Colleges and universities today are increasingly realizing the value of video on their websites. From campus tours to interviews with students and faculty, they appreciate the impact of sound and motion on their audiences. But many institutions have taken the next step and are pushing video onto file-sharing sites like YouTube and the Paris-based DailyMotion, which boasts more than 36 million unique visitors monthly and gets more than 16,000 new videos posted daily.

If a picture is worth a thousand words, what’s a video worth?              

Visit YouTube and search “University of” and see how many institutions pop up. One that caught my eye was the University of Miami, which has posted there interviews with students as well as a campus tour. You’ll note that these are not high-end productions. No need to go out and spend lots of money hiring video production companies. A simple hand-held will do and editing on your PC is really easy to learn.

And the best part is that this won’t impact your budget. Posting videos for the most part is free. So what are you waiting for?

By the way, I suggest you click on the link below and visit Truveo’s list of the Top 10 viral videos of 2008. Some of these you may have seen such as Paris Hilton’s response to the McCain ad (hilarious), Kobe Bryan jumping over a speeding car, and will.i.am’s music video around President Obama’s “yes we can” speech. But there are others I highly recommend you check out, such as “Christian the Lion,” which will bring tears to your eyes, “Frozen Grand Central,” and the “Awareness Test.” Keep in mind that these were viewed by millions of people, were produced at very little cost, and not one of them was part of a formal marketing campaign. Enjoy.