After all, you need to get yourself a Christmas present, right? Let’s make it something that will last throughout the New Year! Something that will help you grow your business and add another important layer of marketing to your social media marketing program.

I’m talking about video equipment and software so you can quickly produce and distribute video content across all your distributed platforms. And guess what, as much as businesses seem to talk about video marketing, not many are really doing it. If your businesses does it, you can really put yourself in a very strong competitive postion in several ways:

1. Search results- Search engines love video and it gives your business an opportunity to get a double listing if you are already ranking for your keywords
2. Authority in you market- In the attention economy you need to be able to get and hold attention with information and education marketing. Adding video to your mix gives you an entirely new dimension to engage your customers.
3. It’s cheap and easy- That’s right. Once you get the hang of making videos, and you have the right set up, doing new videos are a snap. All you need to do is create a quick script and you are off.

Equipment (your Christmas Present)

For simple video production capability you will need 5 basic pieces of equipment and two types of software for the complete package:

• An HD camera- if you can find it, get the Kodak Z
• A light weight camera tripod
• A green screen for background (Optional)
• Basic three stand lighting set (Optional but highly recommended)
• Lapel microphone (optional but recommended)
• Screencast software for your computer (Here’s a great post in Mashable with reviews and links)
• Video editing software (see reviews of top options here)

We recommend going to B&H Photo to buy your equipment as they seem to have the best prices and availability. The total cost for all this equipment can range from $600- $6,000 depending on what type of camera you buy, lights etc. But for $600 to $1,000 you can have a great quality video set up that will make you proud.

What to do with your new equipment?

Here is the first thing you should do to get your video marketing started. Launch a video campaign that drives people back to your site (to sign up for something so you get a lead). What should the videos be about? How about answering the 10 most frequently asked questions you know your top customers have when they are searching for solutions that you provide? Just make them 30 second to no more than 2:00 minute videos. After you do those, make another 10 that are questions your top prospects should be asking. This gives you a great opportunity to give your own perspective and differentiate your product or service. Then put some simple royalty free music in the background and your logo and web address on the video using the video editing software…and you are ready to publish.

We use both Traffic Geyser and Tube Mogul to distribute our videos…they make it easy to distribute videos to all the video distribution platforms including Your Tube.

That’s it. You have everything you need now to start 2010 off with a great new marketing tool that will generate more leads and more customers while making you an authority in your market. Have fun!

What do you think?

At GenNext Social Media Labs, we just finished development of our own high tech video studio and editing suite after experimenting with video for several of our own projects as well as our clients. This is a very effective strategy if used with the right keywords and content.

Like all your distributed content, the end goal of your video content is to get indexed and drive traffic back to your website or blog.  Video is also a great way to educate your potential customer and develop a trusted relationship before getting they even reach your site.

We are still learning and experimenting, but here are 5 keys that we found critical to making video marketing work:

1) Production and Content

• Like all aspects of social media marketing, you need to be consistent and persistent to achieve your goals. That means you will need to integrate video production into your workflow and regularly create and distribute videos tied to your overall keyword and marketing strategy.

• High definition video equipment is not very expensive. We found B&H Photo to be the best source for equipment with the best prices (they also seem to be the most referenced source by experienced video marketers). Adding on lights, microphones and a few other accessories can give you a nice video studio that will make it easy for you to create videos on a regular basis. You and your staff can do this without professional help if you want. The key is easy access so you will make video creation a part of your business marketing.

• Your customers are searching for answers to questions. That is your best opportunity to engage with them in a non-sales way and be the hero by helping them better understand their problem and solutions. Educational content is key. Even better, answer their questions in video format.

• We like two different approaches to launching a video aspect to a social media marketing campaign. First, identify the 20 most burning questions you know your target customers have and answer them in videos that are 30 seconds to 2.5 minutes long. Second, create a mini-course using videos to address more complexed, high involvement questions your target customers may have. With either of these strategies, use the other videos in the series to get target customers to opt in to your list.

2) Distribution

• Market your videos where ever and whenever you can.
  • Don’t be overbearing, but you can use videos in a resources section of your site and create a You Tube Channel.
  • Rotate various videos in your email signature, blog posts, social media sites, autoresponders and social bookmarking locations.

• Don’t depend on just one distribution point to promote your video.
  • Tubemogul and Traffic Geyser are great video distribution and sharing platforms that automate distribution of your videos to You Tube and many more video hubs. This makes video distribution easy…even better, track-able.

3) Engagement

• Create landing pages for videos with a summary of the content.  Also, have a comments section to encourage feedback and participation.

• Make the videos easy to share. If they are really informative, people will send them around. I am sure you have been on the receiving end of some great videos.

• Prompt action in your video. Get the audience to do something that will get them more engaged with your brand. Here is a great Copyblogger post that covers this subject very well.

4) Marketing Strategy

• The content, including scripts, subject matter, headlines and keywords should be a continuation of the other parts of your social media strategy. The goal of your social media implementation is consistency and control. All external links with anchor text, directory publishing and content should be pulling in the same strategic direction so you win the positioning in your market.

• Make video content planning a part of your overall content planning process to ensure it all works together.

Video marketing is another layer of your businesses overall social media marketing mix. It’s not a magic bullet, nothing is. Once you have some of the other basics working for you, like your blog, web 2.0 pages, regular forum participation and article publishing, it’s time to start to put video marketing into your workflow.

Have you done any video distribution yet? How is it going?

One very cool social media tool is video. If you’re into making movies, you may already have some up on YouTube. YouTube is now the world’s top search engine, having recently bypassed Google. But don’t worry about Google losing its edge—it bought YouTube in 2006. Together, YouTube and Google are behemoths of the search engine world.

YouTube’s tagline is: “Broadcast Yourself.” I might add, the better to sell your ideas and skills.

For example, if you’re a graphic designer, you might feel more at ease in showing how to design and balance white space with images in laying out an attractive magazine page—rather than write an article on how to do it. Video then is a terrific medium to show-n-tell with your voice-over explaining the steps, in synch with your hand actions.

Video production requires good lighting and a distinctive background to promote your brand image. So does a clear and crisp sound. Speak slowly and lucidly. Make sure there are no extraneous background noises. Script your production by outlining the process including words you’ll use. Rehearse beforehand. 2-4 minute videos are most effective.

Meantime, you’ll have a silent production partner promoting your company. That is, use a white board as your backdrop with your business name and website written on it. Just be sure it’s in the eye of the camera.

The whole idea behind social marketing is to get people to start commenting on, and exchanging, ideas. As I mentioned in one of my articles, that’s how I met up with Michael Licamele, VP of Marketing at TotalMortgage.com. As a result of our meeting through social networking, we’re now teaming up to write a book on how real estate agents can use social media for marketing properties. From out of the blue!

Don’t let Internet marketing for small business slip by you. Don’t play small, either. Stretch your reach and be amazed at how you can cultivate leads that last a lifetime—based on authentic, relationship-building.

Chris Marentis is a serial entrepreneur and recognized Internet Marketing expert having served as SVP at AOL and CEO of Clearspring Technologies. For more information on Online Marketing and Advertising, go to http://www.gennextmedia.com today.