If video killed the radio star, online video will eventually beat down the slumbering mix of text and photos on most modern Web sites. Thank goodness.

The evidence is everywhere.

• Overall, growth in online video is robust, increasing 45 percent in 2008 from the year prior to 13.5 billion total monthly views. Thanks, YouTube!
• B2B and B2C marketers in the U.S. will take a closer look at online video in 2009, according to a survey conducted in December 2008 by PermissionTV. Most place it first on their digital marketing to-do list, topping social networking, podcasting and the like.
• More than two-thirds of respondents said they would focus their budgets on online video this year.
• More than one-half of respondents are also expected to be implementing or extending an online video project in Q2 2009. Less than one-third said they were doing so currently.
• Roughly one in four top 100 law and top 50 accounting/consulting firms use video on the Web today (mostly on career sections of firm Web sites or recruiting specific sub-sites).

Speaking of recruiting, it’s important to note that videos are not only for the young and young of heart. While Generation Y (ages 18–32) has the highest percentage of people using the Web for watching and downloading videos, Pew Research reports that nearly the same percentage of Generation Xers (ages 33–44) and almost half of Young Boomers (ages 45–54) watch online video.

So more online video is inevitable. Getting yours watched and remembered is not.

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An employer brand is one of the strongest tools available for attracting and retaining talent. And in the professional services business where your product is your people, your brand is reputation and where reputation is really all about behavior, your employer and consumer brands are inextricably linked (more on that below). So the question isn’t whether you need to articulate and express your employer brand. It’s how.

The place to start is with the right definition of an employer brand.

In an Economist survey of senior management and heads of departments, 60 percent defined it as an “expression of a company’s distinctive employee experience,” as opposed to the 7 percent who suggested that it has to do with the look and tone of recruitment ads and material, for instance. It’s apparent, then, that the majority of senior managers tend to get it. And that’s a good thing; they just may not be sure what to do about it. That’s where you can make a difference.

Speaking of definitions, employer branding clearly involves strong, consistent and compelling (read: hard to ignore) communications, which is critical in a world where we are on the receiving end of more than 3,000 messages—from ads to email— every day. But the process is more involved than having HR and a Cracker Jack agency combine to wow and engage the troops. Yes, communications about the employment experience need to break through the clutter. But a true employer brand is deeper than a campaign: it includes every aspect of how your people are handled—from the moment they make contact with you as recruits to how you handle their retirement party.

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