imageBEAM

Cost-Effective Content Management System Case Study - Public Diplomacy Magazine

2010-02-18T08:27:00.000-08:00

University of Southern California's Annenberg School for Communication turns to ImageBeam for re-branding and new online publication website.

ImageBeam designed and built a Wordpress powered Content Management System (CMS) website for USC Annenberg School for Communication Public Diplomacy Magazine. This new website allows a student-run editorial magazine to share their mission, publish new issues of their magazine and interact with readers in new ways.

When We Started

Public Diplomacy Magazine was delivering an amazing printed version of their publication. Yet when we met them, the quality of the publication did not translate onto their site, which felt dated and clunky to navigate. It didn't give the user the experience the staff wanted - that of an international publication which readers are immersed in the content. It was also impossible for the publication staff to update the website.

"We needed ImageBeam to help turn the site into something we felt spoke to our mission and something we could work with ourselves in the future." -Katherine Keith, Senior Editor.

Public Diplomacy Magazine former website (above)

"We were concerned with delivering a professional product on a limited budget, but ImageBeam was understanding and cooperative, devising a plan that exceeded our expectations." -Tala Mohebi, Editor-in-Chief

When We Were Finished

ImageBeam delivered a newly furnished WordPress powered website which will allow future Public Diplomacy Staff writers to upload new editions and articles without the need to hire a web development firm. The site also helped the staff clarify their mission and generate excitement about their mission. We are proud of what we accomplished with this project and are pleased to have contributed to an organization committed to this important discipline.

Public Diplomacy Magazine's new website (above)

"While a beautiful website can draw in the reader initially, what keeps them there is the expertise in creating an easily navigated site and that's where ImageBeam designers shined, putting not only a polished look on the website but also making it user friendly." -Tala Mohebi

To see the website in action visit www.publicdiplomacymagzine.com

BNI: Not for everyone, Critical for some

2010-01-12T11:24:00.000-08:00

For those of you that do not know, BNI stands for Business Networkers International. BNI is an annually paid networking group that meets weekly and is designed to create an enviroment of local business activity by excluding competition & incentivizing referrals.

I am reccomending that if you are an independent graphic/web designer who wants to work with many local clients on one month projects, you should seriously consider joining and being a leader at a BNI chapter.

This week, my friend Jon invited me to visit his BNI Chapter breakfast. This was not the first time someone had invited me to a BNI breakfast. What made the difference in my attending this time is who Jon is, a close friend, advisor and male role model. We've gotten to know each other so when he asked me to be his guest I paused to investigate why I was resisting his invitation.

I can remember like it was yesterday.... A three month old business development professional selling websites and video production services. Baptized by fire to learn the craft of selling technology solutions to business in Orange County. I don't even remember who invited me to the local BNI Chapter but all I know is that it was like wakling into a dark, stone cave of a native tribe. I was viewed as the outsider, the roaming networker. Like a bewildered traveler I shook hands with the natives and particpiated in their local customs; I traded business cards with the local membership cheif, sampled the local scrambled egg faire. Once they heard my stories and my offerings they took me into a small room and invited me to run the gauntlet to be in their tribe!

I left that first interaction with a bad taste in my mouth about these referral netowrking groups. So you can imagine my hesitation when my friend Jon invites me to join him on Tuesday morning at 7:30 am in Long Beach. Yet I wasn't going to let knowing that BNI isn't a match for ImageBeam stop me from meeting some eager, dedicated networking professionals.

To summarize my second experience, it was wonderful. To meet business owners, supporting their families, from all walks of life that meet so reguarly and commit to actively create business for one another is remarkable. It's inspiring to see people who all own their own business and pour their hearts and talents into their dreams. For the small business owner or proefssionals who serves small to medium sized businesses, BNI truly is a unique and potent system.

My recommendation: If you are a young graphic and web designer wanting to start your own business, BNI and organizations like it are a potent pool of businesses owners that will lead you to supplemental graphic and web design services through nurtured relationships. While websites, brochures and logo design may not be business critical to these clients, if you're costs & terms are flexible, you could create a healthy stream of business from these groups.

