As broadcast TV gained in popularity, Public Relations adopted the use of video production and satellite distribution to create and send B-Roll (Broadcast Roll) and VNRs, to help news studios package and present breaking stories or trends easily, without having to send crews around the country or the world. The VNR continues to be recognized as a great visual communications tool in broadcast television programming, whether it’s used to launch a new product, document trends or shifts in consumer behavior, or tell a compelling visual story. The VNR truly revolutionized the way we created and disseminated news releases for the television market.

Although you might not have direct experience with VNRs, they are related to many of the stories that you see on traditional broadcast news networks. When you’re watching the evening news and you’re introduced to the latest new gadget or you’re swept off to a popular new hotspot on an island far away, chances are they’re using footage sourced from a VNR. Although VNRs are effective, they are also incredibly expensive. Production segments, B-Roll, satellite transmission, and the legwork associated with calling attention to the distribution time of transmitting the feed can easily cost $20,000 for one story. Previously, only the elite or Fortune 500 companies had access to video production and the ability to mass-broadcast.

With the dawn of video social networks, VNRs are again earning a place in a communicator’s portfolio of tools. Online video is the next frontier for Public Relations professionals, adding a new layer of engagement to any existing PR, marketing, and Web initiative. In our opinion, Social Media has reinvented the VNR, putting the power of creation and distribution in the hands of those with a video or Web camera, a PC, and a broadband connection. If you add in a little marketing and word-of-mouth savvy, knowledge of capturing visually stimulating or creative footage, and an understanding of the pains and needs of the people you’re trying to reach, you have the formula for a potentially valuable two-way, media-rich communications tool.

Every day, more companies are building networks and the tools that enable you to broadcast video either live or as episodes (Webisodes), reaching audiences online and through mobile appliances such as iPods and cell phones. Online video is modernizing and expanding the way we create and utilize VNRs, and how we tell stories in general. Don’t get us wrong—traditional VNRs are still highly effective and valuable for broadcast PR. The Web and the proliferation of video social networks (such as YouTube, BlipTV, Metacafe, Veoh, Viddler, Revver, Flickr, Magnify.net, and many others) are providing an easy and extensive distribution network to connect stories with people and, in turn, people back to the content creators. You’re now able to foster relationships through video and also the ensuing interactions. The Web represents what could be constituted as the new broadcast channel, in addition to television.

A key point here is that online VNRs (visual storytelling) represent only one tool in a shed that houses many other solutions for reaching each of your respective communities. You must consider where the people you want to reach go for information and where they go to share content. Through research, you can determine specific channels, networks, strategies, methodologies, and digital bridges to participate in a valuable, mutually beneficial way—to build relationships.

A redux of the VNR and a move to integrate video-based initiatives into your marketing communications (marcom) programs is important not just because it’s easier to create and distribute online video. It’s driven mostly by the surging consumption of video by today’s Internet population. Amazing statistics are being released about consumer video behavior on the Web, and it’s incredibly motivating. A report filed on January 9, 2008, by the Pew Internet and American Life Project revealed the following:

Just to give you a quick snapshot, Comscore Inc. reported in March 2008 that U.S. Internet users viewed 11.48 billion online videos on video Web sites, up 64 percent from a year ago. The numbers continue to dramatically ramp. With the technology barriers of entry so low (in terms of expertise required and cost of equipment and production), there’s never been a better time to experiment with video. Although traditional VNRs are costly, many businesses are spending only a few hundred or a few thousand dollars to create and share videos that reach a global audience.

However, similar to all forms of Social Media, VNRs require a level of understanding, ethics, and transparency that is possible only with hands-on experience—not necessarily as a marketer, but as a participant in all forms of Social Media. Although many professionals embracing the PR 2.0 approach are in the tech sector, the entire concept of Social Media VNRs can benefit and provide value to any business of any size. At the very least, social video enables companies to demonstrate their product in a way that is consumable, shareable, and more interesting than just reading text-based collateral materials.

When it comes to creating a formal video strategy, it’s less about production quality and theatrics, and more about participating and contributing genuinely and authentically. Online videos range from funny and witty shorts and series, to product demos, tutorials, and screencasts, to executive interviews and customer success stories.

