I know many of you have lots of experience with it and are looking for new ways to use online video to promote your work. So when I ran across the book Get Seen: Online Video Secrets to Building Your Business by Steve Garfield, I knew it was something I should check out.

What’s it about: Steve Garfield works with several Fortune 500 companies, advising them about their online video endeavors. He’s also a lecturer on new media at Boston University, Northeastern and Emerson College.

Get Seen is a guide to everything you need to enter the world of online video. Not only does it provide a how-to guide for recording, editing and exporting your videos, it also examines people and companies (hello, Jimmy Fallon!) who have been successful with it and how you might apply what they’ve done to your own projects.

Should I read it? If you’re considering getting into online video, then the answer is yes. Get Seen is also a good read for anyone who needs a straightforward “how-to.” Though it’s billed as a business book, it’s really applicable to anyone interested in producing online video.

But, is there anything I can really use? Yes, Get Seen is full of specific information to get your video up and running. I’m not sure what I will do with video content (or when), but the book really helped me get my thoughts organized about it and learn the possibilities.

It covers how to choose a camera as well as specifics on lighting and sound, and how to do things such as record a Skype chat and edit video in popular applications such as Quicktime Pro, FlipShare and iMovie. It also addresses what to do with your video after you’ve shot it, live streaming, video blogging, and that holy grail known as “going viral.”

Some of my favorite points from the book:

• Your video does not have to be professionally produced to be successful and tell a story
• The secret to getting seen is to create good content
• Successful videos don’t have to have people in them; you can tell a story with words and picture
• Add text to your video blog entries so they are indexed in Google and show up in search
• Five steps to being successful: publish on a regular basis, publish your videos to more than one location, be real, have a conversation, and listen to your customers
• To be successful in video, you need to stir 2 or more emotions, have a spectacle, and a little bit of story
• The most important things about online video are distribution and recurring content

Lunch hour/naptime read factor: Medium. It’s easy to read and useful without being overly technical, but this is one you’ll want to take notes on, especially if you’re in the planning stages of online video.

Get Seen: Online Video Secrets to Building Your Business is a great handbook to add to your collection no matter who you are or what your plans for video include. There’s important and specific information and inspiration all in one place to help you get started, refine your video techniques to help you tell your story, and get seen.

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Get Seen

Busy Mom

Elizabeth, our books editor and better known as “Busy Mom” around the Internet, has been married to Busy Dad for 20 years and they have 3 kids: Busy Girl (age 16), Busy Boy (age 14) and Busy D. (age 8). A nurse by day and a blogger by night, she is the author of Busy Mom Blog where she’s been writing about whatever comes to mind since 2003. Elizabeth enjoys reviewing cool stuff nice people send her on Busy Mom Reviews and she spends way too much time on Twitter and Facebook. When she’s not on the quest for the perfect purse, you can often find her pleading with a disinterested pile of laundry to fold itself.

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