Hi, welcome to the vlog, I'm Bert Mahoney. I am creative director at HamiltonBerchman and Partner at DennisonWolfe Internet Group.

This is the first vlog in my continuing series of on how to use the Internet for your business advantage.

Internet Video is todays topic. It is part 5 of a 6 part series “Breaking Down The Multi-Headed Monster”

Lets get to it.

[intro music and video]

In this installment of our 6 part series I will talk about using video as part of your Internet communications toolkit. This installment also provides a great seguay for me to start producing and publishing my blog in video format, or vlog.

I've wanted to vlog for some time but didnt have the right excuse to invest the time, money , and effort to produce it. That is until now.

What is it about internet video?

Creating and publishing video on the internet has become much easier over the past few years. With the rise in popularity of websites like YouTube, Viddler, Revver, Vimeo, Blip, etc. it has not only become easy to publish content on the Internet, but also easier to watch and subscribe so you dont miss a thing.

Take online video another step and you can even produce “live” video content. There are chat room services that allow interaction in real time. Presently my favorite website of this kind called Stickam. (spell it).

Recording, editing, and prducing finished video ready for publishing has become easier with each passing month.

You are probably thinking that making video for the web is hard.

In the past I did some video work and it required me to tape the video, import from the camera, convert the format, blah, blah. It took a really long time and the cost/benefit was high. However, now it is relatively simple for you to get a video online for you, your idea, or your company.

The key is to understand the power that video conveys to viewers. I have written a blog for years and that is great, but its just flat text. It requires active participation by reading.

Video allows you, the viewer, to chill out and vegetate. You are passively watching this video and so much more information is being communicated. You are getting the content I have to share AND seeing me with my voice inflection, facial expression and gestures ALL of which add more meaning and texture to what I am communicating to you.

The human element of communication comes across loud and clear in this medium. It's a layering of content that does not come across in text or audio alone.

So how do you get video on the internet?

I happen to use a camera called the “Flip” It is a fairly inexpensive device that has software built in to upload your video to YouTube. It is easiest video camera I have used for making web video and it is the camera I am using for this video. I have used a basic Sony mini-DV camera that uses these little tapes and it works very well too. However, it requires a bit more hoop jumping to get the video onto the computer and onto a website like Youtube. Its not insurmountable but the simplicity of the Flip is unsurpassed, IMHO.

YouTube is the highest profile website for video but there are others that offer higher quality video, but do not have as high a profile. You can check the show notes on the blog for these and other resources.

The important message here is that it is not very difficult to get basic video online that can and will have an impact for you and your business.

I'll be sure to put relevant links in the notes on the website.

That's it for this installment. If you have any questions about this content please leave them in the comments on the blog. I will respond asap.

This is Bert Mahoney signing off.

Take care.

HI, welcome to the video podcast, I am Bert Mahoney President o

Bert Mahoney

2009-01-05T16:57:00

Bert Mahoney