The New Rules of Marketing and PR: How to Use Social Media, Online Video, Mobile Applications, Blogs, News Releases, and Viral Marketing to Reach Buyers Directly, 5th Edition

6Audio and Video Drive Action

Audio and video on the web are not new. Clips have been available on websites since the early days. But until recently, neither audio nor video was used much online because the content was difficult to locate and impossible to browse, and there was no easy way to get regular updates. And since much audio and video content was lengthy—as much as an hour or more—and people had no idea what was in these files without actually watching or listening to them, not many did.

The migration of audio and video from online backwaters to the forefront with valuable content happened because of sites like YouTube, Vimeo, and iTunes, with easy ways for people to view and listen. In addition, high-speed Internet connections became the norm, and the technology to create and upload audio and video became simple enough that anybody can do it (including you).

Create Goodwill with Customers

Videos use emotion to tell stories in ways that most other forms of marketing cannot. That's a technique that Tim Washer, senior manager of social media at Cisco Systems, uses all the time. The videos Tim creates are used to market to Cisco's service provider customers—large telecommunications companies like AT&T, Verizon, and Telstra. He uses both humor and drama in a series called “The Network Effect: Telecom's Socioeconomic Impact,” which markets the Cisco business in a subtle way.

“One way to create goodwill with service providers is to help their customers understand what service ...