Business Insider expands its video team

Mike Shields of The Wall Street Journal writes about how Business Insider has boosted its video operation.

Shields writes, “When he joined the company about two years ago, Business Insider had roughly five people on its video team. That number has swelled to 45.

“That team is focus is on producing short clips that run between under a minute to two minutes, he said. A few years ago BI was producing about five such clips a week. Now it churns out 25 to 30 a day between its various brands, Mr. Maiman said.

“‘It’s been a matter of getting our visitors used to video,’ he said. ‘Early on it was a shock to a lot of people [that we were producing so much] and we just kept hitting them over the head with a lot of great video.’

“One key decision they made early on he said, we to avoid trying to do TV business news on the Web.

“Instead, they chose to focus on business stories with wide interest that grab people quickly and are likely to be shared, he said–such as a recent clip on Vetigel, a plant-based product designed to immediately stop wounds from bleeding that was invented by a 17-year-old. That video has over 64 million views on Facebook to date.”

Read more here.