Here are 3 ways you can hit it big with a strong BNI chapter.

1. Offer month to month payment terms. Smaller businesses think of their operating costs in a month to month term versus quarter to quarter. A sample project would be a wordpress customized website, high value for local businesses. $3000 total project, $750 on start up, $750 on completion and the final $1500 paid over 9 - 18 months.

2. Raffle probono logo redesign for members of your BNI chapter.

3. Design a logo or build a website for your BNI chapter

-Edward Kennedy

Business Development Executive

A look at how Facebook Fan Pages impact your online presence;

2009-12-07T22:44:00.000-08:00

ImageBeam's Facebook Page showcases client work, reaches a unique audience and drives brand awareness by giving users what they expect on Facebook.

The Facts
Since September 21st 2009 ImageBeam's Facebook Fan Page has grown from 14 fans to 94 fans, a 671% jump in just 11 weeks. That's over seven new fans per week.

How did we grow and what has been the impact?
What we've done:
1. Publishing work we have completed with clients. This includes newly launched websites and videos that have been produced.
2. ImageBeam's Facebook Fan Page is a distribution point for our Press Releases, particularly events and announcement that include rich media photos or video.
Things to consider in 2010:

1. Contest give-aways directly from the Facebook Fan Page
2. Advertising on Facebook
3. Use of Discussion forums on Fan Page. "Worst Website Award" contest is an example of a user generated campaign.

Tools and Techniques
Tool 1: ImageBeam Facebook Fan Page Admins.
ImageBeam employees are allowed to be Facebook Fan Page Admins, which allows more control to share and post content. Spikes on Sept. 23rd, Oct. 8th, and November 20th are from direct invites from ImageBeam employees to their personal Facebook profile friend's list. A successful business Facebook Fan page is powered through it's Admins, active admins create new fans and engaging content.
Tool 2: Rich Media (Photos & Video).
On November 8th, 2009 ImageBeam posted a video on its fan page. It got 46 views and added 6 new fans without direct invites. In addition, the video was viewed 51 times on YouTube. Rich media has played a huge role in our exposure on Facebook because it is the preferred medium to interact with on Facebook. Users love photos and videos over plain text and links
The Results
New Clients! - from non-traditional relationships.
One of our newest clients, indicated interest in our services by reading posts from a personal relationship with one of ImageBeam's Facebook Fan Page Admins and the ImageBeam Fan Page itself. It was unlikely that this client would asked us about our web development capabilities through traditional channels nor would ImageBeam's business development team recognize them as a prospect, yet here we a...doing business with personal contact with a sale rooted in social media.
Should your company launch and manage a Facebook Fan Page? Things to consider
Return on Investment (ROI) of Facebook Fan Pages - Effective and Measurable.
The "I" in ROI. Investment of time and resources from ImageBeam has been minimal. ImageBeam uses existing content that is distributed through other channels. Press Releases, Client Work, Event Photos and Videos are all popular posts and is was natural fit for ImageBeam’s Facebook fan page as the content was a part of our existing Marketing and PR efforts.
The "R" in ROI. Return on Investment has been high for ImageBeam's Facebook Fan Page and most importantly, it's measurable. Facebook Fan Pages provides a comprehensive analytic tool which generates detailed reports about fan demographics, interactions and even rates your post quality for the day. Also, ImageBeam's Facebook Page Admin's existing use and comfort with Facebook and willingness to publish new content while working.
Be our fan to see our client work and win prizes!

Companies use Sharepoint to collaborate and get work done

2009-10-02T11:40:00.000-07:00

Making Business Sense of the Power of Sharepoint(MOSS)

Microsoft Office Sharepoint Server (MOSS) helped drive successful enterprises to where they are now, today, it's your turn.

The word may have been thrown around your office - intranet. For many, it is a mystery as to what a company intranet can do or how it can make a difference. For others, intranets are an essential business tool, a collaboration point and resource to get the job done!

WHAT IS MOSS?

