Julie Keyser-Squires, vice president of Atlanta-based Softscribe Inc., calls it a video email snack: a social media product that enables clients to reach key audiences. The videos include a brief personal message from a company executive as well as links to more in-depth material. They can be used by companies to:

• Improve the quality of customer references;
• Educate customers or clients about products;
• Drive visitors to a User's Forum on client or social media websites;
• Explain concepts that are too complex for written words;
• Enable users to share best practices.

She conceived the idea of video email snacks about a year ago. Softscribe, which targets green tourism, hospitality, green government and related markets, launched the product in January. There's been a "very big positive response," Keyser-Squires says.

She thinks the concept will catch on rapidly. "Why? Because they're fun, they're high-value and because of the Flip Video," she explains. Networking giant Cisco announced March 19 that it plans to purchase Pure Digital Technologies, makers of the pocket-sized Flip line of digital video cameras.

Flip video cameras have on-board software to enable editing, organizing and seamless video uploading to YouTube, MySpace, AOL Video and other video sharing sites. They also ride the trends of micro-messaging and video's emergence, Keyser-Squires adds.

Video is not only the next big thing on the web, but arguably the most significant thing in its immediate future. "As the web evolves from information to an interactive environment, video is emerging as the next great frontier of communication and collaboration," says Marthin De Beer, senior vice president of Cisco's Emerging Technologies Group. "We're just beginning to scratch the surface of how visual networking will define the next phase of the Internet."

Video press releases--or video email snacks--are just a few potential examples. Softscribe, for instance, used the quick format video to showcase a client's innovative approach to revenue management. It was shot on location at the Millcroft Inn & Spa in Ontario, Canada by Lisa Jane Gibson, director of revenue management for Vintage Hotels.

"I Fedex'd the camera to Canada, and Lisa Jane Fedex'd it back to me with the video clip," Keyser-Squires says.

Vintage Hotels operates five luxury destination resort properties, three with spas, in the Niagara-on-the-Lake region and Caledon area of Ontario. Gibson developed a proactive revenue management strategy incorporating pre-sale of outlet revenues--spa, food and beverage--and then automated its implementation using a single-image database for all five properties with two-way GDS connectivity.

"In the luxury segment, discounting is not the answer," she explains in the video. "It is about experience. Guests want to get something they do not have at home. Our five properties use a single-database system that fully-integrates the Hospitality Property Management software, sales and catering, spa and revenue management modules with our two-way GDS reservation connectivity.

"Two-way GDS connectivity ensures exposure and rate parity across all GDS venues," Keyser-Squires explains. "It also provides time and labor savings. With five hotels, the time it would take to us ensure all avenues are posting the same rates and availability would be staggering. With two-way GDS connectivity, I am able to make necessary adjustments in the PMS only, and be confident the changes are received across all channels. This also gives our guests confidence that the rates we offer will not be undercut elsewhere because each property is able to sell rooms for all properties with the same centrally-controlled optimized rates."