Best Practices for Creating Business Video

For many of you, as much as you might want to embrace using business video to promote your business, train customer or co-workers, the very idea of creating business video is daunting enough to avoid it. However, hopefully much to your surprise, with the proper tools and guidelines, you can easily create a high quality business video.

To help you get started, I’ve listed some best practices that you’d need to be successful.

Know Your Audience

Before you begin to shoot any video content, you must first pinpoint the video’s intended audience. For example, are you targeting business prospects, customers, co-workers? Once you know who your audience is, you can then think about the tone of your business video that will appropriately address those people. For example, if you are creating a video on a more serious topic, like new hire benefits, you will need a more formal delivery.

If you have identified your audience and are still unsure of what style and tone would be appropriate or engaging, ask yourself these three questions:

• What will my audience respond to and what will put them off or make them lose focus?
• How enthusiastic and informal can I be before it comes off too unprofessional?
• Does my content require a serious delivery?

Get to the Point

Once you’ve settled on the style and tone you want for your business video, make sure that your message is clear and concise. If the message that you wish to deliver is too long or your point isn’t defined, then you won’t make your desired impact.

Hint: To hold your viewer’s attention, don’t produce a business video longer than 5 minutes (if you can get your point across in 2 minutes, all the better).

Pay Attention to the Look and Sound of Your Business Video

While your business video’s content is obviously important, you need to pay just as much attention to the look and sound of your video. If you spend time making your video visually and audibly appealing, you will get a better response. A lot of common mistakes people make when shooting a video come down to improper lighting and poor sound quality. Luckily, both mistakes can easily be fixed with a little natural light and a small, affordable clip-on mic.

Enhance Your Business Video

The more time you spend enhancing your content, the more likely it is that your audience will remain interested and focused. There are tools out there (like KZO) that will allow you to synch PowerPoint slides, insert quizzes and polls, and interact through chat. Adding any one of these features will enhance your viewer’s experience.

Make Your Business Video Unforgettable

What do you want people to accomplish by viewing your business video? You might be distributing your video with the sole purpose of knowledge-sharing and education; however, whatever your point may be, you want to make sure that your viewers are getting something out of the experience. To accomplish this, you could end your video with a call to action or question that requires further reflection. All in all, if your hope is to leave an impression, the possibilities for inspiration are endless.

Enable Video Metrics Tracking

By enabling video metrics tracking, you can see where you went right – and wrong. You’ll be able to tell who watched your business videos and if they were watched all the way through (or when people started to drop off). With this information, you can form a clear idea of where your viewers tend to lose interest and apply that to future content.

What to see how easy it is to create an engaging business video and how it can benefit your company, try The  KZO Video Suite for free.

Going Beyond Video Marketing, How Employee-Generated Video Content Can Benefit Your Company

While video is commonly used for outbound marketing and can be a great way to add personality and a personal touch to a corporate website, video can also be used internally with benefits for both company and employee. Video generated by employees, specifically content restricted to those within the company, can be a powerful knowledge sharing tool that gives employees the ability to relate to their peers and superiors.

Three reasons why employee-generated content can benefit both employees and companies alike:

Knowledge Sharing

On the employee-generated side, a lot of the value we see is in knowledge sharing. Allowing people across the organization, no matter what their role, to share their knowledge can be very beneficial. Whether it’s the man in charge of cable splicing or the director of a department, there is value in giving employees a tool to share their value and best practices.

Not only is corporate knowledge sharing a key benefit to employee-generated content, but allowing people to share their experiences and insights can help to build morale within the company. People naturally want to receive and share credit for what they are doing, so when people get views and positive feedback from their peers on the content that they have shared, the confidence and assurance that comes from that can be more significant than a plaque for a job well done.

Knowledge Management

Allowing employees to create a knowledge base of content that is reserved to only company viewing is a very powerful use of employee-generated content. Anywhere that there is corporate knowledge that other people can benefit from, knowledge should be shared and this content model utilized. With enough employee participation, a company can easily and quickly build a huge knowledge base of snippets of content.

Employee-Generated Content is Free (In a Sense)

With employee-generated content, companies don’t need to pay anyone to script or write their content. Content can be recorded using flip cams, web cams, and cell phones. The new iPhones and Androids even have HD cameras built-in. Most professionals already possess one or more of these devices that can capture high quality video; so, with a mechanism for people to upload and manage content already at their disposal, employee-generated content is affordable. Plus, in a lot of cases, many professionals are already recording video but just have no place to put it.

Many companies are hesitant when faced with employee-generated content because of its informal nature. However, while this YouTube approach to employee-generated content isn’t the most polished, it is certainly one of the most personal and relatable forms of internal communication.