"[Microsoft Office SharePoint Server, otherwise known as 'MOSS'], is an integrated suite of server capabilities that can help improve organizational effectiveness by providing comprehensive content management and enterprise search, accelerating shared business processes, and facilitating information-sharing across boundaries for better business insight"

-www.sharepoint.microsoft.com

Unlock the P.O.W.E.R. of the INTRAnet

P. is for Productivity Until your Company utilizes a comprehensive Enterprise Search Tool, employee productivity will suffer

MOSS allows you to create highly specific, relevant Enterprise Search Tools with features like Tagging, Bookmarking, Scope and Query.

IN ACTION - Cushman & Wakefield^{^}

The marketing team at Cushman & Wakefield, the world's largest privately held commercial real-estate services firm, uses a fully functional Sharepoint powered Enterprise Search Tool.^{^ Previously, the team sent out mass emails to its staff often returning, useless and outdated information. Since its implementation, the marketing team has had the power of business critical information at their fingertips. Now, search times are down dramatically and the Marketing team responds on time and above expectations.}

O. is for Organization An Intranet brings your business intelligence into one, manageable system

Sharepoint allows companies to collect, collate and distribute information to varying teams across multiple offices and roles.

IN ACTION - Cisco^t

At Cisco Systems, all employees submit their personal business expenses via the intranet - which has not only saved the company millions, but also reduced the waiting time for reimbursement. Cisco's METRO expense reporting application has reduced the cost of processing expense reports (compared to the traditional paper system) from US$50.69 in 1996 to $1.90 in 1999 - a whopping 96% reduction. Total METRO savings in 1999 totaled US$77 million. At the same time, the time required for processing each expense report dropped from an average of 21 days to only 4 days.^t

W. is for Workflow Getting from Point A to Point B is faster and easier with Workflow.

Workflow is a tool within Sharepoint that allows users, with differing roles and responsibilities, to collaborate around content and tasks. Workflow streamlines project completion through auto-email notifications, team performance reports and approval/denial actions. Content can also be managed with comments after changes are made with versioning tools as well.

E. is for Everyone Your Sharepoint Employee Portal brings everyone together under one system. Diverse teams working cohesively, all roles and responsibilities can share information and collaborate easily. Microsoft Office Sharepoint Server is a tool; A tool which allows your company the freedom to do its best work. Without these systems, the speed and responsiveness of companies suffer.

R. is for Return on Investment

Finally, the Return on Investment that companies see from well developed and implemented Sharepoint Intranets is staggering. Here are some Benefits of Intranets that can be measured with Return on Investment.

Hard Costs - Reduction in staff
needed and printing costs are two big areas.

Productivity - increases as Workflow process are implemented and executed.

Collaboration - File versioning, check-in/check-out functions
allow for real time collaboration on projects, tasks and documents.

Time To Market - Again, with Workflow and Collaboration, teams
see a major increase in Time to Market of products and services.

Customer Service - Intranets cut operation costs of Customer Service
departments for reduction in personnel and call times.

Human Resources - Enterprise Search and other tools allow employees to access HR materials without the involvement of HR team or management.

Technology stalwarts Oracle, Cisco and GE have all made headlines touting impressive intranet ROI of US$1 to $10 million^t

How Departments Utilize Sharepoint....

Marketing:

WEB CONTENT MANAGEMENT allows marketing teams to make changes to public and inward facing websites directly from Sharepoint

CLIENT PORTALS engage your customers, partners and vendors through your MOSS portal and allow your customers to interact with your high value resources. Other features include client-specific data access and project status
updates.

Operations:

WORKFLOW COLLABORATION allows your management teams to follow and interact with multiple delivery teams covering a range of concerns from Legal to Marketing, from Sales to HR. Your team can streamline order fulfillment or product development with this high value tool.

ENTERPRISE CONTENT MANAGEMENT allows your employees to check-out documents, make changes and check-in with comments for ongoing document continuity. Other features include document locking, minor/major versioning, and role based permission.

HR:

ENTERPRISE SEARCH Whether it's a change of status on a W2 form or a printable .pdf of their benefits, ENTERPRISE SEARCH will put answers at the finger tips of your employees -saving your HR team time.

