Eventhough web video has become pervasive in news and entertainment, its use by businesses is still in dark ages. I see companies using video for product demos but that is about the extent of it. Video has immense untapped potential in small busness advertising, customer support, internal communications, corporate training and community building.
Here is a company trying to innovate in this area. Zappos wants to build community around video by partnering with magnify.net.
Online footware and apparel retailer Zappos.com is partnering with video hosting and sharing platform Magnify.net to launch a “BoxBreak” campaign to engage the retailer’s customers into building a video community around Zappos. BoxBreak will encourage customers to first capture their experience (via video) of opening a Zappos box when it arrives and then upload the video to Zappo’s Magnify.net sponsored channel. On the site, customers can vote for the best video and each month the customer who made most popular video will receive a $100 gift certificate to Zappos.com.