I’ve been blogging a lot lately about when DIY videos are okay. My theory is if you’re a tiny business with zero marketing budget, by all means produce your own videos.

On the other hand, if you’re a more established company, it’s better to turn to a professional storyteller.

I think the subject has been on my mind a lot because I’m basically putting my money where my mouth is. No, I’m not turning to someone else to produce a video on T60. That’s crazy talk. I’m talking about web design.

When I started T60 eight years ago, I sat down at iWeb (does Apple even make that anymore!?)… Read More

We’ve all heard it before, but it’s true. Content is becoming a more and more valuable tool for businesses, and the better they do it the better it makes the company look.

It’s one of the biggest reasons to make sure you’re picking a good storyteller to produce your videos. You want to create content that’s going to appeal to your clients and prospects. I’m sure Ted in accounting puts together some terrific home movies, but we’re talking a higher degree of storytelling sophistication here.

A quality storyteller will be able to take what you want to communicate and deliver it in a way that draws in an audience.… Read More

Last week I was blogging about when it’s okay for a business to produce its own videos. Basically, it boils down to budget and size. If you’re a small business owner with zero budget for marketing, please feel free to produce your own stuff. Everyone else… you should look for a video pro.

What I didn’t get into was WHY everyone else should get professional help. So… here it is…

You want people to take you seriously. You want clients and prospects to look at your company and have a sense of confidence. You want them to look at you as professional.… Read More

I’m not supposed to like Jim Harbaugh, but I do. I’m a Trojan after all. I won’t go into the details because they’re irrelevant here, but suffice to say Harbaugh has few USC admirers after his tenure as Stanford’s head coach.

The reason I’m a Jim Harbaugh fan and was disappointed to see the 49ers Super Bowl comeback fall short is because of what he taught me as a teenager. It’s stuff I carry with me to this day and makes a difference in my business.

Jim taught me to compete

I was a good athlete growing-up, but I wasn’t the best.… Read More

If you hadn’t noticed, American Airlines recently changed its logo. I was pretty surprised when it popped up in my Facebook feed.  I like it.

A logo change is usually a big deal for a company. All new stationary, business cards, all sorts of stuff needs updating. Now imagine you have a fleet of passenger jets. Yikes!

American Airlines produces good Videos

American is pretty good about using video to inform its passengers. They produced one of my all-time favorite corporate videos, and the latest one involves giving their planes an all new look (VIDEO). While it’s not exactly award-winning storytelling, I enjoyed it and learned some interesting things.… Read More

Mrs. G and I are terrible dancers, and yet on our wedding day we chose to do a choreographed dance in front of all our guests. I blame my in-laws for providing the dance lessons gift certificate prior to the big day.

We took lessons at Ballroom Dance Chicago. Our teacher was very good and very patient. She needed to be, but what it earned her is recommendations like this. It’s a great place to take lessons.

where am i going with this?

Ever since then I’ve been following the business on Facebook, and over the last three months they’ve been posting more and more videos.… Read More

Okay… what do you think of Vine?

Not up on the new social video platform? Well, you can read more about it at Twitter’s blog. Basically, it’s a new Twitter app that allows people to capture and share 6-second videos.

What can you share in 6-seconds? I think that’s the idea. Like the 140 character limit, they’re looking for some creativity from users.

business applications

I have no idea how businesses will start to use the service, but if it catches on I’m sure business leaders will be working overtime to capitalize. I take that back, they’ll have their creative teams working overtime.… Read More

Something interesting happened to me yesterday. I got more information watching a video than I did from detailed text.

It sounds ridiculous. Everyone knows text offers an opportunity to deliver more information than a video. I often tell clients their video is the hook to get people to further explore their website for more information.

So what happened?

I went to the my health care provider’s website to get some information regarding my plan and chronic back pain. I’ve been having some serious back issues, so I wanted to find out what sort of treatments are available.

I scanned through some text, but it wasn’t very helpful.… Read More

I got to watch some public speaking training yesterday. One of our regular clients hired a speech coach to teach a couple of the managers. T60 provided the video support and instant replays.

Not our normal thing, but I was really looking forward to it. The coach was good. She was pretty tough on the managers, but there was definitely an improvement from start to finish.

Getting an audience to pay attention

One of the things the coach talked about early on was the need to tell a story. She said people won’t remember details, but they will remember a narrative.… Read More

I try to read spinsucks.com everyday. There are tons of PR/marketing blogs, but Gini Dietrich and her team of guest writers consistently churn out some great content.

Guess what… she’s even better in person.

After having read hundreds of her blog posts, yesterday was the first time I’ve watched her speak to a group. It was the blog come to life… really good stuff.

Gini and I met… what… a couple of years ago? She has become a client, and I’m proud that she’s recommended T60 to her clients. One of them was hosting an internal town hall meeting yesterday and Gini was presenting.… Read More