This guest post is by Erin Giles of www.erinmgiles.com.
Have you been telling yourself for months that you should start video logging? It wasn’t until I launched my new business that I realized the power that video logging has in growing a business’s community.
Procrastinate no more: today I am here to share with you four ways to use video logging to grow your community, so go ahead and ditch those fears of the camera, pronto!
1. Give your email subscribers some personal attention
I post a video every Monday and the first viewers to catch my face on camera early Monday morning are my email subscribers. In my Time to Shine weekly emails I send out a screenshot of the video with a link to my blog post, along with a short description and some other juicy details that only my subscribers get to feast their eyes on.
Since I switched over to emailing video posts in my weekly emails, my open and click rates have doubled, my subscribers have tripled, and the comments have doubled. Your subscribers want to know they are connected with you, and what a better way this is to speak directly to them every week!
2. Ensure more clicks
With about 65% of the population being visual learners, more people will opt to click on your video post than a regular blog post. With just two months of video logging under my belt, my community of readers interacts with me more on Mondays than any other day of the week.
Think about it. Your readers are inundated daily with blog posts to read that will help make them money or give them tips for their lives. When you provide them with a video you are making it easier for them to learn and grow.
3. Give them a call to action
At the end of my videos, I always give readers a call to action. I ask for their opinion on the topic at hand, or give them a “homework” assignment for the week. This keeps your readers engaged and always coming back for more.
4. Put a face to your story
If your readers have been following your blog for a while, giving them the gift of letting them connect your face and voice with your writing is priceless to them.
Once they hear your voice and see your face, they’ll have made a deeper connection with you that’s likely to make them a reader for life.
I hope these four tips have made room for you to see the power in growing your community through video logging. You may have several insecurities at first and it may take several takes while recording, but before you know it you will feel like a pro—and your readers will be even more faithful because of it.
Erin Giles is the author of Give it Away Now: The Marketing Tactic That Creates Faithful Buyers and a Creative Business Coach that helps female entrepreneurs of all types shine online with encouraging + bright marketing. Connect with her on Twitter @erinmgiles or her site at www.erinmgiles.com.
I’m not a fan of video posts, for several reasons:
-I can’t skim-read a video post
-many videos are blocked for people reading from their corporate laptops
It’s true, but video is still a great way to mix up text posts on a blog that has been posting for a while.
What is video logging?
That would be blogging… on video!
A blog post only with a video!
Thank u for the tips. I’ve been thinking of trying video bogging for a while. This is another push to start.
I have to say I never thought of producing video spots on my blog, but I see the popularity that goes along with it.I It’s something I will have to work into and develop on in my own time, but this was very useful information to consider. Pat Flynn’s video section on his site is excellent and is a prime example of how effective video marketing has become. I think I am just a little gun shy at the moment, but I do appreciate these tips!
Don’t wait too long, or you won’t ever do it. I am speaking from experience!
I love hearing about success with video logging, and I’m planning to act on it one day.
One of the biggest reasons why I still haven’t started is I’m just camera-shy. You’ll find me not being able to talk once the camera is rolling.
I need to work on that.
Good post here Erin.
Josh, I was the same way! Believe me, six months ago I would tell you that I would NEVER do it, now I love it!
That’s great to hear. Hopefully I can get over my issues and grow.
Keep up the great work.
I am a bit confused by the use of “video logging”. Typo for video blogging?
It’s also called Video Logging:)
its all about conquering the fear, creating video is really easy. Starting with screen recording video with voice can help sometime.
Your comment about click-through rates really struck home with me. I hadn’t thought about that before but totally see that in my own behavior. That may be something that pushes me over the edge to start doing videos!
I do believe in the power of connection through video. There is a feeling one gets from seeing a person on camera that makes them feel connected to the blogger in a stronger way. I think it’s a valuable way to foster community and build relationships.
Thanks for giving us that push to do more video!
I am the same way, always clicking on images! Your welcome Jenny, would love to see what you come up with!
As much as I’d like to start using video logging, I’m far too grossly unattractive.
Thank you for these excellent tips. I’m starting a new blog soon (or rather restarting an old one) and was just thinking if I should start video blogging as well. I will have a hard time ditching the camera fear though.
