Video is increasingly becoming a preferred channel to market a business and engage with target audiences – customers, media and influencers – that is much more exciting and entertaining than text and photos.

Video can put a personality to your brand with an authenticity that is only available through face-to-face interaction. It is also affordable. The software and cameras available today are cost-effective, making this investment a winner for your business.

Here are five ways to make sure your video communications are maximized:

1) Content
It is critical that the content of your video is informative and will give the viewer a clear takeaway. Whether the video is a product demo, customer case study, tour of your facility, or a message from your CEO on a business topic, it should be direct, to the point, and provide valuable information to the viewer.

It is also important that the video is short – no longer than 3 minutes long. If you need more time, you probably need to think about doing a series of videos!
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Skype is continuing to gain popularity with reporters. Whether you are responding to breaking news, pitching a distant media market, or offering up a client or spokesperson that is traveling, Skype provides an easy-to-use, cost effective and flexible tool for conducting media interviews.

Here are 7 tips for maximizing the success of your Skype media interview.

1. Use a Secure Connection – Make sure you have a secure Internet or Wi-Fi connection, and test it out in advance of the interview. Forbes offers a good point to make sure your computer has plenty of battery power.

2. Choose a Quiet Location – Pick a quiet location that will help you concentrate and project an professional image. Keep your colleagues in the office informed so that they do not interrupt you during the interview; consider taping a short note on your office door.
3. Create an Optimal Background – Use a simple and professional backdrop to avoid background confusion. Check that you have the proper lighting to avoid unusual shadows. In addition, CNN suggests avoiding patterns that come across as too loud on screen, such as bright stripes, that make it hard to focus on the spokesperson.

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I just finished a whirlwind of 3 “tech” conferences in 4 weeks: EDUCAUSE (higher ed tech), Aspire 2011 (LivePerson’s global summit on customer engagement) and Defrag 2011 (internet innovation around information transformation).  Three different conferences, three different vertical markets, three different locations and three different “feels”.  But that’s not the interesting part.  The interesting part is that all three talked about the same four things and those things weren’t so techy:

• Culture
• Connection
• Collaboration
• Content

It was astounding to me that culture – what many might think of as the least techy thing of all – was so important in so many of the presentations.  Why is that?  I’m not sure I know, but what I think is that the past few years – fueled by technology – have created a major shift in how we work, learn and engage – and that culturally, we are trying to keep up.  Education, application development, customer service – they are all feeling the same impact.

As importantly, in many cases, we weren’t talking about tech at all, but rather content.  Content that drove learning, content that created leadership, content that engaged buyers.  “The pipes don’t matter!”  “The LMS as we know it is dead!”  “It’s online and offline – content when and where you want it.”

The best part of all of these conferences for me was that at some level they were all about marketing.  Defining what’s important, where the engagement needs to happen, how the engagement needs to happen and how the brand and culture need to be consistent and honest.  All of this against a backdrop of incredible speakers who challenged us to be honest, to challenge status quo, to look beyond the obvious.  Oh, and that it’s okay to be a Geek.

I can’t give these conferences their full due – literally too much content (!), so check them out yourself with their Twitter hashtags: #EDU11, #defragcon, #Aspire2011.

Michelle Pujadas
Zer0 to 5ive Founder and Co-CEO
Twitter: @Pujadas