To cut through the noise and the boring blah of their media machines, some companies are turning to online video, spurred in part by the phenomenal success ofYouTube, which has become a daily addiction for millions of people.

So instead of the typical e-mail or memo from the boss you might get a short video of the boss talking about the big merger, the big event, the year ahead, or the big award. And that’s good—because people like to watch.

Major companies from Monsanto and Wal-Mart to Sun Microsystems and General Motors are using video to talk to shareholders, employees, salespeople and the general public—without a filter. Traffic to Sun’s online pressroom jumped threefold—to around forty-two thousand visitors a month—after it remade the pressroom to incorporate video, according to a January 2, 2007, Wall Street Journal article.

Turns out that anyone with a digital video camera and a bit of tech savvy can shoot, edit and post online short video clips. The question then becomes how to do it well. If you spend five minutes on YouTube, you quickly find out that there’s a lot of blah up there, along with some super nuggets (and, alas, a lot of Britney Spears sans underwear and people with too much time on their hands making fountains out of Diet Coke and Mentos).

You’ll also notice that the most popular videos are typically less than three minutes in length. Just as people spend an average of seven to twelve seconds looking at an individual Web page, they won’t tolerate a twenty-five–minute video that’s full of jargon and corporate BS.

If you’re going to jump into the online video world, there are a few guidelines to follow:

Keep it short. What this means practically is that you get to make one, maybe two, key points. More than that and your video will run too long and probably won’t get watched. Anyone can talk for an hour. What would you say if you had three minutes?

Make it compelling. If your CEO could bore for America get him or her trained ahead of time. Even TV news anchors periodically submit themselves to professional coaching. And lose the corporate-speak. Talk in plain, conversational language. Oh, and have something to say.

Keep it simple. Along with a good message and great delivery, keep the music, special effects and fancy transitions to a minimum. This isn’t a rock video. So unless technical razzle-dazzle helps deliver the message, leave it to MTV and ESPN.

Make it relevant. A message that’s authentic and timely but only seventy percent polished is better than a message that’s one hundred percent polished but two weeks old. The message doesn’t need to be fancy, just clear and concise, likethis one from U.S. Senator Gordon Smith.

Respect your audience. When you have a captive audience, often full of subordinates, it’s tempting to turn on the verbal fire hose and talk forever. Don’t do it. Respect their time and attention span—then give them a URL or e-mail address so they can follow up and continue the conversation as appropriate.

Be creative. Not in a CEO-juggles-while-talking-about-earnings way but in a clear way that matches the message. Some of the most popular online videos execute a simple approach well, like this music video by OK Go.

The absolute worst thing you can do is leap eagerly into the online video world and just visually replicate a bad print brochure or inane slide presentation. Like most things, online video takes a bit of time and thought to do well. The good news is that it’s not complicated. In fact, the interns at your company are probably already busy posting their own clips and sending them to friends on their own time (or maybe even during office hours).