Starting a vlog is a challenge, but if successful, it can reap massive benefits. Vlogging can be a fun alternative to normal blogging. Instead of typing your thoughts, you are filming yourself speaking and getting the chance to show off more of your personality. It can be argued that vlogging is even more relevant than basic blogging as video catches the eye and is more likely to get noticed as potential customers are scrolling through their news feeds. If you’re on the fence or don’t understand why anyone would ever vlog, here are 4 reasons why you should consider vlogging.
Become a better storyteller
One huge perk to vlogging is improving your storytelling skills! Whether you believe it or not, people love to hear stories. Who says you can’t share personal stories or different business related stories with your customers? Being able to tell stories effectively allows you to build a stronger relationship with your audience. A vlog is an excellent way to share your stories and draw people in.
Diversify your content
Not everyone loves to read and if you only have a blog you may be limiting yourself to other audiences out there. Some people like to listen to podcast or better yet, others like the interactivity of video. Adding vlogging to your wheelhouse allows your to dig deeper into the barrel of potential customers. This opens up more opportunities for people to learn about your brand and what you have to offer.
Build your brand and get personal
In film “breaking the 4th wall” is term used to describe a moment in cinema when a character looks directly into the camera and speaks to the audience (think Ferris Bueller’s Day Off). This breaks down a “wall” bringing the audience into what’s happening instead of leaving them on the outside looking in. Vlogging kind of does the same thing. When your audience is actually able to see your face and what you’re actually doing it draws them in on a more personal level and allows them to actually see your brand firsthand.
Video isn’t going anywhere
Video isn’t just a fad that’s currently on trend, becoming obsolete in a few years. The more our technology improves, the more relevant video becomes. With the access people have to websites like YouTube and social media like Snapchat, video is truly on the rise. Also with the recent add of actual live videos to social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram now more than ever can you connect to your audience through video.
Convinced yet? If so, here are some popular vlogging platforms:
Vimeo
Vimeo is a great high-quality option for starting a vlog. This platform allows you to create a membership for your viewers to watch your videos for free. However there is a catch, it’s not necessarily free for you. Vimeo does offer a free version, however it’s very limiting and if you want more storage you have to upgrade to a paid membership. Although, their membership fees are incredibly reasonable. For $20 a month you can use 20GB of space per week and 1TB of space per year! Vimeo becomes the top choice if you are wanting to be able to have more control over your privacy with top-notch viewing quality.
Facebook Live
Probably the least practical of the three, Facebook Live is another option for vlogging. By using the live feature, you could vlog each post and gauge how many people are actually tuning in live. If viewers aren’t able to follow along while you’re live, they are able to view your video on your Facebook profile once the video has finished recording. A nice advantage to Facebook Live is you visually see if people are connecting to your brand or what you’re offering. If you find there isn’t as many viewers as you were aiming for then maybe you need to try a different technique in what you’re doing. If people are loving it then you’ll be able to feel (and see) the love!
Our Choice: YouTube
Are you surprised that we would suggest YouTube to be your platform for all your vlogging needs? Here are a few reasons why YouTube is our suggestion:
- The breadth of their expansive audience! There are one billion hours watched daily on YouTube. It’s the #1 video platform in the world and even the #2 search engine in the world right behind Google (which joke is on us, because YouTube is owned by Google). You won’t have to worry about being hard to find, as it is incredibly easy to search for a video or a channel on YouTube, I guess we can thank Google for that!
- It’s almost limitless as to what you can do! Unlike Vimeo, there is not a limit as to how much you can upload per week. You can upload videos that are 15 minutes long no problem. If you want to upload videos that are longer, it’s simple! Just verify your account and you can upload videos that are up to 12 hours long! You probably won’t be posting a 12-hour vlog, but it’s cool to know you could if you wanted to!
- It’s FREE to you and actually opens up money making opportunities! Wouldn’t it be cool to be paid for vlogging? There’s plenty of vloggers out there who are getting paid to make videos. One of the main reasons why YouTube is our suggested platform is because it doesn’t require any money out of your pocket to use. If people like your vlogs enough and you end up with a bunch of subscribers, different companies could even start paying you to run their ads before your videos. Now, that doesn’t happen overnight, but it’s exciting to know that one day, if you play your cards right, it could be a possibility.
Want to Start Your Own Vlog?
In our next post, we go through the steps of adding the vlog posts you’ve recorded to your website! Check it out!
