SmallBusinessNewz

I have a pile on my desk. You know the kind. The kind where you put important but not urgent material. Of course, over time those items become more and more urgent...and then irrelevant.

I could tell how long it had been since I sorted through my "important but not urgent" pile because I found an article from the Wall St. Journal I had printed up on 12/26/07. It was called "Lights! Camera! Sales! How to use video to expand your business in a YouTube world." (Since this link was up as of today, I'm hoping it'll be around for a while.)

It's a great article by Raymund Flandez who profiles a number of entrepreneurs and small businesses talking about how they've used video to enhance their marketing and sales. From individual artists to an all natural soda company located in my home town of Scarborough, Maine, to a blender manufacturer, companies are creating videos that are driving demand for their products.

We've seen some success with our own clients who are posting videos online. Eli Newberger has posted both his tuba performances and his speaking gigs at the White House on the YouTube channel we created for him. He has 20 subscribers and has gotten over 5,800 channel views as of this post. That's driving a lot of additional traffic to his Web site.

Sabre Yachts and Newcastle Square Realty have also recently launched YouTube channels as well.

Keyword rich content may help with search engine rankings, but video engages customers in a way that text by itself rarely can.