Video Blog like a Pro

Is vlogging better than blogging? What are video blogging’s benefits?

Why bother with video blogging? After all, isn’t it a little bit of a hassle getting your camera out every couple of weeks and shooting yourself talking about something interesting? Surely it’s going to take considerably longer to produce a video than write a blog?

Well no…

Talking to camera can be incredibly easy and very fast.  I can write quickly, but I edit heavily; I chop out words, rearrange sentences, delete and move paragraphs around and of course I need to spell check because I know spelling is a weakness of mine.  All that takes time.

Vlogging can be much more spontaneous.  I have an idea, plot out a few points that I want to talk about, turn the camera on and see what comes out my mouth.

Average time for me to write, edit and spell check a blog – 3 hours
Average time for me to shoot, edit and upload a vlog – 1 hour

That means I can produce 3 video blogs for every written blog. OK, I’m a professional so do it faster than most people. But even so, you could benefit from faster vlog production of your own – especially if you finding blog writing a difficult chore.

The key benefits of vlogging

#1: The NUMBER ONE reason why you should vlog

It’s such a strong reason I’m going use my video blog to tell you!

So watch the video below to find out what is it.

[embedyt] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLq2vqpUrKU[/embedyt]

#2: Vlogging helps you stand out from your competitors

70% of internet traffic last year was video but only a fraction of businesses used it as part of their marketing strategy.

It’s simple: use video now, before your competitors do

Suppose I was searching the internet for a particular service – let’s say a landscape gardener - and I found 3 suitable companies in my area. All three blog with gardening tips, advice about keeping your lawn looking nice and how the changing seasons can affect your garden, but only one has video in their blog.

I’m going to look at that company first. I’m going to check out their video and if I get a good feel about the gardener, their knowledge and expertise, I’m going to give them a call before I check out the other companies.

#3: Video blogs give you so much lovely Google juice

When you create a video blog, you are creating content that can be linked all over the web. You can tweet about it, embed it in emails, share it on FaceBook or Google+. Other people can then ‘like’, retweet, share or ‘+1’ your video which will give you a higher ranking on search engines.

Also, because Google owns YouTube, it ranks WebPages that have a YouTube video embedded in them higher than ones that don’t. So upload a written blog or article and embed a video in it and Google will love you.

Creating blogs that contain a video is also a great way to appeal to two different audiences; the ones who read blogs and the ones who watch videos. As any communication expert will tell you, this works for two different types of audiences: the ‘visual’ and ‘auditory’ ones.

You now have two things to share: your blog, and the video that sits in the blog. That’s two different ways for your expertise to be found.

#4: Vlogging is cost effective advertising

If you were John Lewis and it was Christmas, you’d spend £1m creating an animated commercial and a further £6m getting it played at peak times, in front of your target audience, on their televisions.

Vlogging doesn’t have to cost you a penny. You can shoot it on your smart phone or tablet and upload it straight to YouTube.

Getting the video in front of potential clients doesn’t have to cost anything either. A carefully written description and a title with suitable keywords will attract an audience who is interested in what you are saying.

Better still, if your content is good, your family, friends and business contacts will do the marketing for you by sharing your video. You very rarely hear of a viral blog, but get the content of your video right and millions could see it.

#5: Vlogging makes it easy for people to decide if they want to work with you or not

Blogs are great for getting deep into a subject or idea. They can demonstrate your expertise, knowledge and experience, but it can take a long time for readers to decide if they want to work with you or not.

Nothing works better than seeing a person in person!

I’m sure you’ve seen these stats before:

Communication is:

1. 7% - words
2. 38% - tonality
3. 55% - body language

While a great writer can weave words, use punctuation and formatting that creates a tone (7% + 38%), there’s still 55% of potential communication missing as you can’t get body language across in a blog.

When people see you on video, they get an immediate sense of you. They get to know you and quickly decide if they like you or not. Then, after watching several of your vlogs, they start to trust you.

When someone knows, likes and trusts you they are more likely to buy from you, and that is why shooting yourself is good for business

Please leave a comment below, I'd love to hear what you think of these vlogs.