Description: What is it?
There is no doubt that the invention of the video camera has changed history. Videos are so ubiquitous today that even most of the basic cell phones have some video capabilities. It is hard to avoid videos – even elevators and gas pumps have videos – and very soon, it may be impossible to avoid them altogether.
Our kids grew up watching them, playing them, and they watch them on their phones. If you can find someone who doesn’t know what a video is they must be a time traveler from the past. They are everywhere online.
Why I am I trying to explain what a video is? You know what they are.
Users: Who needs it?
Everybody who owns a website needs the ability to put video content on their pages, and if they don’t think they need it now they might change their minds in the very near future. Video content is arguably the most important form of content there is, but there is no doubt that video content is the most flexible content there is.
Video content can send any type of message possible. Literally. Product demonstrations, tutorials, testimonials, commentary, film, and commercials – all of them are perfect candidates for video content.
Don’t forget that video can also be used to rotate images or a display a PowerPoint presentation, of both which are effective marketing tools, and which you may already have. You can use Video content to insert many of your existing marketing materials into your website. Components that enable and manage this type of content allow you to create your very own television channel that is on 24hrs a day.
Video components can place any type of this content anywhere on your page.
Features: What does it do?
The features video components provide are vast, yet even the most powerful/full-featured of them are also very user-friendly. These modules make the management and display of video content easy, but they also have the ability to manage audio files and photos conveniently in one place – safely and securely. This ability allows your most powerful content to be accessed and viewed by anyone with access to the internet on any device, even cell phones. Your marketing message becomes available to hundreds of millions of people.
Additionally, some video components facilitate converting videos between different formats, allow streaming of videos from other locations/sites (so the video doesn’t even have to be in your domain), and they support community based video file sharing. Many modules also provide support for high quality (hi-def?) content.
If you want to allow visitors to your Facebook page to see the content on your website, or if you would like to embed videos hosted on popular services like YouTube and Metacafe, there are modules available that make the process effortless. You can also easily create galleries of photos or videos for product displays or an encyclopedia of tutorials with multiple categories and subcategories – the possibilities are endless. There has never been an easier or more effective way, to showcase your products, ideas, hobbies, or abilities for the entire world to see.
In addition to the previous mentioned features, these components also provide the following functionality:
uploading tools for large media uploads
support for mp3, divx, mp4, wmv, wma, H264, images(JPG, GIF, PNG)
flash video galleries
Plays a single video file from a URL or unlimited video files from a playlist
direct to server webcam recording with no download
Support for avi, wmv, asf, asx, mpg, flv, nsv and You Tube.
Benefits: What is achieved?
The benefits of integrating video capabilities into your website are hard to quantify because there are so many of them, but suffice it to say that almost every business model needs to have the ability to connect with customers in video format. Don’t forget that video doesn’t necessarily mean your content is actually a mini-movie, or a television commercial. Video modules also make it easy to create product showcases with static photos, or they allow you to run a PowerPoint presentation on your website – PowerPoint presentations are one of the most cost effective marketing tools, and they are also very easy to create.
Moreover, if you don’t think you have a need for video content I challenge you do a little research on the phenomena the iPod, iPhone, and smart phones have created in the digital world, and the number of applications designed specifically to convert video content to be put on those devices. These devices have propelled Video content beyond the internet by making online content available everywhere allowing smart businesspeople to connect and engage with more customers than ever before.
On the other hand, odds are – you can just dig your own phone out of your pocket, and see for yourself how powerful video content is. After all, that’s probably why you bought it in the first place.