Just started a contract shooting video blogs for a marketing company. For a client, there's not a lot of cons to doing this.First off, in case you don't know, a video blog is a blog done on video. Not a big surprise right? Instead of writing, you're talking. It can be directly into your computer, using some video recording app, or you could hire someone like me to come out and make it look good (sorry if that sounds like bragging, but I'm honest enough to acknowledge what I can do).
Why do it? Same rreasons as regular blogging, with one chief difference - people like watching videos more than they like reading words, Sorry, written word, but that's a fact these days. A picture is worth 1,000 words, and a moving picture is worth 1,000 times that. Not only do you establish yourself as an authority in your field, but you're doing a better job introducing yourself to people - your personality, your mannerisms, your unique sense of of humor, verbal quirks... In other every thing that makes you you, and what keeps the memory of meeting you alive in people's minds.
Then of course, there's the inherent advantages to web video itself: much higher conversion rates, the fact that web videos are much likely to go viral than other posts, and the fact that search-engine algorithyms (like Google's) simply add greater weight to video, so your page is that much more likely to land on the coveted first page of results for a given search term.
The perceived downsides to video blogging include the hassle of recording a new Vblog (as video blogs are called) each week - or month, or day, or what-have-you - people's nataural disinclinaion to appear on camera, the perceived cost of it, etc.
There are respones to each of these onjections.
As to the time and hassle involved, you just have to remember that, unless your content is extremely time-sensitive, you don't have to record, say, a weekly blog every week. What I'm doing for this particular marketing company I just signed a contract with is taking one day a month to shoot all four of that month's video blogs. Just upload them once a week. I've done that for real estate agents, financial planners - anyone with some advice to impart, and who want to use video blogs as a chance to give potential clients a taste of that advice and the professional it's coming from. Just block out two hours a month. Not hard, right?
You don't like being on camera? Hire a spokesperson to do the V-blogging for you. Now, if you're trying to sell yourself as a brand, this is obviously not going to be a helpful approach. But if your brand is not necessarily yourself - maybe it's your company, your product, your expertise - why not get a poised, well-spoken pro be the face of the company? You can still set up a YouTube channel for all your videos, and you can key in your logo behind the spokesperson. The only difference is that you yourself are not there. Believe me, there are plenty of non-union actors out there who would jump at the chance of getting the regular exporsure and the regular work.
Which brings us to the third objection: cost. You're talking about hiring a preditor like myself for a day or a half-day's shoot and getting this person to provide four minimally edited original videos a month. Believe me, you can get a pro to do this for $500 or less. Get a professional spokesperson, you can expect to add maybe another $100 to that figure.
The benefit? The eternal benefit of exposure for your brand (whether that be yourself or your company), the immeasurable benefit of being regarded as an expert in your field, and the very quantifiable benefits of web videos in terms of conversions and SEO.
Look at it that way, and it's really a no-brainer.
