More and more companies and entrepreneurs are using video to help them promote their products and services online, to build buzz and drive traffic to their sites and rightly so: posting videos can be a great way to build your online exposure.

However, many of the videos out there are of extremely poor quality – blurred images, poor sound quality, that omnipresent “Flip arm” and the list goes on – they are just not pleasant to watch.  You’ve got to ask what these say about the company posting the content.

In the most excellent social media marketing handbook, Friends with Benefits, Darren Barefoot and Julie Szabo point out, in reference to video popularity, that two factors don’t matter, one is quality, but I tend to disagree to some extent: I don’t know how often I have viewed videos by entrepreneurs on Facebook or YouTube that are so poor quality that they make me question whether I would actually want to do business with the company in question.  Everything you do online should represent your brand.  A video that is really poorly produced is simply going to reflect poorly on your brand. Its not necessarily all about how often your video is viewed but more importantly about the impact it has on your intended audience.

The challenge however, especially for entrepreneurs is to be able to upload good quality content without breaking the bank.  Which leads me to introduce you to BBN3.  SoMedia Networks is building Broadband Network Three (BBN3) websites in major cities across North America and then internationally to provide a platform and marketplace for a new class of user-generated video creators – the near-professional content producer. What this means is that you have an affordable alternative to the self made flip video.

Through a simple online interface, BBN3 allows you to work with them create and customize video projects easily and inexpensively. We worked with them in December – you may have seen my status updates about how much fun the shoot was – to put together a short intro to Out-Smarts.  Other than the fact I look a bit like the incredible hulk (only smaller), I like the end result. Take a look and let me know what you think:

Thanks to Gina for allowing us to shoot in the Meridian Pacific boardroom.

Vancouverite, Josh Rimer is very active online,  infact his goal is to become famous because of his online activities and he’s doing a great job of that.  This week he shared on his blog a post discussing the benefits of commenting on YouTube.  He has kindly allowed me to share it here – thanks Josh!

Reasons Why You Should Comment on YouTube Videos

Do you comment on YouTube videos very often?  Well, you should.  Contrary to what you might think, there are actually potential benefits to you for leaving comments which can help get you noticed.  Here are a few:

1. You’re engaging the video producer when you comment on their video.  If you leave a positive comment and something substantial (ie. more than just “cool video!”) the video producer is more likely to notice you and respond back.  The video creator may also click on your username to check out your channel and of course watch a video or two, and possibly even subscribe if they like your content.
2. When a video creator responds to your comment it also brings other people’s attention to that comment because the creator of the video’s comments are highlighted and their reply is shown directly below and indented from your comment.  Again, some people may click on your username to learn more about you and possibly watch some of your videos and even subscribe.
3. Comments can be searched on YouTube.  People can go to www.youtube.com/comment_search and type in anything they want to search from YouTube comments in a similar way to how you can search for things being tweeted about on Twitter.  So if your comment includes something being searched it could lead that person to click on you username, watch, and subscribe.
4. Your comments could be quoted outside of YouTube.  Everything from blogs to magazines have quoted comments on YouTube videos.  It even happened to me in a newspaper in Victoria, BC.  I commented on how I couldn’t get enough of a video that I thought was really hilarious and because the newspaper was doing a story on how funny that video was, they quoted me and included my name (you can click on the photo above to enlarge it and see).

YouTube is a community in a sense and interacting within that community is a great way to stand out and get noticed.  I’ve had famous YouTubers subscribe to my videos simply because I commented on theirs and I’ve had other people find my YouTube videos through comments I’ve written on other videos so it’s worked for me, and it can work for you too!

What do you think? Have any other reasons to share on why it’s beneficial to comment on YouTube videos?