With modern tools, video is really easy to do really badly. You have to have the content, of course (which is where good writing and planning comes in), but you also have to have good audio, and then (duh) good video. If you’re lacking in any one of these three areas, it’s really obvious and distracts from your message. So good production values are key.

And then you still have problems with searchability and accessibility. You can do written transcripts, though that increases your post-production tasks even more (among others, the Wall Street Journal usually does a good job with integrating video — the article text summarizes what’s said in the video, and the visuals complement and enhance the text).

I don’t want to overstate the problem. Lots of folks have found a way to make video work for them, and if you’re a single talking head looking into the camera, all you really need on the production side is a  backdrop, a good light (preferably bounced off of something), and a quiet space.

(If you’re primary ouevre is cute animals falling asleep or riding on Roombas, you don’t even need this.)

On the other hand, the consumption problem is trickier and doesn’t have an easy answer.

In order to get the most out of a video, you really have to be fully engaged — you have to be watching (not just looking) and listening (not just hearing). Even if you’re zoning out and watching passively, you still have to be paying attention. And to fully consume 5 minutes of video, you have to watch the whole thing. And that means you can’t really be doing anything else while you watch (unlike audio).

If you just listening to a video, you’re either missing something, or the video broadcaster isn’t taking full advantage of the medium and is wasting bandwith and might as well just be doing audio.

(That last bit, of course, is a slight exaggeration, or at least an annoyingly purist point of view. For a basic talking head interview, you might just need the audio, and doing video gives you the option of consuming audio or video. Also, look at the example of television advertisers, who have known for a long time to make sure their ads gracefully degrade  — they try to make sure their message still gets across if you’re watching in black and white, or with the sound off, or you come into the middle of it.)

Anyway, in our theoretically pure consumption of video, you can’t be driving, walking, or doing other things. (Well, you can, but something’s not going to get the proper attention.) With reading, your attention also has to be focused, but you can read at your own pace, and you can stop and start as you need to (though there are some switching costs when you multitask — you can’t get something for nothing), and audio is probably the best medium to consume while you’re doing something else.

Despite all the shortcomings of video, we’re going to see a lot more of it. And that’s because we like watching stuff. And we know that the consumption of media comes at the expense of non-media activities (i.e. we spend more time being couch/mouse potatoes). So the point of all this is to just consider that when you’re doing video, either produce it so that you’re taking full advantage of the medium (and really demand people’s full attention), or produce it so it gracefully degrades so people can use it when they don’t give it their full attention.

I’m curious to hear from people who are working with video — do you do it because you can, or because you truly need the information presentation capabilities that video offers?

Here are some quick recaps:

Brian Solis, Author of PR2.0, CEO Futureworks: Small businesses now have direct access to the people who can help them make their businesses grow, on a mass scale. Now, small businesses can be influential and become authorities, and build communities around them, based on their expertise.

Rohit Barghava, author, “Personality Not Included“: Small business owners understand the power of word of mouth marketing and customer referrals. It’s cheap, viral, and works.

Tim Ferriss, author, The 4-Hour Workweek: To get online, first get offline — go to conferences, meet people, have credible people online vouching for you — then connect with them online.

Steve Hall, Publisher, Editor, Adrants: Reach out to everyone in your industry, get to know them, and broaden your circle of social friends. Eventually, you’ll be able to use the network to help spread whatever you’re trying to spread.

Toby Bloomberg, CEO Bloomberg Marketing: Small businesses especially build businesses through relationships, which they can do through through blogs, podcasts, video. Social media was built for small businesses, and lets them scale further.

Ryan Anderson, Community Relations, Overlay.TV: It’s an incredible opportunity for small business to bypass filters to get to core customers. The tools let you create conversation that you just can’t do through traditional media.

Darren Rowse, Author, ProBlogger: If starting out again, he’d spend a lot of time defining his niche, establishing self as expert, offering to guest blog in other expert blogs (for free), to get own his content and expertise out.

David Alston, VP of Marketing, Radian6: Small business can use social media to build a brand, in a highly targeted way. Talk to the people in your space and reach out to them.

Mari Smith, Relationship Marketing Specialist: Radical Strategic Visibility — your goal is to be ubiquitous, in a way that excites people.

Liz Strauss, Social Web Strategist, Successful Blog: Use the internet to become irresistible — know which type of people on the Internet they’re going after — readers, people who do, offer and sell things, and people who pass on info to their friends.

Paul Chaney, President, Int’l Blogging and New Media Association: Small business is best suited to use a lot of these tools — an example is a custom signmaker with a blog, who shows the process and tells the story of making the sign, to help customers get to know him.

