If a picture is worth a thousand words…

Anyone who came of age in the 1980’s remembers the early days of MTV (back when they still played music videos.)  MTV premiered in 1981 with the Buggles “Video Killed the Radio Star.” Never has so significant a change been heralded by a more mediocre song. 

Because video did more than kill the radio star. It’s fundamentally changed the way we communicate. Television has eclipsed print as a news source. Sites like YouTube have become the most popular sites on the internet.  And some TED talks have been viewed by over 20 million people.  

And yet, associations are often clinging to print, PowerPoint and flat web sites as their means of communication. 

We’ve used video with our clients for years. Short videos are great ways to convey information at a conference or on a web site.  Video breaks the monotony of PowerPoint, and a tightly scripted video can often convey information faster and more effectively than a speaker.

We’ve recently used video in a few ways. For the Boston Estate Planning Council (www.bepc.org) we used a short video to introduce an award winner: http://youtu.be/ADui-Z_h90k.   

For the PCI Security Standards Council (www.pcissc.org), we produced a series of short videos to explain technical topics: http://youtu.be/oK7sDicnrOE and http://youtu.be/pmuuaomMZA0 are both shown in conferences and will be available on their website. Also for the Council, we produced videos driving awareness on the importance of data security for small merchants: http://youtu.be/pmuuaomMZA0.  

Of course, sometimes video can be just plain fun. I’ve taken to using video for my Out of Office messages:  http://youtu.be/-q_mVtsqaQY. 

After all, if a picture is worth a thousand words, imagine how many a video is worth?