 

Tips for Best Practices for Employee-Generated Content

Establish a Work Flow Ahead of Time

Before any content is recorded, there needs to be a defined work flow that covers how content will get from camera to website and the approval process that has been established. If this has been done, employees will know their limits. To avoid any frustration, employees should also be aware of any other moderation processes and rules that will be enforced.

Make it Short

To hold someone’s attention span and really make an impact, the standard length of a single piece of video content should be around 2 minutes (any more than 5 minutes is way too long). To apply this standard, content administrators might consider prohibiting longer videos. For an alternative to time limits, administrators can leverage expiration dates on content. With expiration dates, people are forced to keep content relevant and updated.

Control and Categorize Content

An important thing to keep in mind when allowing employee-generated content is the necessity of controlling and categorizing content. The last thing anyone needs is an open file folder full of thousands of video clips. Unruly and unmanageable content quickly diminishes the value of employee-generated content because people get frustrated and can’t find what they need.

For the sake of organization and ease, establishing predefined categories before people starting posting is absolutely necessary. In doing so, people can automatically publish content into the appropriate and designated category. For example, sales groups won’t publish content into another department’s folder and vice versa.

What to see how employee-generated video content can benefit your company, try KZO Video Suite for free.

Tagged employee generated content, knowledge sharing, social learning, video for learning, video for training

KZO Innovations Sponsors Website Dedicated to the Education of Enterprise Video Professionals

RESTON, Va. May 9, 2012 – The Streaming Video Platform provides Enterprise Video Professionals a venue to share best practices, industry trends as well as give new video professionals access to years of experience.

KZO Innovations, the industry leader in collaborative business video and eLearning, announces their sponsorship of a new website dedicated to the development of Enterprise Video Professionals.

Leading this effort is Jeff Fissel, Vice President, Solutions / Co-Founder of KZO Innovations.
“Our enterprise video customers are constantly asking us and looking for a central place for them to communicate and share ideas.” Said Jeff Fissel. “Most of the video sites today are primarily focused on video hobbyists, which doesn’t help Enterprise Video Professionals. The solution, find and support a site that does.”

Streaming Video Platform is open to anyone in any company both large and small with an interest in sharing experiences while learning more about enterprise video.
Currently the site is segmented into 4 categories:

Features of The KZO Business Video Suite that are particularly important to the eLearning community include:
• Enterprise Video 101, where you can brush up on the basics of streaming video across the enterprise
• How to’s/Tips, here you find shorts posts of how to use and leverage new tools and some best practices to go along with each
• Enterprise Video Security, is a section where we will provide information around how to maintain different levels of security around any video content and share best practices
• Question Repository, where any users can ask any question, and experts and other users will respond in a community format

About KZO Innovations, Inc.
KZO Innovations is the leading provider of social collaboration software for business video. The KZO Business Video Suite is being used by Fortune 500 companies and government agencies to securely “Create” or upload video from any computer, “Share” video within any CRM, LMS, web portal or as a stand-alone video portal, and “Socialize” video by engaging viewers – letting them add comments, ask questions and get answers. KZO’s interoperability with leading collaboration portals and learning management systems, including Salesforce and SharePoint, enables organizations to securely leverage the power of video with live and on-demand collaboration within a workgroup or across their entire global enterprise. The Suite consists of three integrated components that are compatible with major video formats including Flash and HTML5: KZO Virtual Studio, KZO Video Library and KZO Media Player.

Free KZO Account: kzoinnovations.com/elearning
For more information visit: kzoinnovations.com
Enterprise Video Professionals, Visit Streaming Video Platform

KZO Media Contact:
Peter Monahan
Tel: 703.957.8396
press@kzoinnovations.com
Share: KZO Innovations Sponsors Website Dedicated to the Education of Enterprise Video Professionals

Tagged enterprise video, KZO, social learning, video

Protecting Your Proprietary Information with KZO

To KZO Customers,

The security of video is important to our customers, so it’s critical to us. I’ve written a white paper on the topic of video security and I am proud of the security features that we have available to users of The KZO Business Video Suite. For this blog post, I thought it would be useful to provide some information on our security offerings.

If you are worried about the security of your online video (and you should be), The KZO Business Video Suite will ease those concerns. Below, I’ve listed how users can easily secure their video content on KZO.

Utilize Moderation Capabilities
KZO enables you to set controls so that you can keep track of who is viewing your content and any and all discussions and comments.

Note to eLearning professionals, KZO is SCORM compatible. Content can be created,
managed and measured with flexible SCORM compatible metrics and reporting.