Find anything particularly meaningful (or offbase) here among our experts’ opinions? Leave a comment and let us know what you think about the social opportunities for small business.

Here are some recaps of what they said:

Guy Kawasaki, founder, AllTop: Twitter is a great way to find and spread information — it’s a way to reach thousands of people, immediately and free (which is great). It takes a little getting used to; give it a month or so — you might hate it for the first few days, but it’ll work out [which mirrors my own experience with Twitter, except I took longer because I am slow]

Ryan Anderson, Community Relations, Overlay.TV: They’re active on Twitter (including the executives), not just for promoting their stuff, but engaging with community. Their CEO will also use Summize weekly (now Twitter’s search) to get feedback directly from users, which is great for businesses, especially young companies.

Wendy Piersall, CEO Sparkplugging.com: You should also use other tools (depending on your business) like LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter. She doesn’t think you can conduct business online without participating in these types of communities.

Scott Monty, Global Digital and Multimedia Community Manager, Ford Motor Company: People have been networking since the Stone Age, but modern tools let us create networks of subject matter experts. “You don’t have to be the best accountant; you have to hire the best accountant” — online social networks let you tap into people who can help you — you’re not in it alone.

Liz Strauss, Social Web Strategist, Successful Blog: All this has changed the way she would start a business today. Use social networks to find out who’s out there; start on Twitter to listen to people and watch what’s going on. Open the door by promoting other people.

Tim Ferriss, author, The 4-Hour Workweek: Blogging isn’t for everyone, but there’s no excuse not to be on Twitter. You can use it as a blog, and you can be effective using it as a personality and brand on Twitter (like newspapers, activists, others are using it).

Chris Brogan, VP of Strategy, CrossTech Media: Small businesses should use social media tools to create  outposts where people can get to know you — put your face and presence out there, just like shopkeepers hanging out and meeting people in a town. “It’s all the same, it’s just different… but it’s all the same.”

Jason Billingsley, Co-founder, Elastic Path Software — Retailers need to build relationships and community; once you do that, your message is accepted. There are many avenues, like YouTube — many people are educating consumers by doing how-to and instructional videos. They’re informing, not selling, and by creating trust, then they look to you when they need to do transactions.

Mari Smith, Relationship Marketing Specialist: “Radical Strategic Visibility” — using Facebook, social bookmarks, blogging, Friendfeed, etc, — all the tools, in an integrated strategy.

Jennifer Openshaw, President, WeSeed.com: Bringing credibility online is important, and positioning yourself as an expert. A way to do this is to create content on your site, which you can also distribute through partners and social networking sites, so you can add value to people, even when you’re not trying to sell them stuff.

Agree or disagree with something from one of our ten social media experts? Please leave a comment below.

Here’s the video from the story:

It’s pretty cringe-inducing, as you can see the tow-truck operator literally drags the car up onto the flatbed, without the benefit of skates or dollies or anything. (The cinder block gets caught underneath the car, too.)

This, although a pretty good “weird news” story, isn’t what I’m writing about — this is just the setup.

I’d submitted this link to the popular social linksharing/social bookmarking site Fark, and it made the main page. In the resulting discussion thread, besides the predictable outrage from car enthusiasts of all sorts, there were also a couple of indignant comments from towing professionals, who were equally annoyed at being made to look bad because of the actions of an indifferent or incompetent operator.

They pointed out some examples of how to tow wheel-less cars without wrecking them, off of a community forum for people involved in the towing business.

A tow truck operator community. I hadn’t imagined that there would be such a thing (there are several to choose from), but the more I thought about it, the more I realized that I shouldn’t have been surprised.

After all, pretty much every business, activity, interest, hobby — anything that has a specialized knowledge, language, or skill set — has the potential to bring together people around it, into a community.

In other words, people who do stuff like talking about the stuff they do. Things that they’ve done. Things they’re going to do. Things that they’d like to do better.

Before the internet, this was the realm of trade magazines, associations, and annual conventions — now, people can get together and share knowledge, experience, and fellowship online, continuously.

And then, once the community has formed around an interest… well, you can’t talk shop all the time. Once they get to know each other (talking about the subject matter), they tend to keep talking and socialize (in watercooler, off-topic, cafe, shoot-the-breeze type areas).

So what’s this all mean for your business? A couple of possibilites:

* See what communities are out there supporting your particular business specialty. It doesn’t matter if it’s doctor, bartender, tow truck driver, marketer, security professional, sound technician, dry cleaner, software engineer… whatever. Chances are there’s a professional forum out there that’s relevant to you, that you can participate in to keep up with industry news, learn new skills, make contacts, and more.

