Last weekend, a group of friends and I were hanging out, and watching YouTube videos. As each friend shouted out their current favorite or a viral classic, my friend Myles vehemently suggested a music video by Rebecca Black. We all said "Who is Rebecca Black?" Myles replied, "Wait, this is the WORST music video I've ever seen." Upon landing on the YouTube page, it seems that 37 million other people had also experienced this phenomenon. For your enjoyment, I present the Rebecca Black video, "Friday":

Okay. So the video is pretty bad. With evocative lyrics like "Yesterday was Thursday, tomorrow is Saturday, and Sunday comes after," it is no shocker that this video has 80% dislikes on YouTube (out of nearly one million rankings!). My point is, if you take the time to make video part of your marketing plan, make sure that your video doesn't go viral for the wrong reasons.

So here are some suggestions in making sure that your business video makes the impact it should.

• If humor isn't your strong suit, or is not appropriate for your business, you probably shouldn't go this route. Not every company has the budget and the creative minds to put together an Old Spice-like campaign. The wrong try at humor might end up doing more harm than good to your brand image.
• Remember that video is very shareable, but that most videos don't go viral. Take the notion of having a hugely successful video with a grain of salt. Making video part of your marketing plan shouldn't be about the number of hits, but more about giving the already curious prospects a high-quality representation of your brand.
• Don't swear off video because you don't have the production budget to make Super Bowl caliber commercials. Video editing software is getting more affordable and sophisticated by the day. Either harness your existing talent, work with a freelancer or hire someone capable of video production. You'd be surprised what a little creativity and computer skill can do for you.
• Take care in use of computer animation. Chances are you don't have pros from Pixar working at your company, so don't let the lure of this still-emerging field cause you to put out a video that looks poorly put together.
• Take time to pay attention to lighting and sound. Poor lighting or muffled/clipping audio can make a video unwatchable. Also be sure not to use copyrighted music in your videos without permission. Just like Shazam, Youtube and Facebook can identify the song in your videos and flag that copyrighted material was used.