Will the web do for TV what's done for Print?

TV is going through a revolution right now. That's going to be felt more on a mainstream level over the next couple years. Connected TVs and TV-related devices are coming out faster than ever, with major offerings from Apple and Google leading the charge.

With this connected TV revolution, it's going to be more more of an attractive idea than ever. All of a sudden, your next door neighbor's show about cats is available right alongside Animal Planet. WebProNews Video is on right alongside CNBC, the Wall Street Journal's web videos and CNN. Netflix is available right alongside HBO. Those funny videos Tosh.0 always shows will be available right alongside Tosh.0. You get the idea.

People and businesses who wish to establish large viewerships are going to want to get on as many web channels as possible. YouTube's obviously the big one, but it's not the only one. Do some exploring and find new places where your videos can be seen. Blip.tv, for example, will let you upload a video, and create iPhone, iPad, and Flash versions for you. You can hit a button and it goes to YouTube, Yahoo Video, Facebook, Twitter, etc.

Social media and blogs will play a huge role. Make sure your videos are embeddable. Garfield recommends building a community before you put your videos out there. You can do this through Twitter, Facebook, and email. Share your stuff with your friends and followers, and if it's good, they'll share it with their own, and it can spread from there.

As far as businesses specifically, videos can help humanize your business. You can use video to show poeple how you're different from your competitors. You can show off your place of business, your team, etc. It just helps customers get to know you, and that can help create a positive reputation in their minds.

So far, the web hasn't had quite the impact on TV as it has on print. Sometimes it's simply more comfortable and convenient to read from a computer or a phone than it is to watch movies or television programming. That's because a lot of people don't have connected TVs or set-ups enabling them to watch online video from their televisions. Obviously, that's on its way to changing. it's safe to say we're going to see increased adoption of such devices, making watching online programming more convenient and more enticing to more people than ever.

With the entire web on TV, the number of channels you get simply becomes unlimited. It also means that unedited and commercial free content increases. As more people watch online video, more producers will create more high quality content, because they know they can find an audience. It's going to be a snowball effect.

It seems clear that we are just gearing up for a powerful change in TV, and it's going to be great for viewers and for businesses.