Erin, Thanks a lot for the post. I’m thinking to start creating videos for my blog, Now I guess it deserve a try after reading your post :D especially if it gonna help to grow my community..
Thanks again
It’s also considered good to post on YouTube because it’s easier to “rank” with that medium than it is with Google–mainly, because YouTube has less content. (Though obviously, still a tremendous amount.)
Yes, your so right!
I can’t emphasize enough on #3. Darren himself has proved the effectiveness of giving homework to readers in 31 Days challenge and I recently experienced it myself when reading a book. It has lot of questions and gave me lot of things to do. And I really enjoyed going through it and most importantly, learned a lot.
Very interesting! I think I will start doing this for my blog doc-blogger.com. I am a newbie blogger and think video may be a great way to go! Cheers!! Any tips on your fav video blogs?
Good one Erin!
I think giving them a call to action is the most important. I made this mistake when doing a marketing campaign. I didn’t tell them to click or buy anything. This caused me loads of time of standing in one place.
But then I added some of these phrases to my ads and promotion materials: “Click here to get one now!” or “1234 people liked this! Do you like it?” or “Simple, Fast and Interactive! Some of the most important specifications of our newest product here!”
Anyway now I am having success because of adding these!
Oh yes, the other tips are logical and good as well :)
How often we should create a new video?
I like the note of giving your subscribers personal attention, Erin. I started using videos more in my list mailings and noticed stronger interests and more responsiveness immediately. Connecting a face – and a living, talking one, at that – with a name or an email makes a big difference.
Thanks for sharing!
RB
Your welcome Ryan!
personally, i agree 100%, vlogging is a great addition to any site. but, it is one of those thresholds we all have trouble crossing. a lot of boggers still like to blog anonomously. which may seem crazy. but it is true. thanks for posting this up though, it is more encouragement to break out of the comfort zone.
Erin, at first I was a little mixed up with the term Video Logging, until I saw one of the comments mentioning the term Vlogging(That’s when the lights switched on). As also stated by one of the above commenters, Darren uses Vlogging on his site here, from time to time. It does seem to work as I find myself usually going for the video, rather than having to read through the entire post below the video. There have been a few times when I actually found myself needing to read through the post to get a greater understanding of the information being presented.
Did you mean with a video we may make as blogging? is this method a like video traffic like other Seo geek say?
Well never thought of video logging,i guess i could give it a try.
Liked the post and its kind of making sense for video blogging…Video I believe will be the next way a blog will be written. A small description of the blog article with most content on video will be the next way blogs will be written..Lets see how it goes…
Thanks
What kind of webcam do you advise to use for shooting good videos for blogs ?
Thanks for the post Erin :)
I actually use a built in web cam on my mac, but I would just do a search and read reviews and see what is best, good luck!
Tyrone Shum does a lot of video logging, and he has some recommendations for cameras and microphones:
http://www.outsourcinglive.com/what-is-the-best-video-camera-for-youtube
Thanks for the encouragement! It’s good to mix it up with video, audio, and text. It doesn’t always have to be a video of you, though some definitely should be! I take my flip cam everywhere with me and capture clips of other artists living their brands, people that can help my readers on my writer blog, restaurant owners and places I like to eat for my cooking site, tipsyculinaryqueen.com I’m so impressed with how many people are agreeable to jump on camera and talk about what they do.
I’m used to being on the viewfinder side of still cameras. I was horrible at making that transition in front of the lens. Now I love dressing up, getting in character, and having a blast with it! Try doing short clips first. I like scripts but also try to challenge myself by getting in front of the camera without writing something out first.
It’s also helpful to put your call to action right inside the video so when your readers are watching they can click on the video to subscribe, get more info, or buy! It’s a very powerful medium with so many possibilities! Force yourself to jump outside your comfort zone, focus on the fun, not the fear and think of it as a performance!
Jennifer
I am actually more nervous about doing guest posting than video blogging. Maybe because Youtube will take any video! Lol. I have done just one video and I already saw a slight blip in my stats. Never thought of adding a call to action or giving out homework. Nice ideas!
Guest posting can be scary, I actually just realized a digital guide to help biz owners step by step with that very thing! Hope the new ideas work for your vids!
People seem to trust a person more if they see a picture and a video just makes you that much more real to them.
Is it posting Videos?????????