Set Access Controls
While you can always set your permissions and requirements to public or restricted viewing, you have the option of requesting information about the viewer before they are given access to your content. If simply knowing a little bit about each individual that accesses your platform doesn’t suffice, add another level of security by assigning approved groups and users into communities of interest. Not only does this ensure that your information is distributed appropriately, but this feature also makes it easier for moderators to organize and control permissions and requirements. For example, if all sales employees are grouped into a designated sales community, moderators can be sure that those employees only have access to content meant for their viewing.

Simplify and Secure with External Authentication
If you don’t need yet another set of usernames and passwords to keep track of, groups and users can be aligned with your company’s LDAP, Active Directory, and Single Sign-On Authentication Systems.

Deliver Your Content over the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL)
KZO streams your video content over the SSL. This way, your video content is encrypted and will remain secure. This step, a very important one, will ensure that no one can “spy” or listen in on your videos.

Stream Your Video
By choosing to stream your video with KZO, you can be sure that your video cannot be downloaded and that your content will only reach its intended user or group. Progressive download, the alternative to streaming, means that as someone is viewing your video (delivered to them over HTTP), that video is downloaded locally onto the viewer’s computer. If you want to remain the owner of your content, stream your video and you won’t lose ownership.

Learn more about protecting your proprietary information with KZO, try KZO Video Suite for free.

KZO Glossary:

Single Sign-On
Web technology that allows users to use one login for a variety of different services – for example, an administrative platform, a CMS, and an LMS. The KZO Suite can easily integrate with existing sign-on systems using LDAP or Active Directory.

Streaming
Streaming video is video that is being played as it is being received from a server or other data source.

SCORM
Sharable Content Object Reference Model (SCORM) is a collection of specifications for web-based e-learning.

KZO Viewing Types:
Public Viewing: Public viewing allows the general internet public to view and participate with the presentation, but to leave a comment or collaborate views need to sign-in

Restricted Viewing: This option restricts viewing only to your user account and no one without your username/email and KZO password will be able to view

Tagged KZO, KZO Business Video Suite, SCORM, SSL, Video Security

The Difference Between Codecs and Container Formats

In this video blog Wes Cruver, the CEO and founder of KZO Innovations talks about the differences between Codecs and Container Formats.

Watch this video blog, The difference between H.264 and MP4 or MOV or AVI files, and how do they all relate…

Building Effective eLearning Programs for Sales

In the past, like many of my colleagues, I viewed sales training as something that took place a few times each year in a classroom, typically scheduled during a national or regional sales meeting.  Today this model doesn’t work.  The rate of change within my organization and the technology market demands that my company provide ongoing training for our teams.  Because of the changing demands of my team and our clients, I cannot think of these programs as formal “training”, but as ongoing eLearning sessions.

There are three elements to successful sales eLearning programs that I believe will help transform the way that you think about sales training.

1. Relevant content: This might seem obvious, but I believe that we need to constantly reevaluate the needs of our sales teams (including support staff) to determine relevancy of the eLearning content.  This goes beyond your basic product overviews and technical information.  Today’s sales teams need in-depth competitive information, details on how to position your offering vs all of the other options available to a prospect (including “doing nothing”) and industry trends.  These topics tend to be more dynamic, changing with a higher rate of frequency.  So remember, this eLearning content must be reviewed and updated often to remain relevant.

2. Accessibility:  The eLearning content should be accessible anytime, anywhere by your sales teams. In previous blogs, I have discussed the use of on demand video for this purpose.  Video remains one of the most effective means of providing accessible content to your sales teams. This video content should be available for viewing 24x7x365 on any device in order to be a useful tool.  Sales reps are viewing the latest product updates and competitive data right before they walk into the next client meeting.  While I am not a fan of waiting to the last minute, refreshing on key data provides sales reps confidence and has had a positive impact on sales.

3. Feedback: I recommend providing a means for soliciting and collecting feedback from your sales teams on all eLearning content.  This feedback is invaluable and can include questions and comments on any aspect of the content.  In the past, I have received feedback that has ranged from client success stories or issues to questions on the content that were not considered when the content was developed.  The feedback should be accessible for all to read and comment as needed.  The Q&A process is an important part of keeping the eLearning content up-to-date and relevant and you will find that over time, this feedback will enhance your content and your entire sales eLearning program.

Selling enterprise solutions is changing rapidly. With an effective sales eLearning program, you will be able to stay on top of this change and provide the tools needed for your teams to succeed.

Learn more about building effective elearning programs for sales, try KZO Video Suite for free.

