Web Video for Business? Yes. If You Have a (what?)

Trivia time! You can use web video for your business if you have:

1. A server to stream video
2. A savvy technical team and widgets
3. Legacy of video assets from marketing or training
4. A story
5. 2 and 3 but not 4 and 1 unless 1 is less true than 4.

Did you get the right answer? If you use online-video for your business, you’d  better have  a story. That was a key message in this Fast Company story “Straight to Video,” written by The Scobleizer.

Don’t know who The Scobleizer is? Geez. He’s only the 6th most popular Twitterholics. Don’t know what Twitter is? Well stop reading right now, and set up a Twitter account and follow me and other people you know. In fairness, Scoble uses FriendFeed. And 19 minutes ago he rode in a cab with a driver that used to be a chef, and is willing to clean toilets to survive in a recession.

When nearly 50,000 people read your microblogs are you still a journalist? Or are you suddenly more than a story teller? 

Anyway, it’s true. A lot of online video pitches the product because that’s what 50 years of television has taught. But I’d watch very few commercials voluntarily, so advertisers have to either force me (with interruption ads and pre-rolls) or compel me (with a story).

History has proven that force may be easier in the short-term– like, say, if you’re trying to drag your kid out of the restaurant before the crying fit escalates. But compelling someone with a story has longer-term impact… like telling your child about the time the manager cut the screaming kid’s fingers off and put it in the chili.

Speaking of kids with tantrums, here’s an old classic. I can’t show it to my kids anymore, because I’m afraid they may understand the ad’s message.

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