Video blogging, what’s the point? Most small companies have little or no time to waste on getting their social media sorted correctly. They are normally far too busy trying to manage the day to day running of their business and sorting their client’s needs.
The point is that social media is as much about regularity as it is about content. OK the subjects you write about must be interesting enough for people to want to read them, but that normally comes down to getting a catchy title sorted.
They say to be effective you need to be blogging at least a couple of times a week. If only we had the time to sit down and write a few hundred words that often! The mere thought for some people will have them running screaming to the cupboard to hide. What would I write about, what could I say?
Well if the truth be known with 99% of businesses we don’t realise that what skills and services that we possess and take for granted are the very skills that others value – how else would you get clients? So talking about your everyday answers to everyday problems is something that others will find of interest.
So it’s not always being clever that gets your blog noticed and read, just sharing what you know and take for granted is enough, though making it interesting to others will definitely help bring potential clients back to your site again.
So is there an easy way to blog? Well, yes you could pay someone else to do it for you. That couldn’t be simpler could it but how cost effective that becomes is only shown in how successful your web site is in attracting new clients. How about video blogs? Sometimes termed vlogs – a term I hate as it sounds like flog, as if you are trying to sell something on the cheap, not the message I want to get across!
Video blogging does have a few big advantages. First, if you want to do it on the cheap it’s possible to get your own phone out and start recording. The quality today from your phone if the lighting is bright enough generally is sufficient for the likes of a You Tube insertion on your web site. You can do it anywhere or at any time that is suitable. Here’s a quick example.
The advantage of this sort of blogging is that you can make it a video diary, or perhaps you might want to share your thoughts on a situation that has just arisen. It is immediate and can be all the better for it. Just remember if you are going to blog this way set the camera phone up somewhere stable and still, reverse the view so you can see yourself and get yourself framed properly then get going!
Once your video is downloaded from your phone to a computer it couldn’t be easier to get it posted up on You Tube, you might even have the facility already set up to post video up direct from your phone. Whichever way you do it just look for the upload link and follow the instructions. When the video has fully uploaded You Tube will give you a link to post into your web site and there you have it! Your first video blog done!
Most social media specialists will tell you it isn’t so much what you say in the blog that is important as to two other factors. The catchy title to get people interested in the first place to click on it and view .The other is the regularity with which you offer people your insights. This is why there are so many companies offering content services for web sites – if it was the quality of the content that was the major factor these businesses could have never started as all they can offer is bulk not definitive and interesting articles.
So, with a new year under way and all those new years resolutions beginning to fail here’s one that might just be of benefit to your pocket as well as your popularity. Start doing your blogs. If you don’t know how to get a blogging section added to your web site people like Flowbird (A mid Kent company) would be more than pleased to help you set up a word press section to your current web site or for the more self sufficient go direct to the WordPress web site to get started.
Brian Russell
Copyright January 2015.