Customer Service:

CLIENT PORTALS will allow your clients and customers to access relevant project information at any time. Call centers see a major impact on performance when providing information to their customers through a Client Portal. Customer Service Teams can also access client specific data in seconds.

I.T.

FULLY INTEGRATE your enterprise ERP, CRM, Email Client, and Office Suite software with MOSS for streamlined collaboration, document continuity and integrity.

Bottom Line It:

WHO USES MOSS?

Companies include;
Jamba Juice, Starbucks Corporation, Culver Franchising Systems, MTV
Networks, Coca-Cola Corporation, Ferrari S.p.A, Kraft Foods, Cushman
& Wakefield Real Estate, Tyson Foods, Citroën, CDW, Gallup, General
Mills, Remax, Continental Airlines, Energizer, Hawaiian Airlines, Lloyds
TSB*source:sharepoint.microsoft.com

"More than 85% of Global 2000 companies have implemented or are developing intranets"

-META Group Study

WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS?

Collaboration

Client Portal

Enterprise Search

Enterprise Content Management
(ECM)

Web Content Management

Business Process

Business Intelligence

Social Computing

SOURCES: Microsoft Case Study - Cushman & Wakefield^, Accenture Article* ,Measured Intranet ROI Benefits Part II^tWeb Content Manager with Sharepoint MOSS 2007 Part 2 - Workflow∞ Sharepoint - Microsoft

ImageBeam September Blog: Top 5 Reasons to use Video on your website

2009-09-11T10:30:00.000-07:00

Top 5 Reasons to use Video on your website

Making the case for B2B and B2C companies to use Video on your home page.

1. Your Customer Expects It

Just like with other sales and marketing channels, your website visitor is savvy and has high expectations for what they will find on your website. eMarketer shows that Online Users continue to watch more videos and spend over 42% more time watching videos online.

Today's internet user is trained to expect impeccable layout and design for your website and expects to engage in content that is the focal point of your home page. A compelling testimonial or marketing video is a match for what your customers expect.

eMarketer July 2009*

2. Rich Video Communicates effectively in complicated, high trust sales

Whether you're a B2B or B2C company, your customer has a lot of hurdles to overcome in doing business with you. And that's the way it should be. Many of us sell and market complex products or services and our customer is making both a financial and emotional investment when they are considering doing business with you. A rich video is the bridge to your customer's emotional connection to your product or service. The bottom line is that you can communicate the impact that your product or service can have on your customer's success and satisfaction through high quality videos.

3. Your Customer see's you as the Expert and their Resource

Spend enough time in any Industry and what seems like "thebasics" to you makes all the difference in someone's perception of your product or service. Your customers or clients have questions running through their head, not just about your services but about your industry. While they may have some sense of your offerings and the expected benefits to them, you have the opportunity to act as the liaison between them and your entire industry, a powerful position to be in. How? Create a compelling video that engages with those "running questions". Watch your potential customers flock to your video and, moreover, start to take the next step in doing business with you.

4. Users spend more time on your Home Page, resulting in Higher Penetration Rate

What is the point of laying out all of your service offerings, testimonials, resources, and contact information on your website if your users don't go beyond the home page? Web designers are constantly working on making their clients' home page (or entry page) more engaging so that users 'penetrate' to interior pages. An effective way of achieving a high penetration rate is to embed a video into your home page and have it grab the attention of your user.

In 2007 ImageBeam completed and launched Stemedica.com, a San Diego based Stem Cell Research company, website. ImageBeam produced four 'client impact' video's that were embedded into the home page navigation. These videos were designed to capture the attention and emotion of the visitors to the site.

ImageBeam also designed and launched the current Stemedica family of websites www.stemedica.com

5. Higher Conversion with Calls to Action

During and after the video is complete, you can layout calls to action (links to interior pages) that will allow you to convert visitors in to customers. Once you have wowed them with your video you can invite them to take the next step. For Example...

