Have you ever thought about producing an online video for your business?

The way technology has leaped forward recently, now makes video affordable and accessible for businesses of all types. There are now an increasing number of good, cost-effective film makers and lower prices no longer means low quality.

If you talk to a reputable film production studio  – and we already partner with some highly professional film and commercial makers – then you will find that you can have a high quality film produced for hundreds - rather than thousands - of pounds.

What’s more, there are now far more outlets that you can use to publish the films. Obviously, you can distribute them on DVD or large capacity memory sticks, but savvy businesses are now putting them them online. As well as YouTube, where you can quickly build a name for your brand if your video inspires people to watch it, ‘like it’ and forward links to their friends, there are many trade magazine publishers who offer a video or 'tv' facility.

You can also host it on your own website and then build links to it from e-shots, e-brochures, newsletters and press releases.

So, if you have a way of doing things that could benefit from a video demonstration, then give it some serious thought. And what’s more, search sites and SEO experts are now reporting that web videos are getting higher rankings in the in the search engines than other pages.

Food for thought?

We attended a direct and digital marketing seminar recently where one of the side discussions related to sharing of personal information and intrusion by marketers into our everyday lives.

Are you concerned that if you have a certain type of phone, the manufacturer can track your every move? There was some uproar in the press recently when this became common knowledge, but by and large, it will become an everyday thing.

Teenagers now share masses of data and personal information on line. This generation is far more savvy in many respects than us 'oldies', yet when it comes to personal information, then it flows like water.

It has recently been reported that Facebook has lost thousands of users in the UK, but is still growing fast in India and the Far East - as well as amongst 50+ adults in the UK! I don’t believe these users are leaving as a result of sharing issues; it’s more likely to do with the fact that a 16 year old won’t relish being on a social network site alongside her dad and her gran!

So where is it all going? I believe that the youngsters will soon set their own online agenda through the very sophisticated capabilities of the next generation of mobile phones. Tracking movements will be the least of the things they will do as new online networks are forged and driven by mobile technology.

What we are starting to see now, with the super injunctions and celebrity privacy issues, is that we don’t want people to know what we’re up to but we do want to know what everyone else is doing! Whether this is right or wrong is another matter.