much more pleased with the results by allowing an agency the opportunity to elevate your brand. Besides, I’m sure the interns you were going to use to create your video will be more than happy to carry your golf bag for you and shave strokes off your scorecard. Hit ‘em straight.

Eric Pound

As an Executive Producer, Eric is responsible for the direction and development of StudioNorth’s audio and video solutions. With experience ranging from news broadcasting to national advertising, Eric brings the ability to deliver high-end media experiences with the urgency and attention to detail that clients demand. In addition to broadcast work, Eric also has credits in several documentaries and award-winning short films. Since joining the StudioNorth team in 2005, Eric has played a leading role in understanding current and developing trends in viral marketing, social networking and user-created content, and how they impact B2B marketing initiatives.

Web distribution of video is certainly nothing new. For as long as I’ve had an email account, people have been forwarding me videos that I, in turn, share with others. The creation of sites like YouTube didn’t introduce us to web video, it simply relocated it. Now almost anybody — from major studios looking to repurpose their content, amateur filmmakers looking to be discovered, or teenagers with a camera phone recording their friend playing Guitar Hero — has the opportunity to not only distribute their content, but to receive feedback through metrics, user ratings and viewer comments. But even access that’s this easy to come by hasn’t drastically altered viewer behavior and media consumption. People have always talked about television shows, commercials, and movies around the office water cooler, only now they sit at their desks and post their thoughts in the comments section under the video they just watched online.

So why “snacking”? Snacking is a term that is being used to refer to the consumption of media in small snippets. Instead of people sitting down for an hour or two at a time to watch television, they are turning on their computers and watching 4 minutes of online video, jumping over to read a different blog, watching another 5 minutes of online video, finding a link to a similar 3-minute video and watching that one as well. Thus, the snack session goes throughout the day. People still sit down at the media dinner table to enjoy the latest episode of Lost, but the trend is beginning to show that people are becoming much more likely to dip into the cookie jar instead.

A recent survey from IDC found that people spend an average of 33 hours each week online — roughly twice as much time as they spend watching TV (about 16 ½ hours). ComScore recently found that about half of all online video is being viewed between 7 am and 5 pm on weekdays. So, how would the average person have time to spend 33 hours each week online and account for half of their online video consumption? That’s right — at the office.

This is where content creators and B2B marketing have the opportunity to join forces. The advertising and consumer sides of marketing have been setting out an online video buffet for a couple of years now, either in branding user-generated content (Stride gum) or creating their own form of branded entertainment (Anheuser-Busch). With so many people logging on looking for “safe for work” content, and marketing firms looking to reach an audience at work with their messages, the table may have been set for a new menu of B2B marketing initiatives.

Eric Pound

As an Executive Producer, Eric is responsible for the direction and development of StudioNorth’s audio and video solutions. With experience ranging from news broadcasting to national advertising, Eric brings the ability to deliver high-end media experiences with the urgency and attention to detail that clients demand. In addition to broadcast work, Eric also has credits in several documentaries and award-winning short films. Since joining the StudioNorth team in 2005, Eric has played a leading role in understanding current and developing trends in viral marketing, social networking and user-created content, and how they impact B2B marketing initiatives.

It is critical for us and our clients to budget for SEO in the design process. It is an essential marketing strategy that yields highly targeted visitors, good conversion rates, and a good return on investment (ROI) for our clients.

Sites designed with heavy graphics, frames, Flash, dynamic databases, or other embeds that are not HTML based require specific optimization techniques for proper indexing by major search engines. Though we consult with external resources for specialized SEO expertise, we follow the below established best practices internally as we develop our clients’ web sites.

There are a number of techniques in our toolkit to ensure our clients’ web sites are fully indexed and well positioned in major search engines. While SEO techniques change constantly, the following are essential today for superior positioning.

• Domain Name Selection
• Web Site Copywriting
• Meta Tags (Title, Description, Keywords, Heading, Alt Tags)
• Hypertext Links and Site Map
• Directory and File Name Structures
• Spider Analysis
• Robots Exclusion File
• Content Tagging & Categorization

Domain Name Selection

Domain name (URL) can be a key factor in both search engine and directory positioning. StudioNorth conducts research on networksolutions.com to assure URL availability when requested. We also consult the uspto.gov TESS trademark availability web site for potential trademark conflict with URL selection.