Contact Us
Schedule an Appointment
Request a Quote
Shop Online
Watch another Video
Read our Case Study
Follow our Blog
Meet the Owner

These are all relevant "calls to action" for your business that could be presented around and embedded into your video. There are many more that fit for your specific industry, business and way of communicating with your customer.

We hope these reason's give you an insight into why video is becoming a standard practice in Web Presence of any company.

For questions on how video can impact your company's web presence, sales or marketing efforts, Contact ImageBeam for a free consultation & strategy session.(see contact information below)

For samples of ImageBeam's past video projects, visit our Video Sample Page

Downloadable .PDF

ed.kennedy@imagebeam.com | 949.228.8657
www.imagebeam.com | 17961 Cowan Street | Irvine, CA 92613

ImageBeam August Blog: Corporations Could Learn a Thing or Two from Non-Profits with Respect to Video Production

2009-07-31T09:43:00.000-07:00

If you've been thinking about how to use video in your company, take a look at how non-profits approach using video. Since 2003 ImageBeam has produced over a dozen event based or fundraising videos for Non-Profit Organizations. In this time we've come across many inspiring organizations and projects. Non-Profits leverage video (Rich Media) to get their message out about their organization to their potential donors, sponsors and volunteers.

In spending time in this industry, we have noticed that there are key elements of Non-Profit videos that apply to the use of Video for Marketing and Visibility purposes for Companies and Corporations. Here are some best practices for producing an effective Corporate Video through the eyes of a Non-Profit.

Introduce the impact of the program, and then introduce the organization.

Too many times have I seen companies create videos that tell the audience all about the company and how great their services are and how wonderful it is to work with them, however, those videos don't show the audience these things, in action.

Before you toot your company's horn on your corporate video, introduce individuals your audience relates to. Your audience wants to see themselves in your video, through somebody else's testimonial or interview. For example, if your company is in the professional services industry, interview one of your best clients and have that be one of the FIRST things your audience is introduced to.

Then, once you've established the impact of your service or product, then introduce your company through an interview or voice over from one of the leaders in your company or department.

Highlight all the Players in the Game

One of the most effective practices that Non Profits take on in producing a fundraising or "Mission Statement" video is to interview and hear from each category of people involved with the organization. For example, a Non Profit that serves young children would interview and show footage of the young children at the organization's events or programs. In addition, they would interview staff and program coordinators of the Organization; finally, rounding those interviews out with recipients of any awards or the community "power partners" they work closely with. All of this would be tied together with a powerful voice over script that leaves the audience with the Organization's message.

Don't leave out key people that would round out your video. If you are using voice over, use footage of each type of person involved in your project, company or service. In addition to video of your best clients and the leader of your company, interview some of your employees, or a local business leader in the community that is affiliated with your organization.

When producing your next Corporate Video think of how a Non-Profit would communicate with their Donors or Volunteers. Here is a link to an sample Nonprofit video project ImageBeam completed using the best practices mentioned above, Project Tomorrow.

Microsoft Office Sharepoint Server; Leading the Information Transformation

2009-06-02T13:07:00.000-07:00

MOSS gather's those rolling stones of information.

Accenture conducted a business survey in 2007 which uncovered that managers and employees spend at least two hours a day searching for internal information, and 50% of the information they find isn't of any value to them*. In addition, 3 out of 5 respondents said, as a consequence of poor information distribution, they miss information that might be valuable to their jobs almost every day because it exists somewhere else in the company and they just cannot find it.

Why is this relevant to you? It points out the massive amount of information available to businesses. Your company assets (documents, presentations, forms, videos, graphics, and contact files) are stored throughout your company's network folders and without a fluid system these assets become obsolete.

Stop!

and think....

1. How many hours have you spent trying to locate the right version of a document?
2. How much time do you spend looking for information rather than using it?
3. How valuable is your time and the time of your employees?

The longer you go without a workable document management and work flow system, your company losses profitability.

ImageBeam's Company Wide Solution

In partnership with Microsoft, ImageBeam builds custom company wide information infrastructures that allow employees to access valuable company assets and manage them in a way that maintains their relevance, integrity and accessibility. ImageBeam uses Microsoft Office Sharepoint Server (MOSS) software to build custom document management and work flow systems that puts the information you need at your fingertips in an environment that allows for collaboration and communication.

