Since the middle of the last century, mass media has been largely defined by video content. Television supplanted radio and newspapers as the dominant form of mass communication, and the main reason the Internet began as a text based medium was the limitations of processing and connection technology. Thanks to broadband and high powered video cards and processors, video is once again taking its place in mass communications.
YouTube became the fourth most popular website in the world within a year of its launch, and remains a powerhouse in the field of video hosting and management. People want video content, and businesses that fail to bring it to their web presence likely will find themselves being left behind. Let’s take a look at six strong advantages web content has for your organization’s web presence.
Video is Sharp.
People surfing the web have fairly short attention spans. Affordable broadband means that people can afford to open a dozen or more Web pages at a time, and click through them as casually as reading a book. Given this kind of general speed at their disposal, people aren’t often interested in paging through large amounts of text materials. They want brief, concise information that answers their pressing questions of the moment.
When handled properly, video plays to this tendency perfectly. Since people have gotten used to perusing video content on sites, they will usually click a prominent link to a video relevant to their interests. Chances are they came to your page for a reason, and if there’s a relevant video there, you’re very likely to catch their eye.
Video is Convenient.
Whether we’re talking about television versus a novel, or a short infomercial versus a page long text description, people often choose video content over text content when the choice is available. This is generally true even if both the video and the text would take the same amount of time to examine.
Whether it’s true or not, there’s a common perception that reading text takes longer, or more effort than viewing a video. Get your best content into a few short videos that people can quickly view, and take advantage of this preference.
Video is Viral.
Anyone up to date in the world of Internet marketing has heard of viral videos and Internet memes. In expanding the availability of communication access, the Internet and the Web have created a true, international form of popular culture. With literally constant, worldwide communications, the Internet can disseminate information far faster than anyone ever conceived, and video is at the forefront of this activity.
The phenomenon stems from the proliferation of video hosting sites such as YouTube, as well as affordable and easy to use video embedding scripts. Since literally anyone can host a video on YouTube, or embed a video they found interesting on their blog, viewership spreads in ways no one could initially predict. Putting video on your site, along with relevant embedding scripts, gives you at least the chance to participate in and capitalize on this phenomenon.
Video is Cheap.
There was a time when video production was an expensive endeavor, requiring specialized equipment, personnel, and training to pull off properly. Those days no longer exist. High quality digital cameras and recorders are extremely affordable compared to even ten years ago, and video editing software exists for purchase or for free in dozens of formats. Yes, there is still some initial investment required, but it can be negligible compared to the benefits.
Video is Adaptable.
Text is text. One informative article on the web tends to read more or less like another, which is one of text’s strongest advantages and disadvantages all in one. Video truly begins to shine as an option when we realize that it has the advantage of adaptability. Basically, this means that there are many levels of video quality, and any one of them can be highly successful, as long as it is suited to the needs of the moment.
For example, the videos on the pop culture website That Guy with the Glasses are fairly low key, consisting of amateur, home computer editing efforts without benefit of high end production techniques. Yet, as the site has persisted, the quality of these videos has improved, with more advanced techniques making their way into production.
Video is Vibrant.
In a world dominated by how to guides and step by step tutorials, we tend to forget that one of the greatest advantages of the human mind is creativity. Some of the biggest successes in our history have come from someone attempting something creative and unheard of, such as improvisational comedy (a huge part of the highly successful Comedy Central’s evening programming).
Video allows people to tap into their creative outlets. Boring videos don’t get watched, dugg, or embedded, creative ones do. Video content allows you to exercise creative muscles that you may not have realized were available, and can lead to some surprising successes that really let your Web presence take off.
Author Resource:
Enzo F. Cesario is a digital brand engagement specialist and co-founder of Brandsplat which uses Brandcasting to deliver prequalified traffic to e-commerce websites. For the free Brandcasting Report go to http://www.Brandsplat.com or visit our blog at http://www.ibrandcasting.com
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