5 Ways Bloggers Can Harness the Power of Video Content
Blogging has reigned supreme for more than a decade, now, and while it’s not going anywhere, there are ways you can enhance it with the help of video content. In recent years, the trend has definitely been towards more visual mediums focused on photographs (Instagram) or video (YouTube), and for good reason – we’re all busy, and videos are quick and snappy, and they don’t require your full attention.
But just because you’ve only ever done traditional blogging doesn’t mean you can’t also become a video content creator. Here are 5 ways you can harness the power of video content to develop your blogging career and exercise your creativity.
Why should bloggers branch out into video?
Okay, if you’re a diehard fan of the written word and an artfully taken photograph, then you might be feeling a little defensive and asking “Why?” Why would you start making videos, when traditional blogging is just fine, thank you very much? Let’s look at some of the reasons why you should consider adding video creation to your content repertoire.
- It establishes trust
When people get to see you, watch you, and hear you talk, they just tend to trust you more. It gives the illusion that they know you in real life, even when it’s just 5 very edited minutes of talking to a camera. That can establish trust in a way that a comparatively anonymous blog post cannot.
- It’s great even if you’re not the best writer
The problem with blogs is that a lot of them don’t read very well. We’re not all the best writers, and that can become an issue when you’re using that as a medium, exclusively. Comparatively, video allows you to be spontaneous and off-the-cuff and utilize your charisma, rather than your writing skills.
- It’s more marketable
It’s cynical, but creating video content makes you more marketable, in general, because you’re putting your face and your personality out there and it’s more relatable for the audience. Brands love video (we’ll talk about that more in a bit), so that’s your best bet for making money.
- It’s faster and easier to articulate certain ideas
There’s an almost endless amount of ways you can express an idea in writing, and thousands of words to use as your tools, but what video has over text is the ability to also showcase the inflection of your voice, your facial expressions, body language, gestures, etc. Sometimes, it’s just easier to make a video.
- You can explain and show things more clearly
Along the same vein as the previous point, when it comes to explaining a concept, a process, describing something, or trying to teach someone how to do something, showing is easier than telling. If you’re working with DIY, makeup, furniture restoration, cooking, or tutorials, in general, then you can massively benefit from video content.
- People are more likely to share content
Going back to cynicism and metrics, video content is just easier to consume and share. Reading a blog post can often be a chore. Even if it takes the exact same amount of time as watching a video, the latter is always more interactive, more engaging, and more entertaining, which means it will retain attention.
How can you make video content work for you?
Let’s say that you’re a convert, now – you want to start making videos. What are the best ways to reap the benefits? How can you make video content work for you? Let’s look at some of the ways you can leverage this medium and the liberties it offers you.
1. Share more about yourself
Since we’ve spoken about establishing trust and using video for that, it’s always a good idea to either create your About Us page as a video, showcasing your blog and explaining what you’re all about, or simple creating videos that are a bit more personal and share more about yourself and who you are, as a creator and as a person.
Being relatable to your audience is an exceptionally important quality, when it comes to blogging and the amount of audience engagement that you get from it. The closer your audience feels to you and the more they feel they know you, the more connected they will feel to your content and everything you create. It also helps with monetization and ad content.
2. Invest in the quality of your videos
While writing doesn’t typically cost a thing (well, except for your time, which is still valuable), video does come with some costs involved, but the investment is worth it. If you want your video content to stand out and enable you to make the most of this medium, the quality needs to be as crisp and professional as possible.
That means some money invested in equipment (cameras, lights, microphones, video editing software, music libraries, etc.), but also a lot of time invested brainstorming, organizing, filming, and producing these videos. Creating a video requires more work behind the scenes than it leads on, but it’s this work and financial investment that leads to the big rewards in terms of increases in engagement, growth, ad revenue, and contracts.
3. Take advantage of brand work
In the blogging world, it’s a well-known fact that the rich content creators are urban legends and unicorns that caught lightning in the bottle and became one of the 1% millionaire creators. And while 69% of blogs don’t make a dime, there are ways to make a decent living, and most of them involve brand work.
Brands and marketers love putting a face on a product or service, and videos are great for that. Visual mediums are just more attractive and easier to use to sell (bright colors, cool music, a pretty face all associated with the product or service in question), so it’s natural that brands will prefer content creators who are comfortable and experienced in creating videos.
https://www.blogtyrant.com/new-blogging-statistics/
4. Create new types of content you haven’t before
Video content is a massive opportunity for you to branch out and experiment with new types of content that you were not able to create before. As expressive as language and photographs are, blogging can be limiting as a creative experience. There are certain types of content that are simply more suited to video, and that’s where your opportunity lies.
If you are interested in expanding into “how to” content, educational content, in-depth reviews, unboxings, first impressions, or vlogs, video is the ideal medium. Anything that requires an explanation or describing a process will do better on video than in writing; tutorials are very popular in numerous niches, so you should be able to capitalize on that, regardless of your target audience.
5. Use every platform available at your disposal
Since you’re willing to dip your toe into this video-making business, then it makes sense to go all out and take advantage of every popular platform the internet provides for you, including YouTube, Instagram stories, IGTV, or Facebook video.
YouTube is the largest and most profitable platform for video content, but Instagram,
especially, is catching up fast. Instagram stories is a great tool for sharing very short “snapshot”-type content, while IGTV is a great way to host videos that are pretty similar to what you would be able to do on YouTube. What is more, Instagram Live has been rolled out relatively recently and it’s a great way of leveraging the live streaming content trend that people are really into, in recent years. With the average user spending hours on social media every day, Instagram and Facebook are particularly good hosts for your videos, because you know for sure that you can reach a wide, present audience.
What’s the bottom line?
The romance of traditional blogging isn’t going away just because video has been moving in; in fact, 77% of internet users read blogs, so it’s far from being a dying art. However, it doesn’t mean that you’ve got no use for video. Video content can have many advantages (easier to reach people, more marketable, more shareable, more personal, etc.), so it’s worth trying it out.
https://www.impactbnd.com/blogging-statistics-55-reasons-blogging-creates-55-more-traffic
You can leverage the power of videos by investing time and money into putting out quality content that is personable and relatable, and brings something new to the table. It’s a great opportunity to create content you haven’t before and to take advantage of the many platforms where you can market through video; that will open new doors for professional contracts.
Written by Katherine Burke ~ Broadbandsearch.net
