Tips and Techniques to Use Internet Web Video to Promote Your Business

More and more small business owners are turning to online Internet web video to boost their Internet marketing. However, most are not expert at video cameras and how to use it properly is a key concern. Sites and backgrounds are very important in creating professional looking videos. Here are some background and site location tips for how to use your video camera to best promote your business.

1. List Possible Off-Site Locations.

Avoid staying cooped up in your office taking videos of you just talking to a camera. Make things interesting by taking your viewers to an interesting location that is somehow related to the point of the video. If you are talking about team building, you might want to go to a nearby school field, or a quiet field if you want to talk about getting away to re-group. Any location that conveys the message of your video in an inventive way will capture your audience's attention.

Anticipate different weather conditions when you go on location. Bring things to cover your camera like an umbrella or blanket in case it rains or snows. And be prepared to re-record the vocal portion if wind conditions result in poor sound quality.

2. Use a Different Background Setting for Every Video.

Not only can your locations help to emphasize points, but your background can as well. One really powerful feature of video is that you can appeal to a viewer's visual as well as audible senses, which can add tremendous impact if you choose your backgrounds carefully.

A noisy subway would serve as a much different background with all its sounds than a quiet cornfield, or being outside during a hail storm. Pay particular attention to the surroundings you have in your area that could serve as interesting backgrounds for your video shoots.

3. Arrange Your Setting.

Because the visual aspect can make such an impact, it is important to take extra time to position your setting so that there is a sense of balance in the shot.

If you have a large background, for example, you probably would want to balance yourself between the camera lens and the background. If you are too close to the camera, your viewers will not see the background. If you are too far away, you will get lost in the background. You will want to stand back further than you think you should. Since most video recording happens with wide screen settings set to automatic, shoot your video from about 10 feet to allow your audience to see the whole picture.

Video is the future of Internet web video, and knowing how to use your video camera effectively will make it easier for a small business owner to shoot effective, interesting videos quickly and easily. Having the right setting and backgrounds will go a long way to creating Internet web videos that work.

Marty Dickinson is an author, speaker and owner of a small business just like you. Learn from his mistakes and successes with
Internet web video on his blog where he reports what works, what doesn't, and what they don't tell you. For more tips and strategies on how to promote your business through Internet web video, get Marty's free whitepaper: 51 Essential Web Video Tips.

Internet web video is fast becoming an all essential tool in promoting your business on the Internet. Updated and less expensive equipment is making it easier for the small business owner to create the own Internet web video within their budget. But for many small business owners, the biggest challenge is how to find topics for their Internet web videos. Here are some tips.

1. Keep it Simple.

Choose specific video topics for your Internet web videos and prioritize them. Avoid trying to pack too much into a single video. You will lost your audience. You goal should be to make simple short videos - and a lot of them!

There are essentially three main categories that almost all Internet web videos can fall into, including those that are educational (step 1,2,3 how to videos), timely (breaking news) or entertaining (for fun). If you run into challenges thinking of topics to present on your Internet web video, ask yourself three questions:

What can I educate people about in my industry?
What is happening in my industry that I could make a comment on or report as news?
What do I enjoy doing that would entertain others on video.

Using this process, you will probably find more than enough topics that can promote your business through video.

2. Limit Video Length.

In today's multi-tasking age with numerous distractions competing for a person's attention, five minutes is about the maximum you can expect a viewer to pay attention. Better yet is if you can state your point and message in as little as 30 seconds. At any rate, the shorter you can make your Internet web video while still providing quality content, the better.

3. Outline Your Presentation.

Because time is a factor when producing internet web videos, every second of your presentation matters. But avoid the temptation to script every word of a video presentation. Frankly, if you are like most business owners, you would never get any videos done if you are that demanding of yourself.

There are many outlining techniques you can use, all of which are similar to the strategies used for impromptu speaking skills. I would like to suggest you try just one simple outline for presenting your video topic:

a. answer a question or your view of a problem in one sentence
b. share a short example of why the topic is important
c. give a step or sequence of steps that can be taken right now to move toward a solution
d. restate your answer to the question
e. challenge the visitor to take action with the steps you've just revealed

Internet web video is an ideal vehicle to promote your business to its fullest potential. Finding appropriate topics and presenting them effectively can be much easier than you think if you follow the simple steps outlined above. Before you know it, you will be successfully publishing all of the Internet web videos you have the time for. Happy filming!

Marty Dickinson is an author, speaker and owner of a small business just
like you. Learn from his mistakes and successes with
Internet web video on his blog where he reports what
works, what doesn't, and what they don't tell you. For
more tips and strategies on how to promote your business
through Internet web video, get Marty's free whitepaper:
51 Essential Web Video Tips.