* This is a tougher one, and maybe not doable for everyone: Think about the kinds of communities your customers are participating in, and see what’s out there. Note that the goal definitely isn’t so you can jump in and start to try to talk up your business and sell to them. Do not do this.

It’s more like becoming a participating member of the community and seeing what people, some of whom may be similar to your customers, are talking about, to see if there’s anything that can help your business.

Anyway, that’s what a tow truck drivers forum got me thinking about. If you have any ideas or experiences dealing with niche community forums, please leave a comment below.

Now, everyone (and I mean everyone) wants to know how they can get their stuff in the first view on the first page of search engines. Better search results positioning means more eyeballs, more eyeballs means more clicks, and more clicks hopefully leads to more customers and revenue.

There’s a lot of good SEO information that you, as the small business owner, can take away, but there’s also a lot of voodoo, handwaving, and hucksterism, too. When I take a look at SEO advice, I focus on things that help you present your information, in a way that’s clearer and better-organized… for both search engine spiders and humans. That way, you (hopefully) get better search results positioning, but you also get better engagement with customers and visitors.

Here’s what the four interviewees have to say about increasing your small business’s visibility through search:

Chris Baggott, CEO, Compendium Software: Branding really isn’t the goal of SEO — it’s how to get found. Blogging is a great tool for leveling the playing field for small businesses when it comes to SEO, especially in local search. Because most small businesses are local, that can be an advantage in search over a corporate behemoth that has locations all over the place — if they’re blogging.

David Berkowitz, Dir. of Emerging Media & Client Strategy, 360i: SEO is an opportunity for small businesses to get more of their content out there, and to build relationships that lead to inbound links. By engaging with the community, the community helps good sites bubble up to the top.

Jay Berkowitz, author, “Ten Golden Rules” Podcaster: SEO is really important, and you can help your SEO by doing some basic things; at the very simplest, add keywords to every page — pick 2 or 3 main keyword phrases to focus on for the site, add them to the title, and use them 3 times on each page (in the first paragraph, in the body, and in the bottom paragraph.)

Lee Odden, CEO of TopRankMarketing.com (looks like there’s a “d” missing in his name in the video caption, sorry about that, Lee): Find out what bloggers write a lot about and let them know if you’ve got something they’d be interested in by leaving comments.  Another tactic is using optimized press releases, which will drive inbound links. Search engine rankings will increase if they find the keywords on your site, and you get inbound links from sites that are also relevant to those keywords.

SEO is an entire industry, so there’s plenty of stuff to say about it. Leave a comment below if you have a thought to share about the ideas presented in the video, my characterization of them, or thoughts about SEO for small business in general.

We recently sat down for an interview and I was able to spend some time with him and discuss entrepreneurship and the future of emPivot. Here is a transcript of our interview:

Steve: So, how long have you been an entrepreneur?
Thom: Well, lets see, I’ve been officially a business owner for four years now. I started Ecofusion, a strategic communications and media company in 2005. And working with my business partner, Chace Warmington, we incubated and launched emPivot as a separate company in 2007.

Of course, I had a few little businesses I ran as a kid, from baseball cards to lawn mowing. In college I ran the radio station and the center for sustainability at Dickinson College. Finally, as I told a CFO of a company I worked for as an intern before my senior year in college, I planned on getting into the non-profit sector because of the great challenges a non-profit presented to a person with an entrepreneurial spirit. Before starting Ecofusion I spent six years in the non-profit sector. There is nothing like doing a lot with very little funding. It’s very rewarding. Some of the most amazing entrepreneurs I have met are involved in the non-profit sector. So, I could say I’ve always had a little entrepreneurial streak for about sixteen or seventeen years now.

Steve: Your background is developing technology and communications solutions for business and non-profits, specifically involved in the sustainability, clean tech, and environmental sectors. How did you get the idea for emPivot?
Thom: emPivot is focused on delivering a network of green related video content that has the widest variety of video – from both user-generated content to premium content.

We’ve been solving communications and media challenges for the leading thinkers and actors in the sustainability and community development sectors for most of our entire careers. So, it’s fair to say we’ve been operating at the convergence point of media and sustainability for a long time. As a result of the work we were doing for clients at the leading edge of media strategy and implementation, we knew a convergence of two of the fastest growing sectors, online video and “green” or sustainability, was going to occur. Who was going to be the first to provide the right solution was the remaining question.

