PR 2.0 and Video
When I wrote my last book, The New PR Toolkit, I talked about how visual PR would become one of the greatest ways to reach and to communicate to audiences. That book was published in 2001 and I was spot on with my prediction. For me, video is one of the best ways to get a message across with excitement, passion, and credibility all wrapped into a medium that’s able to deliver an abundance of targeted information.
I’ve been using a tremendous amount of video with my own efforts both for my company, PFS Marketwyse, and for my book, PR 2.0. For the last year or so, my business partner, Jason Miletsky, who is the CEO and Creative Director of PFS and I have been experimenting with video. Not only are we helping our clients to understand the importance of the format, but also the value of video for our own marketing efforts.
If you go to the PFS Marketwyse website at www.pfsmarketwyse.com, you will immediately see video clips Jason and me discussing our background experience and information about our company.
Video Clips from the PFS MarketWyse Website
Video, as easy and fun as it is to produce, can also be challenging. And, we certainly didn’t get our clips right on the first try. But, if you can’t laugh at yourself then you’re definitely taking this industry a little too seriously. We decided that our video mistakes would be a great way to show that experienced professionals are just as human as the next person. We decided to post our video bloopers on the PFS site for the world to see. Video for us is a great way to deliver the PFS culture and to show the human side of our company. We are trying to get other members of our company to participate in the video clips on our website (but, they are still a little camera shy).
As for my book, PR 2.0, one of the first things that I did when I pitched my marketing ideas to Pearson Education was to send my acquisitions editor, Martha Cooley, a video message. I noticed that after she received the message our website had a spike in traffic, mostly from the folks over at Pearson. My editor and the Pearson marketing team liked my video so much that they asked me to tape a 4 to 5 minute video that described why my book is unique and some of my PR 2.0 marketing ideas. I delivered the video in time for the sales force to view and I got the following feedback from my marketing coordinator, Megan Colvin:
“This was an absolute hit with our sales force! I have gotten emails all afternoon saying what an innovative way this was to present the plan.”
I have so many ideas for video to promote my book; the video marketing plan was only the first step. Video is fun, effective and tells a great story. Because of increased bandwidth, the problems of using video in the past no longer exist. Now, video is easy to use and much less expensive to produce. You may not be aware, but there are so many ways to use video. There are simple things right now that you may be doing that could use video as a means to communicate a more powerful message.
A few years ago, I never thought that I would be presenting my video bio for my website. And, I never would have imagined that I would have a video clip introducing the purpose of my book and myself to the Pearson Education sales force. Video has opened many doors for me and for my company. This is only the beginning!
October 28, 2008 @ 4:51 pm
Interesting to know.