Blendtec is one company that has blazed the trail for social video while tying together Public Relations, branding, and sales—becoming a cult classic in the process. This Salt Lake City company mainly manufactures high-performance kitchen appliances—specifically, blenders that seemingly grind up anything and everything. George Wright, marketing director at Blendtec, and Tom Dickson, company founder and CEO, came up with the idea for a clever series titled “Will It Blend?” that has become a viral marketing sensation. (Some consider viral marketing as word-of-mouth with enhanced reach by the effects of the Internet.) The series features Dickson, wearing a white lab coat and goggles, asking a simple question before feeding various items—everything from outdoor rakes and glow sticks to iPhones and video cameras—to a Blendtec blender: “Will it blend?”

Originally funded with an unbelievably low budget of $50, the videos have proved so incredibly popular and viral that visits to some of the videos have hit 46 million views on YouTube and 71 million on Revver. They have also earned Tom Dickson appearances on The Today Show and The Tonight Show; stories in the Wall Street Journal, Business Week, and Forbes; and a dedicated episode on the Discovery Channel. The videos have also delivered a 500 percent increase in sales. And more than 100,000 people have subscribed to the company RSS feed for future videos. It’s important to note that all this was accomplished with nothing more than an idea, creativity, a small budget, a video camera, and the ability to get that video on the Web. They’ve shown us that anything is possible in online video.

Blendtec’s marketing now serves as a profit center for the company: The videos not only have generated sales, but also have earned more than $50,000 in ad revenue from online video host Revver. This is only one example of a company that has created its own recipe for a successful online video franchise. Let’s take a look at some of the tips and tricks that will also help you as you venture into the new world of online video.

Robert Scoble, one of the world’s most famous bloggers, recently ventured into Web video for FastCompany TV. He encourages PR and corporate marketing to worry less about trying to have broadcast-quality production and to instead focus more on the uniqueness of a product when pursuing campaigns through online video. Scoble’s blog post, “This Is Why I Love the Tech Industry,” clearly reveals his passion for video and points out why it’s critical to capture the story in the moment.

Scoble’s blog post teaches you that, in an instant, you can grab an interesting piece of knowledge and history in the making. The ability to pull out a camera to videotape researcher Andy Wilson happens only once, and his work can inspire many. Scoble knows that you can’t re-create the moment. Even if you are using a cellphone to capture footage, it’s not the quality, but instead the participation and the ability to share with hundreds, if not thousands, of people the critical footage you take. Examples such as this make us think that the PR people of tomorrow should all walk around with the ability to create video news as they see it.

Jeremiah Owyang, an analyst covering social computing for Forrester Research, discussed the value of humanizing the company story through video and how to get started in a great post, “Why Online Video Is Good for Your Corporate Executives and How to Deploy.”

Owyang’s blog post at www.web-strategist.com goes into more detail about online video and includes a breakdown of what online video conversation is and is not. He also gives great tips on how to build your own internal video team and the best way to evaluate an online video show (in case you were planning to create one).

Before working with Forrester Research, Owyang worked at Podtech with Scoble. As New Media journalists, they captured company stories, executive interviews, and news through online video programming. Both Scoble and Owyang have shared many posts detailing how and why companies should create and share their own content in addition to pursuing traditional and New Media publicity. It can only help in building communities, relationships, and telling the company story from a very human perspective—instead of the usual faceless broadcast process of churning and distributing news releases.

Another example is Michael Arrington, publisher of TechCrunch, the world’s most linked-to and visited blog, and another strong supporter of the use of corporate marketing through video. Arrington has recommended that companies seeking coverage on the Web 2.0 network develop short, creative, and informative demo video clips when pitching him. It helps him grasp the value quickly and usually compels him and his staff to write about the company and also include the video in the story. He’s on record saying, “I love start-up videos,” and has repeatedly asked for companies to create and present videos.

Online videos help tell your stories to people who enjoy visual media, regardless of their industry. Videos apply to all industries—consumer lifestyle products, science and green initiatives, agriculture, big business, and just about everything you can think of. As long as you have a story to tell, adding a video dimension to your platform can help your story reach those you wouldn’t normally connect with through other tools.