The biggest problem for environmental content publishers is many are experiencing a poor ROI (return on investment) with their content, or as we like to call it getting the best Return on Inspiration. Reaching and retaining the attention of the right people and the widest range of people is very challenging in a new media landscape that is extremely saturated.

At the same time, people who want to watch content related to the environment, want a range of choices, from short form to long format content and home made to highly produced. Viewers of this content want to have a choice of options when it comes to thinking about how they will engage with environmental issues.

They don’t want to be preached at, they want to have a guilt free experience and come to the content when they want, on-demand. Finally, when they watch something, many want to be able to do something with the information or ideas they are presented.

So solving those problems in the marketplace is our objective, and we know that there will be other problems to solve in the future as well.

Steve: What made you decide that this was the way to go and to start emPivot?
Thom: There were a lot of factors involved in deciding to move forward. We knew the business opportunity was there for sure, but ultimately, what made us move forward was the realization that we didn’t think anyone was going to be as thoughtful and responsible when building the solution that we knew the market needed. If there was going to be an online video site for green content, it needed to go beyond that. We saw instead the need for an aggregation and distribution service for green related content and a brand that would last into the future to provide services for the entire range of people creating and consuming “green-related” media. As expected, some of the efforts that have followed ours, are short sighted and looking to take advantage of the “green-wave”, as some call it the “green-rush”. What the sector needs is not people looking to take advantage of the situation, but a service that is authentic. Not to say that we are the only authentic green media company in the industry, but we strive to be the most authentic sustainability focused digital media service and brand every day. And this is what has always driven us to build this company.

Steve: What is your philosophy on using social media for good?
Thom: Social media is an extension of our relationships as global citizens. How we exchange ideas, information, and services is undergoing an absolute revolution. There is a lot of power in the numbers we are seeing online. Obviously many people, causes, and efforts are benefiting from this. At the same time, it is clear that our world will be challenged by problems for some time to come. Having more tools isn’t always the only answer to solving these problems, having the right tools, is more important.
New media and social media are already moving content that can have an impact on the real lives of people. Social media, and media distribution in general will continue to evolve to be more effective at doing that. If a social media website actually changes someone’s life directly, for example like Kiva.org does, that is when social media and websites are at their greatest. So, as a result of social media evolving it just might spawn new economies built around creating stronger, healthier, and more sustainable communities. That’s simply amazing and very exciting. We are excited to be part of that evolution.

Steve: What are some lessons good or bad you have learned from starting emPivot?
Thom: Ok, this is one of those questions that has so many answers. The online video and sustainability sectors are both rapidly emerging and changing. One person said to us, “Why would you get involved in online video, that’s where the pie fight is. That’s a risky endeavor.” The big lesson is that there is a great deal of opportunity to create world changing products and solutions, even though we are a relatively small kid on the block. So, we’ve been sticking to a mantra of being authentic, true to our mission as a business, and in that pie fight analogy, that has been both our shield and our pie. We are spending a lot of time listening to the real users, the people who are giving us feedback and learning how we can move our product from its current place to a future business that has the ability to generate significant revenue and change.

Related to that, the other important lesson that has been really amazing to experience is the advantage we have of being a for-profit business. We are exposed to the requirements of the economy. People want revenue, we can’t rely just on funds or grants as a non-profit. It drives us to create innovative ways to drive real revenue through video for our business and create innovative ways to keep our services relevant.
Those are the first two that come to mind. Maybe some other day I’ll be able to go over all the other lessons learned. It’s great though; they’ve all made us stronger.

Steve: You don’t see yourselves as a social network but a video content platform, why go in that direction?
Thom: With the release of the new version of our network we are focused on being really good at one thing; being an online video network for green content. This means getting video content about environmental issues, to people who will watch the content, from the best sources.

Social networking has changed so rapidly, and will continue to over the coming years. It’s a really volatile space and we are under no illusion that we need to compete to build the best social networking tools. While I enjoy my own personal Facebook account and many of the innovations on social networking sites, the world of social networks and identities, will undergo, if it isn’t already, a drastic change as digital media distribution, ala IPTV, On Demand, and the like, evolve. So will television and video on the Internet.

So, with that in mind we are focused on being a company that doesn’t have to worry about being the next big social network. We want to be a video network with content that defines our users, and users that at some level help to define the content. So that is our reasoning, and as a result it’s paying off because we focus on being good at one thing.

