So you want to have video in your blog? STOP, DROP, & ROLL
So you want to start using video in your blog? You either have a camera, know someone with a camera, or willing to hire someone to produce it professionally? OK…stop, drop, and roll! Seriously, the fire is raging and you better take a chill pill before you pull out the camera!
First…ask yourself this question, why must you use video in your blog? Are you doing it because every other Tom, Dick, and Harry blogger is doing it and the peer pressure to keep up is so overwhelming that you can’t stand it anymore? Are you doing it because you feel like it will bring value to your audience, your customers, or your prospects? Why do you want to do a video blog?
Second, ask yourself…what is your vision for the video blog. Is it going to be this five minute monologue tyraid of you standing in front of the camera re-iterating the very same thing that could bring more value if you just wrote the darn post, and you were too lazy to write it in the first place? What do you really want to communicate? What is your vision?
Third…how do you want this video message to really impact your audience? Do you want to engage the audience with some educational piece that can bring value to their business or life? Or do you want to try to fill them with more useless knowledge that will add to the video noise currently out there competing in this vast space of social media.
Fourth…will the production quality of the video message(s) match the quality of the content? If you hire some jam-up production group to make it look awesome, provide you with high quality deliverables that will look awesome, but the content stinks…atleast they will say it looks good.
OK…now let’s get away from the sarcasm. Before your start a video blog…step back and think about what you really want to communicate and why are you choosing this medium. The video blog needs to bring value to the audiences’ experience and can compliment current content, especially if you have built a readership. The video in the blog needs to be short and sweet and give a true reason why someone will stop and watch. It should be no more than a minute and half! Really 1:30! For it to be effective, you need to do it consistently and provide some sense rhetorically why this blog post warrants a video to accompany the post.
Some of the most successful integration of video in blogs are ones that are unique in content, provide quick usable pieces of information, or shed some light on a subject. They are used on a regular basis where the audience knows there is a reason why someone is talking to them.
I worked with a lawyer where we used a video blog as a means to provide a series of FAQ’s or tid-bits about the law that inform individuals about specific legal statutes. We produced enough video content for close to a year where each video was released once a week. They had a branded introduction and we stored them on YouTube, embedding them on the blog. This provided great SEO especially since we used appropriate tags within YouTube and each blog post. Each one was no more a minute long and we positioned each of them with either a topic, event, or a case.
A great use for video in a blog can be a series of interviews. You can interview a subject and split each video up based on an individual question and response. This will allow an individual to have multiple videos from one interview, then you can spread out a series of post to promote your blog and the topics covered.
So…before you pull out that camera and try to one-up the next person; STOP, DROP, and ROLL. And do not roll the camera. Sit down and plan out the strategy for the video. Think audience, message, and delivery!
Great list of good points to consider! I am working with a couple clients that positively don’t want to appear ‘live’ on camera, so we are working out some creative ways around that while still using video as a media.
I usually prefer to get my content in the written word for the most part. I read quickly, and words let me control the baud rate, rather than the video. But I won’t ignore its popularity as a method to convey information and entertain, regardless of my preference!
Great job!
It is always tough to figure out the balance between using video to convey a point or the written word? But, from my journalism days…to me it must warrant using video:
1) Build identity between the audience and the subject
2) Have something visual to convey that would otherwise be rather difficult with the written word
3) Take on a complimentary role in the web paradigm that allows the audience to have another dimension to the subject.
Video provides depth and engages another sensory motor skill. It takes commitment to watch/listen to the content. So that is why we should respect the audience. We can take on two approaches:
1) Address the audiences needs
2) Invoke change in the audience
Video allows us to do this because while the audience is engaged, the point can be revealed and explained in a way, with emotional and visual attachment, that the written word cannot. The written word can be read out of context, so video provides that ability to look through the terministic screens and see the emotion of the statement.
A way to get around a subject who does not want to be on camera is to take them way from being the main subject and allow them to become the interview subject. Instead of giving them a script, interview the subject and pull the best sound bites to tell the story. This allows the audience to still engage with the subject on the video but takes the pressure away from the subject feeling like they have to perform.
These are just some thoughts. Thanks so much for your note…it is nice to meet you and I hope you come back!