Last week, Tuesdays with Tukaiz explored some of the history and recent buzz around the online video medium, which is arguably the next big content revolution. As a case in point, market research company comScore recently released its tracking statistics regarding online video use. According to these statistics, 168 million Americans watched online videos during September 2009, which sums up to about 26 billion views. This is a huge number and a huge opportunity. comScore also released the primary sources of video views, and not surprisingly, Google/YouTube had the largest market share, with Hulu.com trailing in a distant second place. Additionally, comScore’s numbers revealed that the average length of video a person watches is around 4 minutes, which is a considerable attention span being focused at online videos.

All of this is great news, but how does one go about taking advantage of the huge opportunity presented by online video without becoming submerged in the sea of content that currently exists? This is an important question that is going to become increasingly difficult to address as the content explosion continues. The answer, of course, really depends on the goals you are trying to accomplish with online video. There are many different applications where online videos can be utilized effectively, even if they don’t bring in millions of views. Before determining what applications are effective, it’s important to determine exactly how you’re going to share your videos with the world.

To YouTube or not to YouTube? Or perhaps the real question is, do you use a video service or not? Depending on the type of business you’re in, this may be an extremely important consideration. There are several advantages to utilizing an existing online video network. Specifically, most networks are free and offer users the ability to upload as many videos as possible because their revenue models are built on advertisements. The more videos there are, the more opportunity there is for a user to share and embed videos on other sites, which equates to more video views and more ad views. Most sites also let you create your own channel or landing page that features all the videos that you’ve uploaded. These services also make it easy for you and others to embed videos on external sites, such as blogs. Traffic to these services is also quite large, and most have comprehensive search and suggestion engines that can lead other users to your videos.

Nevertheless, a video service may not always be the answer. As mentioned, the majority of these sites’ revenues are derived from advertisements that the user usually does not have control over. There are exceptions—YouTube has sponsored channels where sponsors can pay to add customization, as Microsoft has done for its Windows channel. Still, many companies opt to implement their own online video platform, which is a back-end infrastructure that video content can be built on.

By using an online video platform, companies can heavily customize their video offerings by implementing their own logos, advertisements, and other preferences. Ultimately, this gives the user an added layer of flexibility and control. Online video platforms are primarily used by companies that have video as a core content delivery strategy. Many news organizations like CNN and cable networks like Comedy Central have their own custom video platforms in place to ensure that when one of their videos is shared, they are controlling every aspect of what the viewer sees. Brightcove (Cambridge, MA) is one of the most popular platforms on the market used by large media companies, marketers & ad agencies, and non-profit organizations. Although Brightcove is the most popular, there are over 60 online video platforms available to choose from today, and that list is growing. If you decide that an online video platform is for you, you should be sure to investigate all viable options before making a final decision.

Next week, we’ll discuss specific applications for online videos that can help companies achieve a variety of goals, from generating excitement about a product to building loyalty with customers.