Top Microsoft Video Strategist to Corporations: Take a Lesson from al-Qaeda…and You Better Embrace “Reactive Media” Pronto

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Please Note:  On Friday, Todd told Beet.TV that MSN would match YouTube in uploads.

To understand the stark power of community-generated video, Microsoft online video strategist Todd Herman says look at how al-Qaeda has used online video to disintermediate traditional media.

Todd says the effectiveness of terrorists should be a wake-up call for corporations who must embrace the same tools to advance their “positive” messages.

He also had a word of advice to corporations with valuable brands: Get ready to implement what he calls Reactive Media. He foresees legions of consumers with video cameras creating all sorts of videos that can be damaging to brands: consumers armed with cameras at stores, at airline ticket counters, everywhere. It’s coming and corporations need to be ready, he says.

The recent publicity surrounding the home-made video of exploding Diet Coke cans is a case in point.

--- Andy Plesser   

Microsoft, Consumer Generated Video, Consumer Generated Content, Corporate Communications, Todd Herman