Author: Paritosh Sharma in Economic Times

Video is the future. The web is transitioning from text to image to video. This transition is possibly the most noticeable one on the web because the human brain is evolving to process more experiential information. 

Video is a powerful form of content that is experiential. People around the world are seeing a lot more of videos on their timelines and feeds. From facebook to instagram to Linkedin, every social network is getting ready for the experiential web. 

A report by Cisco cited that by 2020, 82% of consumer Internet traffic will be video and total global Internet traffic will increase at 22% per year. 

“Video is not a trend, it is not a phase. It is a mega trend. It is evolution that is a must adopt for absolutely everyone with a message being shared via the web.” 

Video is the superpower for SMEs 

For small and emerging businesses video is a powerful tool. 

Alok Patnia, Managing Partner and CEO at Taxmantra, a global taxation and law firm shares “the videos we publish have been an important part of our growth. We use videos to spread knowledge and answer customer queries. Our early videos were very simple, but now we have a monthly budget only to create high quality video communication. The lesson we have learnt is, keep it short and highly valuable. A lot of our SME customers today watch our videos on taxation, fund raising and more on Whatsapp. I have no doubt that video + Whatsapp is the future of communication”. 

The top 6 fundamentals for SMEs to create successful video communication 

1. Before shooting the video, spend quality time to design a powerful narrative. Your communication must be sharp and valuable. 

2. The first seven seconds of your video will decide if someone will truly engage or just move on. 

3. Keep the video length under one minute ideally. 

4. Not every video has to go viral. Some can be great sales collateral. Ensure good quality lighting and sound in your videos. 

5. Build a 365-day calendar. Publish 1 video every day. Meaningfully communicate with the world around you. 

6. The video sizes for each platform are different. Design your videos with the platform in sight. For Instagram for example, a vertical mode works, on Linkedin and YouTube, the landscape mode works best. 

Abhishek Rungta, Founder and CEO, Indus Net Technologies a technology company creating digital success for global customers, remarked “videos are part of our core marketing and growth strategy. We spend quality time, effort and budgets to create powerful communication via video. I strongly believe that video communication is the future of storytelling. 

We look at video from several perspectives. The next level in experiential videos is AR and VR. I experienced brands displaying holographic content on mobile devices. The future is video and it is upon us to innovate”. 

Share your videos on Whatsapp and grow business! 
A lot of business communication globally happens over Whatsapp. People always have time to watch a quick 1-minute video forwarded to them by a known contact. 

What is the greatest power of video for an SME? 
When an SME owner/ key management of an SME communicates via video, they break communication barriers with customers and establish a powerful bridge of trust. 

All business today happens between people and not brands. When you communicate with video you get up, close and personal. You have the opportunity to inspire and ignite your customers and the world around you with your ideas, actions and thoughts. 

SME’s do not have a million dollar marketing budget. Videos are the most powerful tool they have to express how they are working hard and meaningfully creating value for their customers. This makes them stand out and get noticed by potential customers.