Online Video Best Practices

With the surge of video online, thanks to the likes of YouTube and others, how can corporate sites leverage this latest phenom to their advantage. It certainly makes for a highly effective marketing tool. Or, should such user voyeurism be relegated to the more B2C consumer facing sites?! Corporate and more B2B sites are not in favor of video discrimination and as such are slowly getting their video on as well.

How can or should video be implemented online to ensure the best user experience. Here are some best practices:
- embed and stream your video directly from your site versus downloading to view.
- avoid popups lest users' popup blockers intervene.
- don't make the screen size too small that the video content is not clearly visible. At the same time, don't make it too big that it becomes obnoxious and cumbersome to a good user experience.
- ensure your video picture and sound quality are crystal clear.
- be sure to provide video controls for play, pause, stop, and volume controls (including mute). A progress bar and time span of the movie are also useful.
- remember, users have limited attention spans and limited time to give to your video, so keep it to the point.
- preferably, do not autoplay. Let users opt-in to viewing the video content by clicking the 'play' button themselves.
- display the first frame of your movie by default on your web page as a teaser.
- although internet connections are faster today, be sure to optimize your file size for optimal viewing pleasure.
- use video sparingly and appropriately. Try not to overload a page with more than one video. Appropriate use includes using video for marketing, demos, training, support, customer testimonials, etc.
- in coding your webpage, use the noscript tag to add information about the video or software requirements needed for viewing for accessibility, seo, and overall user-experience purposes.

Online video is a highly under-utilized tool at our disposal with high potential ROI gains. A picture is worth a thousand words but online video may be worth a gazillion words given that with it, a message can be so much more powerful and impactful simply by adding audio and real people in motion versus static, textual messages with stock photography. In terms of tools, Flash video appears to be a highly popular one of choice for creating online video. Check out their video gallery examples.