3 Tips for Startups Making Videos, from Vsnap

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.

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!

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Written by:
Kira M. Newman is a Tech Cocktail writer interested in the harsh reality of entrepreneurship, work-life balance, and psychology. She is the founder of The Year of Happy and has been traveling around the world interviewing entrepreneurs in Asia, Europe, and North America since 2011. Follow her @kiramnewman or contact kira@tech.co.
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