The Video Marketing Blog

Whatever Happened to Video Blogging?

Video blogging can be a good tool. It can also be a waste of your time. If you’re thinking about video blogging, it’s a good idea to start by understanding why most bloggers don’t video blog BEFORE you turn on your camera and start recording.

Some history. Until about a year ago, business video blogging was a very hot topic. Bloggers were excited about what video blogging could do for their blogs. Business owners were looking at it as a way to grow their businesses. People attended presentations and read blog posts about it, and dreamed about using a video blog to reach out and make a connection the way they couldn’t with text alone. It seemed that video blogging was poised to become as big as text blogging. All you needed was a webcam and something to talk about.  

And then… video blogging went nowhere. Yes, a few people found success. Yes, some people continue to do it. And yes, there are very good applications for it (more on that later). But for the most part, video blogging just never took.

What happened? One reason is that it’s really hard for most people to turn on that webcam and not be nervous. Through the experiences of making video blogs and watching video blogs, people learned:  

• A video camera is VERY good at communicating nervousness
• And shyness
• And discomfort with public speaking
• It causes much less anxiety to type a blog post than to make a video blog entry

Another reason is that it's not easy to make a good video blog. It takes time to organize your presentation, and then it takes more time to shoot it and upload it. You can write a text blog anywhere, but you need a quiet place to shoot a video. It’s just easier for most people to write a blog than shoot a video.

When does video blogging work?

• It works if you break away from showing a person talking to the camera, and show us something we want to see. Video blogging is very successful if it does something text can’t, like demonstrating something your viewers want to understand. Like showing us how something works, or how to do something.(Here’s our video blog on why you need a microphone for your video blog.)
• It works if you’re enough of a presence in your community or company so people will watch your video just to see you. They don’t care about your presentation skills, or about whether you’re nervous. They just want to watch you.
• It works if you find a way to connect on a level that’s deeper than the content you’re providing. You can be entertaining, or sweet, or inspirational, or motivational. If you have a personality that connects with people AND that personality comes through on video, then a video blog works. (Below are some examples of video blogs from people who are able to make that connection.) 

So – should you video blog? If your business has something to show and demonstrate, go for it. Your video blog entries will be very successful.

If, on the other hand, you're not a celebrity, and you don’t have great video presentation skills OR the time to develop them, then you might want to re-think the time investment a video blog requires. 

 

Here are two examples of video blogs that work. First - Frank Damelio, founder of TargetIntellect. Second, the famous Gary Vaynerchuk

 

How can your business use a video camera?

A while ago, I blogged about our new camera - the Kodak Zi8. It's a tiny little thing and it cost less than $200. We bought it so we'd have a very portable camera to take to seminars and expos, to make quick videos for this blog. So, at last Thursday's New England Business Expo, we shot this video of David Frem, General Manager at Cyprian Keyes Golf Club.

A little camera like the Zi8 is a great tool if you do trade shows and expos, and if you travel to visit customers. It lets you make quick videos to post in your blog, which can act as launching points for discussion. It's also a great way to show both customers and prospects that you care about them.

But one comment I'm hearing is that while people see the value in short videos like this, they aren't making their own videos because they don't know what would be good questions to ask their customers and prospects.

So here are my questions: if you had a camera like this and you were at a trade show, or visiting a customer or prospect, what questions would you ask to make a quick video for your blog? And, what else would you use a camera like this for?

Should Your Business Buy a Video Camera?

Here at Yes! MediaWorks, we generally shoot with Canon XH-A1 cameras.

They have all kinds of useful features, and they let us make great video. When we book a shoot, they (and the big tripods that support them) work very well. But I've been feeling lately that bigger is not always better. That sometimes it would be really handy to have a little camera - small enough to tuck into my purse, easy enough to turn on, point, and shoot. And so this morning I went and ordered the Kodak Zi8.

I've been resisting a small HD video camera because up until now, they haven't had jacks for external microphones. Sure, the Flip HD cameras make nice-looking video, but the audio sounds like a small, inexpensive consumer camcorder, and there's no way to improve it. Good for some situations, but for me that's a serious limitation.

Enter the Zi8. With its HD capability, I can use it for all kinds of quick shots without having to lug around the big XH A1. And with its mic jack, I can also use it for impromptu videotaping at seminars & events - say, a two-minute hallway interview with a great speaker.

So... why do you care?

Because while your company - or nonprofit - may already have a relationship with a media company, you probably have events you don't send a videographer to, like seminars you attend. But video from those events could be very useful, for your blog, to edit into larger projects, etc.

Gathering video from the field - from your trade show booth, from site visits, from places and events that would be interesting to your customers and potential customers - is a really good reason to have a camera like this. Its price is low (on Amazon, about $250 with 16GB Flash memory card, tripod & bag), it shoots HD video, and your media company can handle the cataloging and editing for you. All you need to do is gather the raw video.

Owning a camera like this is such a good idea that I'm going to start recommending that my clients buy one. But wait - that doesn't seem to make sense. Yes! MediaWorks is a company that shoots video professionally. Why would we recommend that our customers buy and use a video camera?

Because the value that smart media companies provide is in creating and managing content, and in helping their clients understand how to use that content. NOT in being the sole content originator. It is in your best interest to market your company (or nonprofit) with lots of video. But unless you have a budget the size of EMC's video budget, it's just not practical to pay a videographer to shoot all your content.

So, when you're looking for a media company to help you understand and use video to market your business/nonprofit, ask this question: What kind of camera would you recommend we buy? If they try to talk you out of buying a camera, they may not be the right media company.  

 

Online video: When should companies make their own?

In the relatively recent past, if you wanted video on your website you had to hire a video production company because they had the equipment and the know-how. You'd probably decide to make one single video for your home page, because video was expensive and complicated. And when production was complete, you were glad to have that one single video on your home page, because it made you stand out. The idea of shooting one or two videos per week for your blog, or populating your site with 10 or 20 or 30 videos, or more, wasn't really considered. The cost was too high, and what would be the point? One video was enough.

Now, everything is different. Now, you can buy a $150 camera and shoot your own video, upload it to YouTube and embed it in your site, all without any professional help. Now, the question is whether your video has to be excellent, or whether it's good enough to just have video. In other words, do you have to hire a production company or can you make it yourself?

The answer is that there isn't one answer. Video has gone from an expensive, one-of-a-kind custom-made bauble for your website, to a major, mainstream, indispensible element for companies that plan to grow and succeed. Video is now like text: you need text that gets the job done and that presents your company as professional and capable and credible. Whether you get your text from a copywriter or write it yourself doesn't matter. You'll probably get your text from both sources: a copywriter for some or most of your website pages, and you for your blog and some pages.

Which brings us back to video. It doesn't really matter whether you make it yourself or hire a production company. What matters is that all of your video content presents your company as professional, capable and credible. That all of it supports your brand and communicates your message.

The challenge for the video production industry is to stop fretting that the advent of companies making their own video means the end of us. To the contrary: this is a time of enormous opportunity for the video production industry. Enormous opportunity. But we must figure out how to provide quantities of video to populate a company's website at a reasonable price. And, we must accept that companies will be making a lot of their own video content. More than that - we must help them do it. We must understand that we need to - and should - provide far more than straight video production. We should be your media company, your go-to source for all things video, not just the final, finished product.

And - the challenge for companies like yours is to understand that all of your video content, regardless of who made it, must support your brand and present your company as professional, capable and credible. This means that if you're making your own video and it's looking like your 11-year-old daughter and her friends made it, then it might be wise to ask for help.