“Gone are the days when you have to spend $10,000+ on a video by acquiring a crew, hiring a director, booking a studio, etc. Creating online video doesn’t have to be hard, nor does it have to look amateurish. If you follow these few basic steps, you can — quickly and easily — create a video yourself that shines…”

If you follow that line of thinking — it should be no problem using your own snapshots of the company executives in your next annual report, right? I mean, look at the great digital cameras that are available today. And iPhoto makes retouching so easy!

Here was my response to their blog:

Don’t ever forget that your brand is judged everyday by the quality of the messages and images you put in front of your audiences.

It may not be fair, but if your web site, printed materials or video look amateurish — that’s EXACTLLY the impression your prospects will now have about your organization. Amateurish. Unsophisticated. Unprofessional. Small. Not a major player.

You know you’ve thought the same thing about other companies’ sites when you’ve been online.

So, it’s true — the low cost of HD video cameras and laptop or even web based editing software is making video production much more accessible to everyone.

And, for video testimonials and simple short messages from executives — most companies can and should be able to create good video on their own.

But before you take on a video project with no outside professional help, remember some of the tough lessons companies had to learn back in the 90s when Desktop Publishing was all the rage.

I actually worked with a company that purchased Corel Draw and a color printer and told the RECEPTIONIST to learn how to use both so that they could “spice up” their proposals. Care to guess how that all worked out?

OK, so the point is this: just because you CAN layout a brochure — or point a video camera in the general direction of your CEO — doesn’t mean you SHOULD.

It sounds trite, but it’s true — you only get one chance to make a first impression.

1. It’s much more effective to put your message in places where prospects are actively looking for products and services in your category;
2. Today, when customers are actively shopping for something, they almost always turn first to Google, Yahoo and other web search tools to find information and options;
3. The company with the best information/content (i.e., most complete, easiest to understand, useful, engaging and offered in a variety of ways) most often wins the purchase
4. In light of all of the above, your marketing mission is make it incredibly easy for your prospects to find you and your incredibly authoritative, engaging and useful information by leveraging all the tools available to you on the Web.

I have to give a huge tip-of-the-hat to the HubSpot Blog as an incredible resource for all things related to Social Media Marketing or what they and others are referring to as inbound marketing.  If you’re just starting to explore this brave new world of Social Media/Inbound Marketing, HubSpot is a great place to start.

HubSpot isn’t just a charitable repository of marketing information.  They’re really practicing what they preach by using great content to attract new customers for their inbound marketing software.  (In the spirit of full disclosure:  No, we don’t use their software — yet.  But I’ve become such a fan of their resources I can’t say how long it will be before we at least check it out.)

But my point really isn’t to fawn over HubSpot as much as to use them as an example of the power offering your customers really useful, meaty information that helps them in their day to day lives or work.  This company uses blogs, video postings, webcasts, video tutorials, interest group sites on Linked-In, Twitter, Facebook and who knows what else to get their message out.

Having a well designed Web site is just the tip of the iceberg.  Harnessing the power of the Web to have great conversations with your prospects and customers is what Social Media/Inbound Marketing is all about.