However, the use of video is not just about getting the attention of bloggers and traditional media. It’s also an effective way of reaching markets and, more important, the people who can benefit from the story. That’s the beauty of a viral social network. Because we are talking about different groups of people (they’re no longer lumped into groups formerly known as “one” audience), you must consider several ingredients when developing a video or screencast. The choices you make for implementation will determine the success or failure of the campaign.

Let’s take a look at the tech, jargon, networks, tools, and classifications of video campaigns to better understand how, when, and where to engage in online video.

We’re sure you’re familiar with YouTube (or have at least heard of it), the largest, most visited social network for uploading and viewing online videos. YouTube, and the many other online video networks, enables you to create a social profile where you can upload your individual videos for all to see (or you can mark them as private, which sort of defeats the purpose of our discussion). You can create a corporate or individual channel and tag each video with keywords to help others find it based on relevant searches. Most importantly, however, these networks provide a unique “embed” code that enables viewers to share your video on their blog, social network, Web site, and so on. And the more compelling your videos are, the more likely they are to be embedded elsewhere (creating an exponential viral success story).

Videos can be treated as a single episode, such as a product demonstration, or as a series, such as the “Will It Blend?” franchise. Other forms of online video include livecasting and mobilecasting. Livecasting is the ability to live-broadcast video for people to watch in real time, combined with an integrated chat forum, creating an immersive and engaging environment for companies and customers to connect. Companies such as Veodia and Ustream enable livecasting anywhere, anytime. Companies such as kyte, Mogulus, and BlogTV facilitate episodic broadcasting. For business, these tools are ideal (whether live or not) for Webcasting training sessions, HR and executive announcements, product reviews, marketing events, lectures, conferences, speeches, panels, and so on.

Mobilecasting is the livestreaming of online video from a mobile, Internet-enabled device such as the new Nokia video-enabled smart phone devices. Services include Qik and Kyte.tv. Many companies are using these services to host customer Q&A, communicate product and service updates, showcase events, highlight behind-the-scenes footage, and host impromptu discussions to maintain a consistent dialogue with their communities and continue to build relationships with them.

Screencast is another term you’ll hear when discussing online video. Similar to video, screencasts are also viral and effective. Wikipedia provides a simple definition of the screencast: “Just as a screenshot is a picture of a user’s screen, a screencast is essentially a movie of what a user sees on their monitor.”

Review these helpful tips to get you started or perfect your video or screencast:

1. Be genuine and use video as a way to inform visually. This isn’t just another opportunity for PR to spam the world.

2. Know your targets, their pain points, and why your product will help them. And please don’t use the word audience. As discussed in Chapter 6, “The Language of New PR,” viewers today are considered the people formally known as the audience. This ensures that we engage by conversing with, not marketing to, people. As mentioned earlier, this is Jay Rosen’s philosophy, which many Social Media purists hold sacred when discussing how to participate through Social Media.

3. Keep it focused on what’s unique, interesting, and compelling.

4. Take the time to experiment. Don’t just stop at one—keep the line of communication open through video similar to how you would with blogs, marketing collateral, newsletters, and news releases.

5. Consider the placement of videos on your company’s site and offer RSS feeds for them.

6. Ensure that the videos are placed in the social networks where the people you want to reach search for new and interesting content.

7. Remember that placing videos online isn’t enough. Just because you place a video in social networks doesn’t mean it will be viewed and shared. You have to do “PR” for it through the folksonomy of strategic tagging, linking, and having others point to it and republish it to spark the viral potential of your content.

8. Be creative and think outside of the box.

9. Worry less about polish and more about content.

10. Keep it short—usually about three to five minutes, definitely less than ten.

11. Listen carefully to all feedback and use it as an opportunity to create an even more compelling video next time.

Although social video represents a new opportunity for marketing and PR programs, we can’t emphasize enough the importance of maintaining traditional programs and fostering relationships with analysts, reporters, bloggers, and customers. VNRs with Social Media can only enhance a proactive and all-encompassing marketing and PR campaign. Remember that, in any adoption cycle, new solutions move from the left to the right of the bell curve, earning mass acceptance along the way. Social Media is indeed breathing new life into VNRs, and that’s why VNR 2.0, as a communications tool, helps reinvent PR for the new Web—helping us communicate visually and enabling us to become more effective storytellers.

Lights, camera, action.