To find out more;
1. Download our.pdf fact sheet about Intranets
2. Contact ImageBeam for a free consultation and demonstration of our MOSS System
info@imagebeam.com, 949.228.8657

*Accenture Article

Blogging - Direct From Flickr

2008-12-24T13:27:00.001-08:00

Why would you even want to do that?

Editing Workspace
Originally uploaded by imagebeam.com

Recently we've been having discussions with many of our clients and potential clients about the value of blogging. There are many ways maintaining a blog can be very beneficial, from supporting brand awareness to improving Search Engine Optimization rankings for your site.

The ImageBEAM blog is actually hosted by Blogger.com - which is a service provided by Google.

To impress you further (or maybe even confuse you... who knows :-) I actually created this post over on Flickr (yes - the photo sharing site). The photo above is showing one of our offices in Irvine - this is the one where we get to do our Video editing. When you upload photos to your Flickr account you have a "blog this" link. After a simple setup - you just click that button and within moments you have a new blog post featuring the photo you uploaded to FLickr.

There are some neat ways to support your SEO plan by setting up your own company Flickr account - to which you post relevant photos. The search engines crawl that site and "voila" - your site has some very useful links from a "high ranking" external site (it's a little more complicated than that... but not much).

This is a link to the Stemedica Flickr Channel - which is one of ImageBEAM's clients.

Sharepoint Video Portal for Stemedica

2008-12-23T15:02:00.000-08:00

One of my favorite clients came to me with a rather special and urgent need.

ImageBEAM has been managing the on-line presence of Stemedica Cell Technologies Inc for nearly two years now. This has involved the creation of numerous web sites to allow the company to share what it is doing in the area of developing breakthrough Stem Cell treatment products to be used on clinical studies and research throughout the world.

An important aspect of this work is the collection and dissemination of critical patient progress information - many times in the form of patient progress videos. This information is confidential - but needs to be shared with authorized staff and partners on a world-wide basis.

In the past Stemedica has shared this information by creating DVD's of these videos which are then shipped around the world. As their progress on their clinical trials and research is accelerating a new approach to handle this process was needed - with the following features;

Allow for rapid distribution of videos.
Stemedica wanted to find a way to have immediate access to the videos - rather than relying upon mailing physical DVD's
It has to be secure.
The videos feature proprietary and confidential patient information - and as such they need to be protected by password and encryption
Videos can be updated / replaced as needed.
The information shared in these videos is constantly being updated. The system had to be flexible enough to allow the content to be easily updated.

With those requirements Stemedica turned to ImageBEAM for a solution.

Over just a few days we had designed and implemented a custom Video Portal solution based upon a combination of Windows Sharepoint Services and Windows Media Server from Microsoft. The solution allows the videos to be posted rapidly with tight security in place allowing item-level security. Individual users of the portal may be given or denied access to any particular videos.

The client is of course delighted with the solution.

When the Going Gets Tough, Go Online

2008-11-14T00:55:00.000-08:00

Multi-Channel Merchants Should Turn to Online Retail to Succeed During Tough Economic Times

It is no secret that the Web is the best place to look for the lowest prices on almost every product available for sale these days. Not surprisingly, shoppers are skipping the retail outlets and going straight to the Web to make their purchases during this economic downturn.

According to a recent Nielsen study, trips to U.S. retail outlets have decreased by 1.4% in the third quarter of 2008, compared with Q3 2007. However, retail channels offering low prices did best during Q3 2008. Trips to online retailers went up by 7.5%, while trips to supercenters and dollar stores increased 3.6% and 3% respectively, showing the largest increases, compared with Q3 2007.

Brick-and-mortar-only stores could take a big hit from the economy without an online store to compensate for the lost revenue. Most small, boutique shops are hesitant to invest on eCommerce solutions fearing the price tag would be too steep to afford. Yet, shopping cart software platforms like AspDotNetStorefront offer a cost-effective online store solution with features that surpass even some of the priciest eCommerce platforms.

