Last month in the U.S. (October 2011) 184 million U.S. Internet users watched online video content for an average of 21.1 hours per viewer. The total U.S. Internet audience viewed 42.6 billion videos, representing an all-time high (courtesy of comscore.com).
Online video consumption continues to grow, and more and more people want to view content via video. Fortunately it is easier and cheaper to create video content than ever. Now is the time to start incorporating some video onto your site!
Where do I start?
A simple introductory video, or a video of you explaining a simple concept can be filmed with a smartphone, webcam or a cheap digital video camera such as a flip camera. Most smartphones now have functionality which allow you to upload your video to youtube seamlessly, which is where you want your video to land.
Another way to include content from your articles and blog (and the kind of informational content that people are searching for) is to create a simple powerpoint with the main points from your article, then create a video of you discussing that presentation. Free desktop software from Jing can be used to film this presentation and upload the video to youtube. Jing has a 5 minute time limit, which is usually enough to cover the main concepts. If you have other software, it is still preferable to keep your video under 10 minutes for youtube.
If you have an inspirational message or more of a promotional video you can use a free service called animoto to create up to a 2 minute video with images and phrases. We use this service to create videos for local places listings, and it can also be used to create videos for your youtube channel.
Uploading to Youtube
Of course this post needs a video! This 4 minute 59 second video is a little rushed at the end due to the 5 minute Jing limit. It covers the basics of uploading a video and adding title, keywords, description and mapping. It also show you where to access the embed code. Once you copy this code, you will paste it into your website. If using wordpress, you will paste into the html view rather than the visual view, or use a wordpress plugin like vipers video to embed easily.
Google purchased youtube several years ago, and you can use your google login to create a youtube channel. This is where your uploaded videos will go (more information on creating and customizing your youtube channel is available here). Once your videos are uploaded it is important to use keyword rich titles and description (related to the video topic) so youtube users as well as the search engines can find your video.
Incorporating on your site(s)
After you have uploaded and optimized your video it is time to share it with the world! If you click on the embed code you will get some code you can paste directly into your site. If the video is a companion to an article, you can paste in where it makes sense. If it is stand alone, you will want to create some text on the page taken from the video. This is helpful for the search engines.
Once it is on your site, you can share the link on your facebook page and twitter accountt if you are using those services. There are also other video sharing sites such as Vimeo, Blip.tv and Viddler and where you can upload your video and create more links back to your website and potentially reach a larger audience.
If you have questions about video creation or promotion, contact us today!
