3 Tips for Startups Making Videos, from Vsnap

Kira M. Newman Mar 11, 2012 Tweet

One advantage startups have over big corporations is their personality: quirky, funny, and passionate rather than staid and faceless. But with loads of new startups popping up every day, they can seem a bit cookie-cutter – hence this parody of the typical app.

Boston-based Vsnap wants to make businesses more personal again: their platform lets you send videos – up to 1 minute, plus attachments – that can be viewed on the web or directly in your inbox (with a PowerInbox app).

“Part of what we’re trying to do is empower small businesses and non-profits to play to their strength, which is that they can feel very personal,” says Dave McLaughlin, who cofounded Vsnap in May 2011 (just a month after he sold Fig Card to PayPal).

And Vsnap listens to its own advice: in a cute move, new signups get a welcome video from community manager Trish Fontanilla, with terms and conditions attached.

Being more personal can also mean more profitable: based on Vsnap’s own study, using the freemium service gets recipients to take action (for example, complete a survey) 41 percent more often than email. You can keep track of that with Vsnap metrics on views and shares. So far, the Boston-based startup has signed up customers including a college basketball team and Penn Foster, a subsidiary of Princeton Review.

Especially for Tech Cocktail, Fontanilla made a vsnap with 3 tips to make your videos more engaging:

Check out Vsnap tonight at our Tech Cocktail SXSW #StartupLife Celebration.

Editor’s Note: Thank you to Vitrue, a sponsor of our #Startuplife Celebration and Tech Cocktail’s special SXSW video series. Check out Vitrue’s live daily updates from SXSW!