Does Your Business Blog Need Video?
Although video content is lauded and championed as the future of the internet, there is still a lot of dissension over whether it has a place in business blogging.
While there is no one clear answer to this, there are a few benefits that videos can bring, as well as a few downsides.
Let’s look at each of these to help you determine whether or not your business blog can benefit from the addition of video.
Benefits
1. Increased Interest
If you have quality video content, this can only interest your readers and encourage them to keep coming back.
Video content sometimes does a better job of getting your message across, and if you are producing your own videos, you’ll be getting the benefit of extra face time.
2. Increased Consumer Trust
This really only applies if you are starring in your own videos. By putting a face with the posts, your audience will start to feel more connected with you.
This is a double-edged sword however. If you are stiff in front of the camera, it won’t work well. If you’re a naturally engaging personality however, there are a lot of benefits to posting videos.
3. Taking Advantage Of Viewer Comprehension
Text based comprehension is historically pretty low. That’s why advertisers usually rely on television or radio, since it takes advantage of visual and auditory senses.
By providing your blog visitors with video postings, you will be able to take advantage of all three mediums, audio, visual and text based learning.
Downsides
1. Poor Quality
You should only post videos if they are high quality and enjoyable. If your videos have poor sound or the picture is distorted, it gives the impression that you are too cheap to get a good camera and sound system.
This is not an impression that any company wants to give the public. If you’re going to do it – do it right.
2. User Generated Content
If you are considered putting up user generated content, such as YouTube videos, you run a lot of risks. They may not be professional and they may provide yet again, the wrong impression of your company.
Even if a video is the most viral creation ever made, that doesn’t mean it belongs on your site.
3. Not as Discoverable
Video posts will not be indexed by search engines the same way as text posts, so you are losing out on the opportunity to take advantage of more keywords.
The key to beating this is to have more than just a video in your post. Write an introduction with keywords and commentate on the video. If necessary, provide a transcript to get more keywords into the post.
With the right approach, video is a great thing for a business blog.
You just need to take the time and money to produce high quality videos and utilize the right posting structure to make sure that they get indexed.
If you’re not ready to do this, it is best to wait and make the most of your blog the way it is.