Steve: Do you feel it is important for a company to be unique it should build their own tools (e.g. Video Player)?
Thom: Absolutely. What are you worth if you don’t have something unique? At the same time, in this world of rapid technology evolution, you have to be more nimble and strategically choose where you make investments in technology. The great part of the current technology environment is that there are a vast number of solutions providers that allow small upstarts to not have to build revolutionary applications. With the use of API’s and widgets, companies like ours can focus on building the business model and delivering the content to the places it needs to go, rather than spend a lot of time working outside of our core capacity. There are a lot of little parts that can provide supplementary services to a company’s core offerings. With that said, we continue to focus on building out our own technology solutions because we have a vertical market. That market niche allows us to focus internally on building out very specifics technologies that we don’t believe anyone will be driven to develop.

Steve: Do feel that companies should use advertising as their only source of monetizing their site?
Thom: Well, that depends of course. Some sites can do very well based on advertising as a sole income stream. More than likely, that’s a fickle game to play for a higher percentage of companies. Creating future projections for a company built solely on advertising for the large percentage of online companies is a bit naïve because of the challenge of volume. In the global marketplace, people need real solutions for their lives. This requires real services. The companies and individuals who build revenue strategies that impact people’s real world problems with real world solutions will build businesses that people will come back to. With every passing day, our modes of receiving data and information are changing, and advertising is not the only method for digital companies to create revenue. Exactly what all those opportunities are, I can’t predict exactly, but there is no doubt a great number of people forging ahead to develop those new revenue models. We like to consider ourselves part of that group.

Steve: As we close the interview I think it is important to discuss the potential for Green Fatigue to set in. Do you think that things will peak and fade out affecting emPivot?
Thom: We built what we like to call a legacy brand, a brand that can transcend the possibility of a “green” trend fading. So we aren’t worried about that idea.

There is a lot of talk about this idea; is “green” just a fad? The way it’s being defined by some people, as a business opportunity train to jump on, yes, it is a fad and some people are experiencing some “green fatigue” because the word might be losing its value.

At the same time, the way we define it, as being a cultural movement tied to awareness of our use of limited natural resources, we have a hard time seeing it going away. The names we use to bring about that awareness may change, but ultimately the basis of “green” issues will always be part of our world. We see it simply this way, natural resources are the basis of our society, our materials for making society work come from our natural environment. Whether the movement to think about those things in relation to our consumption and protection of those resources is called green, blue, or brown, doesn’t matter.

So, I guess what I am saying is that the “green” name maybe a fad and it may last two to seven more years, but the opportunity to create exciting world changing products and solutions is not a fad. Let me also add this, the “green-wave” we are experiencing has led to some of the highest levels of awareness about natural resource issues. That has been absolutely amazing. At the same time it’s exposed the complexity of our ecological systems, and our economic ties to those systems. Figuring out how to simplify our relationship with natural resources and bring our use of those resources into balance will always be an ongoing business opportunity.

As a media business we plan to be around for a long time to come while all that is happening, and hopefully we can empower pivotal change through our services and media network.

The full video is shown below, but here are some key highlights:

The power of your personal story

Tom says it best, “Remember, customers don’t buy products. They buy stories about who you are and what you stand for.” This is so true in today’s world of being bombarded with advertising messages and boring sales pitches. So tell your story.

Each company has a story. It is important that you share that story to tell your target market and the world about who and what your company stands for every day.

Your people are your “Brand Ambassadors”

The best place to start to tell your story is to start with “Your People”. He can’t emphasize enough how important it is to incorporate testimonials from people. These people are “brand ambassadors” that evangelize your company to the rest of the world. It can be employees and customers, but most importantly, it should be authentic and capture the heart and soul of who and what your company is about.

Can video really help my small business?

Absolutely. Companies use his films for things like marketing, recruiting and retention, and sharing corporate values — to name a few. He believes that you can and should do this no matter what size business you are. He notes in the video, “A company’s story is tightly woven even more with a small business which actually makes it easier to uncover that story.”

When the video fades to black, there is a second story to tell.

Tom says, “When the video fades to black, there is a second story – the conversation.” The conversation that occurs ignites discussion between people and gets your audience to tell new stories. “This could be one-on-ones broadcasting their thoughts on the web, potential companies, potential customers and new recruits for example.” It may take your story in a whole new direction that you never thought of before.

How do I get started?

Well, you could hire Tom and I am sure he would love that. If your budget doesn’t align with his, then you can start by picking up a video camera and start capturing your story. Tom creates videos that are “energetic, engaging, compelling, meaningful and authentic”.” You will start to see patterns in how people describe your company and stories that you will want to polish and share with the rest of the world. Tom likes to say “you want to get it as right as you can for longevity”.