Web Site Copywriting

Web page copy is of major importance for search engines, directories, and customers. Search robots require machine-readable content (plain text) in web pages and HTML tags to index the site. Directory editors decide whether or not to list a site based on unique and relevant content. Since consumers make buying decisions primarily based on savvy marketing copy, brand, and look and feel, a skilled balance of human allure and bot-baited style is required. Our priorities are: we write for people first and search engines a close second.

We analyze recent keyword traffic on major search engines to determine a starting point for integrating key words in copy. Our copywriters then keep an eye toward liberal use of these keywords in their writing. Text near the top of the page is important to search spiders, as are keywords at the beginning of paragraphs and in headings. We write text first then create meta tags relevant to specific page content.

Meta Tags

Though we place less emphasis on meta tags due to their abuse and subsequent irrelevance, as a minimum practice we include title, description, keywords, heading, and alternate tags in the head section of all indexable pages. All meta tags should be unique and apply to a specific page. The following best practices apply to StudioNorth meta tag techniques:

• Title Tag — Use 5-10 words to write a keyword-rich title that’s relevant to the page. Begin with keywords, using sentence case. Most search engines use this copy as the link to pages in search results.
• Description Tag — Very important because these are often used by search engines as a web site description in search results. Use 15-20 words (170 characters), starting with several strategic keywords. Make it compelling and relevant to receive qualified traffic.
• Meta Keywords Tag –List strategic keyword phrases up to a maximum of 744 characters. Use keywords that are relevant to the page, with or without commas.
• Heading Tags — Place these tags at the top of pages, using strategic keywords relevant to the page.
• Alt Tags — Also called image tags as they contain the text that appears in roll-over of an image. Use keywords to describe the image appropriately.

Links and Site Map

We always ensure that search spiders have plenty of basic links to follow. Search engine spiders will index the text on your homepage, then attempt to follow links from there to other pages in the site.

• Most search engines can’t follow dynamic links (question mark in URL), so basic links or image maps must be provided.
• The text in links is important and should include keywords related to the page it’s linking to.
• A site map is an excellent way to provide links for search spiders.

Ideally, hypertext links should have a keyword in the link text or in an .alt description of the image or area tag.

A well-structured site map makes it easier for search spiders to find all web pages in the site. The site map is also very useful for site visitors to navigate against their immediate needs. Be sure to provide one or more links to the site map from the home page.

• Place a text link to the site map at the bottom of the page titled “Site Map”
• Include strategic keywords in the link text link.
• Create a static list of links to all your pages, with a link to this page from your homepage or site map.

Directory and File Name Structure

Because many engines and directories index file names and even directory names, it pays to create these using keywords whenever possible. Use at least one keyword phrase in the file/directory names, preferably at the beginning. Don’t stuff keywords and keep the names relevant. Use hyphens or underscores to separate the words in the file and directory names.

Spider Analysis

Spider Analysis can provide a record of spider activity in its effort to index pages upon entering the site. It shows whether or not the site has been crawled, by which search engine(s), on which pages, and on what dates. Spider Analysis reveals which pages are considered more relevant and which should be re-optimized and re-submitted. It also can identify and eliminate harmful spiders like email-harvesting robots. We rely on our SEO consultant partners to offer spider analysis services.

Robots Exclusion File

It’s important to have a robots.txt file present in the root directory because some search spiders will not crawl a site if they don’t find this file.

-Greg French

Greg has logged more than 27 years as a practitioner and published author in marketing, branding, and communications. His primary mission is to help StudioNorth clients make their marketing programs more effective by identifying and addressing value gaps. With this perspective, Greg helps our clients synthesize new brand marketing solutions to fill these value gaps and deliver real, measurable business results. Greg’s credits include award-winning white papers entitled, “The Role of Electronic Publishing Technology in Business-to-Business Marketing Communications” (McGraw-Hill), and “Wi-Fi for All” (International Engineering Consortium’s Annual Review of Communications). He was also a finalist in the Silver Microphone awards for creative direction on an Ameritech Mobile radio spot series.