When using social media to market your brand or service it is important to consider the many opportunities to use online video. With websites including YouTube, Google Video, Yahoo and Metacafe to name but a few there is huge potential to get excellent exposure with an online videos for your organisation. When making a video for online use it may be appropriate to make your own production but if you are looking for something a bit more professional we recommend the services of Hedgehog Productions.

I asked Bryan Corden the MD of Hedgehog Productions to tell me a little more about using video for online marketing and here are his comments.

“There has been a huge growth in the use of online video in the last two years as seen by the fact that YouTube now has over one billion visitors every day.  Several major corporate organisations are now specifically creating adverts for use online similar to this example by Old Spice “The man you could smell like”. The advantage of a professionally produced video is that it adds creditability to the product or service that you are offering and it can be specifically produced to suit your intended audience.

When making a video the first step is to outline the objectives and goal of the video. Who is the intended audience, what messages do you wish to convey and what action would you like your viewers to take having watched your video. From there you can go on to develop your script and story board before you commence filming. Once your video is created you can host it on your own website and you can host it for free on a huge range of online video sites. You can also optimise your videos so that they are found by Google and other search engine websites.

Once you have produced a video it is worth considering how you will integrate into your existing website. As the home page is normally the most visited page of any website this could be the ideal location or alternative you might create a specific page for your video content. There are a range of players that you can use or you can integrate the videos directly from YouTube and other online video websites. Hedgehog Productions use a TV style player on our website and you can see it in operation here www.hedgehog.ie.

So if you wish to take advantage of video as part of your social medial marketing strategy you can contact Bryan directly by email to bryan@hedgehog.ie.”