KZO Innovations Provides Online Training Software to the eLearning Community

eLearning professionals using The KZO Business Video Suite as a business video creation and collaboration tool can count on continuing support from the leading provider of social collaboration software.

RESTON, Va., May l, 2012 – KZO Innovations (KZOInnovations.com), an industry leader in collaborative business video, announces their commitment to supporting the eLearning market space. KZO Innovations is dedicated to providing a video creation and collaboration tool focused on supporting the entire spectrum of eLearning professionals including: departments, freelancers, independent consultants, and stand-alone companies.

“KZO is uniquely positioned to support the eLearning space, offering the ability for companies to create and collaborate around a video,” said Wes Cruver, Chairman and CEO of KZO Innovations. “The field of eLearning is an important part of our 2012 business plan and we will continue updating our software to match the needs of the community.”

Features of The KZO Business Video Suite that are particularly important to the eLearning community include:
• Create and record video from anywhere at any time
• Allow viewers to ask questions and see each other’s remarks
• SCORM and AICC delivery compliant
• Simple rule and role-based access controls
• PowerPoint synchronization
• Detailed metrics tracking

KZO Innovations can be currently integrated into collaboration portals and Learning Management Systems (LMS) such as Blackboard, IGLOO, Moodle, Jive and SharePoint. The software is platform and browser neutral, so eLearning professionals have the freedom to use The KZO Business Video Suite as a stand-alone operation or integrated into their existing LMS. KZO has developed their software so that eLearning professionals can accomplish seamless integration without interrupting their existing workflow.

“KZO has some great partnerships with many LMS companies and we are always looking to expand. We’re looking to connect with even more of those that are similarly dedicated to supporting the eLearning community,” said Brian Kelly, Vice President of Sales, KZO Innovations.

About KZO Innovations, Inc.
KZO Innovations is the leading provider of social collaboration software for business video. The KZO Business Video Suite is being used by Fortune 500 companies and government agencies to securely “Create” or upload video from any computer, “Share” video within any CRM, LMS, web portal or as a stand-alone video portal, and “Socialize” video by engaging viewers – letting them add comments, ask questions and get answers. KZO’s interoperability with leading collaboration portals and learning management systems, including Salesforce and SharePoint, enables organizations to securely leverage the power of video with live and on-demand collaboration within a workgroup or across their entire global enterprise. The Suite consists of three integrated components that are compatible with major video formats including Flash and HTML5: KZO Virtual Studio, KZO Video Library and KZO Media Player.

Businesses can visit http://www.kzoinnovations.com to trial The KZO Business Video Suite and if you are interested in partnering with KZO, please contact Brian Kelly at bkelly@kzoinnovations.com.

Free KZO Account: http://kzoinnovations.com/elearning
For more information visit: http://kzoinnovations.com

KZO Media Contact:
Peter Monahan
Tel: 703.957.8396
press@kzoinnovations.com
Share: KZO Innovations Provides Online Training Software to the eLearning Community

KZO Innovations Included in Leading Industry Analyst Firm’s 2012 Report on Video Content Management and Delivery

RESTON, Va., April 16, 2012—KZO Innovations (kzoinnovations.com), industry leader in video collaboration, has once again been included in Gartner’s MarketScope Report on Video Content Management and Delivery (VCMD). This is the second year of the VCMD Report and thus, KZO Innovations’ second inclusion. Gartner’s VCMD Report, published April 2012, defines the VCMD market as “Software, appliances or software as a service (SaaS) intended to manage and facilitate the delivery of one-to-any on-demand video across Internet protocols.”

“Our inclusion in Gartner’s VCMD is an affirmation of our leadership position in the marketplace,” said Jeff Fissel, Co-Founder and Vice President, Solutions of KZO Innovations. “We have the ability to deliver collaboration tools both in the public sphere and in a highly secure environment.”

The VCMD report evaluated companies on several categories including: customer experience, innovation, and market understanding.

“The VCMD report truly captured the trust that our customers have in the KZO platform to collaborate within their business, increasing efficiency. Our customers have internalized KZO, they see KZO as a platform to help them evolve their business model and better serve their clients,” said Wes Cruver, Chairman and CEO of KZO Innovations. “We have no better advocates for the KZO platform than our customers.”

