Article: The SBA is Ready for Its Close-Up... on YouTube?

The SBA is Ready for Its Close-Up... on YouTube?
By GEOFF WILLIAMS, AOL SMALL BUSINESS
Posted: 2009-11-04 15:24:12

It's a little surreal to imagine the Small Business Administration (SBA) amidst videos of Susan Boyle and animated dancing pandas, but they've been part of the YouTube generation for two months now. While their channel is nowhere near as popular as, say, the dancing wedding entrance that appeared in the summer, it seems to be an effective enough platform for the SBA. It currently has 203 subscribers, and the SBA introductory video has been seen by over 4,000 people. It's not setting the world on fire, but it is there, where the SBA can put its videos within reach of anyone, of course, but particularly those under 35, which the agency has made clear they'd like to reach.

Their joining YouTube has had some critics. Shortly after it debuted, George Cloutier, author of Profits Aren't Everything, They're the Only Thing, told Reuters, "SBA officials should be spending less time worrying about YouTube and more time on the thousands of small businesses that fail every week. We'll lose half a million to a million small businesses while they're worrying about the next generation."

And more recently, Susan Wilson Solovic blogged about the SBA star turn at Small Business Television and was equally dubious about the merits of marrying the government organization with YouTube. "There are countless sites on the Internet that provide training videos and other 'how-to' information, so why doesn't that SBA focus its energy on figuring out a strategy to get financing into the hands of small business owners?" wondered Solovic, whose essay appeared across the blogosphere, including prominent sites like The Huffington Post and AllBusiness.com.

"Small business lending is up only slightly after plummeting last year, and entrepreneurs remain unable to get the funds they need to keep their doors open," continued Solovic. "You'd think this would be the top priority at the SBA -- not posting videos and sending out news releases."

I can see the critics' point, but I think it was a smart decision on the SBA's part and don't see this as a sign that the corporate apocalypse is upon us. I seriously doubt that YouTube is actually the SBA's top priority, as Solovic suggested, and it doesn't bother me that some tax dollars from the estimated $825 million SBA budget for 2009 are being diverted to produce these videos. (The Huffington Post huffed, "Your Tax Dollars Are Paying for the SBA to Post Videos on YouTube!") If the SBA weren't on YouTube, you could easily make the argument that the government agency is out of touch and not concerned enough with reaching those young, twentysomethings operating startups.

Sure, plenty of the SBA's videos are self-serving, but there are educational videos about how to market yourself better and financing a business. It's hard to fault that.

Once these videos are posted, like everything else on the Internet, they're there presumably until the apocalypse. And while that means some information will be outdated, the SBA seems to be working on building a video library of educational and historical content that might be useful for years to come. Some may consider it unseemly to start producing videos for YouTube at a time when the business community looks to the SBA for economic guidance, but on the other hand, the folks being hired to produce these videos have been getting some relief from the recession. They probably wish every government agency and corporation would be so unseemly.