ImageBEAM recently partnered with AspDotNetStorefront to add feature-rich, PCI-compliant eCommerce solutions built on AspDotNetStorefront's ML and IS platforms to its clients.

Filling a Gap in Sharepoint

2008-11-04T03:11:00.000-08:00

I'm seeing a lot of our clients add blogging to their Intranet sites as a means of enabling corporate communications. But hidden in the long grass, how do you find the buttercups?

How about an Intranet home page that shows rich summaries of the latest blogs or wikis?

The surprising thing is that MOSS does not do that (effectively) out of the box. ImageBEAM has developed a mini-product that does - MOSS Trimmer™ cuts those verbose blogs down to the number of characters you want to display on the home page to give a sense of the content. So if you have some ramblers in your company, that's fine. Let them get lost in the forest of their thoughts. You can keep the lawn neatly trimmed.

Stay tuned for the release of this new product from ImageBEAM.

5 Ways to Maximize Your Marketing Video Investment

2008-10-11T09:30:00.000-07:00

Having spent over 30-plus years serving the SMB market, I've come to learn the importance of the word "repurpose". Marketing and advertising investments rarely serve only one purpose these days.

Online video is probably one of the easiest investments to repurpose, with little to no additional expense required. So how can you maximize your investment in a marketing video? Here's a few suggestions:

Close your video with a call-to-action post-roll clip - Most marketing videos fade to black with no call-to-action, no "next steps" for its viewers. Tell your customers what you want them to do after watching your video - give your company a call, visit another page of your website, read something else on the page, etc.

Turn your video into a hiring tool - Feature your video on your Careers page or include the link on online postings about any of your employment vacancies. According to JobCircle, embedding a company video into online job ads Increases job posting applications by over 20%.

Open your next meeting with your video - Break the ice at your next company meeting by playing your video to clients and employees. Your clients will be impressed with your organization and your employees will be proud to see their company's professionalism.

Display your video in reception, at trade shows and conferences - Plasma and LCD purchases or rentals are fairly inexpensive these days. Play your video in reception at your booth or kiosk at industry trade shows and conferences. You may need to work with a rich media production firm like ImageBEAM to plan your video production so that it works for every medium (Mobile, Web, PowerPoint, DVD, HDTV).

Feature your video on your web site, email campaigns and corporate newsletters - The Internet is getting increasingly social and interactive, and people are expecting that same level of interactivity almost everywhere else. Turn a traditional newsletter or email campaign into a dynamic experience by including a link or embedding your video in your next issue or promotion.

There are several other things you can do to increase the value and maximize the investment of your marketing video. Learn more about ImageBEAM's rich media production services.

Isn't it Time You Got an Intranet?

2008-09-11T00:34:00.000-07:00

The Benefits DO Outweigh the Costs !

According to a new study by research firm Bersin & Associates, the corporate social software market is expected to exceed $420 million by year’s end and over $2.5 billion by 2012. Experts also anticipate that HR and training will become more involved in the use of corporate social software to identify how tools like corporate Intranets can support their initiatives.

IBM, Oracle and Cisco have measured the impact and benefits of their Intranets to be greater than $1 billion, as reported in Knowledge Management Review, with IBM attributing more than $284 million to the e-learning component of their Intranet.

Companies that have invested in developing a corporate Intranet have reported experiencing major benefits, including:

Increased employee productivity and collaboration

Improved internal communication among teams and across departments

Higher employee satisfaction and retention rates

Improved management of organizational knowledge and e-learning

Standardized operations and streamlined business processes

Tools like Windows Sharepoint Services (included with Windows Server as a free add-on) or the enterprise strength Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) offer a cost-effective solution for Intranet implementation. Web 2.0 features like user profiles, blogs, wikis and RSS feeds combined with custom collaboration capabilities, workflow and document management systems, make MOSS a robust, comprehensive solution for companies looking to get outstanding results from their Intranet.

With the right tools in place, developing an Intranet may pay for itself a lot sooner than you thought.