When I talk to people about why video can be a powerful tool, it’s easy to oversimplify and talk about producing in-house vlogs. But if you look at the variations, you’ll see they could range from citizen journalism submissions, to ‘anonymous’ viral stories, to damaging claims, to pranks. Hers are three uses of video that can make or break a brand’s reputation.

These two will go down in the books as the best and worst of how video mined social media in 2009.

Samsung created this contrived piece for Smart Led technology:

Hewlett Packard, on the other hand is at the receiving end, responding to this direct, damaging claim about its facial tracking technology in its web cams

And speaking of being at the receiving end, here’s how another brand faced the music, so to speak. My all time favorite this year.

What are your most memorable videos for 2009? Share a link with my readers, and us why video matters.