About KZO Innovations, Inc.
KZO Innovations is the leading provider of social collaboration software for business video. The KZO Business Video Suite is being used by Fortune 500 companies and government agencies to securely “Create” or upload video from any computer, “Share” video within any CRM, LMS, web portal or as a stand-alone video portal, and “Socialize” video by engaging viewers – letting them add comments, ask questions and get answers. KZO’s interoperability with leading collaboration portals and learning management systems, including Salesforce and SharePoint, enables organizations to securely leverage the power of video with live and on-demand collaboration within a workgroup or across their entire global enterprise. The Suite consists of three integrated components that are compatible with major video formats including Flash and HTML5: KZO Virtual Studio, KZO Video Library and KZO Media Player. Business can visit kzoinnovations.com to trial the KZO Business Video Suite.

About the MarketScope
The MarketScope is copyrighted 2012 by Gartner, Inc. and is reused with permission. The MarketScope is an evaluation of a marketplace at and for a specific time period. It depicts Gartner’s analysis of how certain vendors measure against criteria for that marketplace, as defined by Gartner. Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in the MarketScope, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest rating. Gartner disclaims all warranties, express or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

Free KZO Account: http://kzoinnovations.com/express
For more information visit: http://kzoinnovations.com

KZO Media Contact:
Peter Monahan
Tel: 703.957.8396
press@kzoinnovations.com
Share: KZO Video Content Management and Delivery Press Release

KZO Innovations Launches a New Fully Automated eCommerce Platform For Business to Upload and Create Video Presentations

Reston, Va. – March 20, 2012 – KZO Innovations new ecommerce platform gives trial users of the KZO Business Video Suite the full experience to upload and create business video on a trial basis before committing to a paying plan.

KZO Innovations an industry leader in business video hosting and collaboration, today announced the launch of its new eCommerce platform. Now, when users sign up to trial the KZO Business Video Suite, they are given full access to KZO’s Pro Plan, KZO’s most popular option. Additionally, users have the option of purchasing the KZO plan of their choice through the eCommerce platform at any time during their trial. Businesses looking to test out KZO’s platform before committing to an enterprise solution will also benefit from the new pricing plans, with the lowest plan starting at $49 per month.

“This is an exciting time for KZO Innovations. We want to make the KZO Business Video Suite more accessible and now that we have increased self-service options, businesses of all sizes can explore the technology and see exactly what makes KZO unique,” said Wes Cruver, Chairman and CEO of KZO Innovations.

Trials users of the KZO Business Video Suite will have the opportunity to utilize all of the features that come with KZO’s Pro Plan, allowing businesses to create professional quality video and upload to their sites within minutes. The features that come with the Pro Plan include: tagging, collaboration, content and video creation. The free trial period runs for 15 days, but users can easily and seamless convert their plan and continue using the KZO Business Video Suite at any time. However, for businesses looking for enhanced security options or integration with leading Learning Management Systems, the enterprise option is recommended and can be fully explored upon contact with KZO.

“Launching this eCommerce platform will make KZO more accessible, especially for those looking for a variety of self-service options,” said Peter Monahan, Vice President, Marketing of KZO Innovations. “This trial has given countless professionals the opportunity to utilize the innovative video technology that the KZO Business Video Suite has to offer”.

About KZO Innovations, Inc.
KZO Innovations is the leading provider of social collaboration software for business video. The KZO Business Video Suite is being used by fortune 500 companies and government agencies to securely “Create” or upload video from any computer, “Share” video within any CRM, LMS, web portal or as a stand-alone video portal, and “Socialize” video by engaging viewers – letting them add comments, ask questions and get answers. KZO’s interoperability with leading collaboration portals and learning management systems, including Salesforce and SharePoint, enables organizations to securely leverage the power of video with live and on-demand collaboration within a workgroup or across their entire global enterprise. The Suite consists of three integrated components that are compatible with major video formats including Flash and HTML5: KZO Virtual Studio, KZO Video Library and KZO Media Player. Businesses that are interested in the KZO Business Video Suite can create a free KZO Express trial account.

Free KZO Account: http://kzoinnovations.com/express
For more information visit: http://kzoinnovations.com

KZO Media Contact:
Peter Monahan
Tel: 703.957.8396
press@kzoinnovations.com
Share: KZO Feature Enhancements Press Release

Giving Presentations with the KZO Virtual Studio

The KZO Virtual Studio, which Andrew mentioned in his previous post, is a powerful and unique web-based tool. But don’t take our word for it – give it a shot for yourself. It’s free to try with a KZO Express account. In this post, I’m going to walk through using the KZO Virtual Studio to produce a quick video presentation.

Like the last post on PowerPoint timing, we’re going to start with the assumption that you’ve have a presentation in mind, and some sweet slides for it. Unlike the last post, you don’t have a video presentation recorded. (That’s why you’re here!) You’re gonna record one right now, from the KZO Virtual Studio.
Continue Reading