If you want to watch the latest news report on Sun Microsystems, you need not turn on a television. A few years ago, the press area of Sun’s Web site (sun.feedroom.com) was revamped to look like a broadcast news outlet, with executive interviews and live international feeds. In the first four months, traffic jumped fourfold, to 42,000 visitors.

“Corporations are rapidly becoming their own media outlet,” asserts Matt DeLoca, vice president of sales for New York–based The FeedRoom Inc., a technology and services provider that helps companies better control their messaging online. DeLoca cites Wal-Mart’s comprehensive media site as a case in point. If, for example, Wal-Mart were facing opposition to a new store, the retailer could post its own news item on the site and potentially preempt some negative coverage. The messages could also be sent to television stations, bloggers, analysts, and even search engines.

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Here’s the best news: No matter the size of your business, a Web video can be produced for a fraction of the cost of traditional video. A location shoot involving a producer and a one- or two-person camera crew can cost about $3,000, but many corporate Web videos are produced for much less. Hewlett-Packard recently launched a Web site (h30400.www3.hp.com) that allows employees from around the world to use a simple Web camera and software to upload their tips and tricks for using HP technology.

“The static 2-D world of the Web page is slowly being supplanted by videos that can do a better job of demonstrating the content and tone of any given news release,” says Todd Defren, a principal at Shift Communications, a Boston- and San Francisco–based PR firm. The key, Defren says, is to make the videos shareable, with embedded code, so that bloggers or journalists can easily make use of the images.

Unlike social networking sites, corporate sites powered by the FeedRoom allow companies to control and measure the audience viewing their content. While most companies tally the number of views and the number of times a video has been reposted, Defren believes it’s just as important to consider these questions: Did the video drive traffic to the corporate site? Did the video result in more sales? Did the video drive a compelling conversation about the brand or product?

Just remember, keep it brief. Here are three ways to utilize Web video:

1. Traditional corporate communications. Companies ranging from Intel to General Motors are using advanced Web video applications to distribute their messages to the media.

2. Channel communications. Sun Microsystems uses Web video to keep in touch with its Java programming community, while General Motors uses the technology to communicate to its dealers.

3. Consumer/customer brand marketing. Hewlett-Packard maintains a portal (hp.feedroom.com) that answers FAQs and provides product demonstrations for buyers of its server and storage products.

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