Just shoot it already.

Agency self-promotion. You have to do it, but don’t know what to do beyond a postcard. “In times like these,” it’s important for agencies to stand out. (Really trying to avoid an “SM” mention here.) Maybe you don’t know where to start though? As Jetpacks once mentioned, video is one way to go.

Darryl over at Plaid has been doing weekly episodes of a show that any agency can do called Friday Flakes. (Well, okay, you’d have to change the name first, but you get the point.) It’s basically a 10-minute recap of what went on that week at the agency plus things they saw online which stood out.

While the Plaidnation.com tour was shot and edited with a more expensive set-up, Darryl keeps this version simple from the outset on purpose. Early episodes were shot on one Flip video camera, and each episode rolls non-stop without editing. The clip is then uploaded to Vimeo where it’s kept along with previous episodes.

Cheesy card intros and no soundtrack? Yep. It carries over from the The 11:40 Show we started on the tour. (We didn’t have time to produce a daily show with all the bells and whistles; it needed to be simple because there were also a series of time-intensive interview segments that needed to be done.)

Point is, you can get hung up on not doing something because you feel it’s not good enough. Maybe you’re paranoid about what clients and their legal departments will think. Don’t focus on that. If the rest of your work is good, this is just another variation on what your agency can offer and gives people a look at what you’re about. (It also keeps you on the minds of existing clients who you may have let lapse.)

The key is to just start.

I would recommend whatever you do, that you first do it a few times to practice. Once comfortable, start doing it for real, then put up several episodes first before telling the world. This way there’s a little body of work to promote just like I’m doing now with Friday Flakes.

As for equipment: I mentioned The Flip camera. It holds 60 minutes of video, plugs into your laptop via USB port and the sound is pretty good for being across the room. (They even have an HD version out now for under $200 or you can try Kodak’s Vi6.) Darryl now uses the a Sony handicam for better audio. Vimeo? Free to upload to. Time spent? 10 minutes once a week on the actual show and whatever time it takes for them to remember a link they saw. You waste more time on this blog than that.

So what’s your excuse? Find someone in your agency who has funny stories, or maybe doesn’t tell a good story and there’s your hook. It can be five minutes. One minute. Put a webcam up and focus on something stupid. Whatever. Experiment.

Point is is, you have no excuse to not do nothing these days.