Why Don’t You Use Video To Promote Yourself? Or You Do?

I received an interesting question from Sankar N. on LinkedIn – "Are Indian IT Companies leveraging Online Video to help grow their Business?"

I think they are not. Here is what I wrote back to him and thought I should share with you –

• You have put forth a very interesting question. Having been associated with the online marketing industry, I have noticed the phenomenal growth in use of video to promote the web sites, products and brands.

  However I have seen a much lower level of awareness and inclination in Indian companies, even medium to large level ones, in using the social media landscape, blogs and videos to promote themselves and their brands.

  My personal take is – they need to be convinced more about the direct benefits of using these media. I have seen some early adopters start to use blogging and social media but that is a pretty shy ‘yes’. I am yet to see much adoption of the video technology yet, specially by the Indian companies.

  The main reasons for this, in my humble opinion, are:

  * Availability of the talent to create such videos

  * Reliable bandwidth (you would certainly know how fast those 2 Mbps connections actually are) and

  * An urge to try out new avenues for brand promotion.

  I think this field is wide open and we need some service providers to come up and demonstrate how beneficial use of video, audio and similar rich media can be, in conveying the marketing message more effectively.

  In my opinion, video can be used in several areas. I have given some that come to mind readily:

  * Video testimonial – these can be quite effective in building trust.

  * Product-in-use demonstration – nothing can beat seeing the real product in use.

  * A short welcome video by the CEO – people buy from people, not companies. Seeing the head of the company talk about the quality commitment of the company can be a big confidence booster.

  * Usage guides: Short videos showing how to use certain features of the products can increase the consumption factor increasing the sales multi-fold.

  I will be happy to take this dialog further and help the interested parties utilise the social media landscape for getting more business and increasing the overall customer satisfaction.

What do you say? Are you using online video for promoting yourself or your brand? If yes, what has your experience been? If not, what has been your biggest constraint? Share with our readers – let’s tackle this together.