A video blog, also sometimes referred to as a vlog or vodcast, is nothing more than a collection of videos posted on your website. It can be as simple or intricate as you want it to be. All you really need is a camcorder, video editing software and a website to post your videos on. Much like a regular text-based blog, a video blog is a great way to increase your business?s Web presence, engage your current customers, draw in new customers and stay ahead of your competition.
How exactly does it do that? For starters it's a means of communication that appeals to a more tech-savvy clientele as well as a regular clientele. It's also a way for your business?s website to diversify the content that is offered. Good videos are interesting and can increase your ranking in Web searches. Also, if executives of your business make regular contributions to the video blog, customer's will be able to connect with them and the business in a more personal way, therefore furthering that relationship. While reaching your customer's can be done through many different avenues, video provides your customers with information and an experience in a visually engaging way. The bottom line is that, like any marketing tool, your video blog should complement your blog or website and help you achieve your business objectives.
With video blogging it's best to just jump right in and learn as you go. The first thing you need to do is shoot some footage. You can do this with a regular camcorder, or you could even do it with a webcam if you want it to have a simple ?newscast? feel to it. Make sure that you shoot plenty of raw footage so that you have something substantial to edit down later. Next you need to get your video footage onto your computer so that it can be edited and formatted. Typically all you have to do is connect your camcorder to your computer and transfer your video footage right into your editing program. More often than not you can get your video ready for the Internet with the editing software that comes on your computer. When your video is ready, you then need to add it to your blog, which should already be created. Copy the HTML code and embed the video into the blog. There are more advanced ways of doing this, but embedding is the easiest. You could also consider simplifying the whole process with a software program like Vlog It, which allows you to drag and drop videos directly onto your blog.
Your video blog will only be as useful as it is good, so carefully consider the content that you'll be posting. Here are some examples of some good ways to use video on your blog.
Once you know the kind of content you?ll be providing, make sure you keep it regular. If you don't, viewers will lose interest and further efforts will be in vain. Video takes much longer to produce than text, so it's recommended that you backlog enough videos to last you a while when you finally begin posting.
