Video blogging or vlogging is commonly linked to YouTube which hosts thousands of vloggers all giving different kinds of information to their millions of subscribers.
Vlogging has become a very popular marketing tool, and brands actively engage with vloggers to push their brands. Take for instance vloggers, who deal with beauty products, they get endorsement and product from beauty companies to push the said product on their channels by providing tutorials and critiques.
What do you need to start vlogging?
It is important to have a few fundamentals right so that you can successfully launch your vlogging career. Understand who your target audience is; understand them intimately so that you can provide relevant content, content that responds to a need they have.
Get the right equipment. You need a good camera, a powerful microphone and a portable tripod. Schedule your content well and make sure it is engaging, audiences will not watch boring irrelevant content.
Get people to follow you or subscribe to your channels and encourage your networks to share videos thus growing your online community.
Is vlogging easy?
Absolutely not, vlogging is not for the fainthearted as it requires planning and proper implementation. But, if you have a passion for what you are doing, you will enjoy it. The most important thing is to make sure you have engaging content. Not only should it be engaging but value driven.
The success of your vlogging will be dependent on the number of people who subscribe to your channel. YouTube is a great channel for vloggers, but it is important to use a variety of platforms to allow you to expand your fan base and grow your popularity.
We will explore different sites a vlogger can consider. Some are free but others will require that you pay before they can host your video.
- YouTube
This is the most popular free platform for vloggers. With over 1 billion subscribers, it has been the launch pad for many successful vlogging careers.
YouTube videos are shown on Google search results making it likely that the person doing the search will view the video. It allows for the creation of playlists and allows for video sharing on other platforms including Twitter and Facebook thereby increasing viewership. The subscribe function alerts your community when you post a new video. The main disadvantage with YouTube is the pop-up ads that interrupt the viewing of the videos as well as low privacy settings that can bring in copyright issues.
Facebook has a subscriber base of 2 billion and has good video hosting functions. It allows for posting of pre-recorded videos which your network can share. Facebook Live allows people to post and live-stream videos to a large audience.
Facebook is interactive as the Vlogger can interact with viewers in real time giving them an opportunity to respond to questions and comments as they arise. Facebook Live Map allows vloggers to find influencers to follow them or partner with them to push brands; this makes it a powerful marketing tool. You, however, need to build partnerships with other pages to access their followers.
With a subscriber base of 1 billion, Instagram is best known as a great platform for pictures; however, Instagram Live and Instagram stories provide a platform for vloggers to upload their videos. The site is search friendly and offers advertising options. Use the automatic like gallery post for Instagram to get people to follow you.
You cannot save the videos neither can the content be longer than a minute for Instagram Live and 15 seconds for Instagram stories. On Instagram live the videos are available for 24 hours. However, you can use this platform to direct them to your YouTube channel for the full vlog.
- Periscope
Periscope is a product of Twitter. Share the link of your video when you go live and invite your network to share. You can save the videos on your profile and keep them for posterity’s sake.
This site is strictly for video sharing and may not have a large subscriber base.
- Snapchat
Snapchat is a platform for a younger demographic and is, therefore, a great platform for vloggers targeting young people. The Snapchat audience watches 10 billion videos every day making it a good platform as the probability of the audience watching your video is high.
- Vimeo
Vimeo has high-quality content as the Vimeo staff takes it through an approval process, unlike YouTube that allows for amateur videos. The site has a wider privacy setting than YouTube and some people may need a password to watch videos. There are no ads and you can upload videos of any length you want but only on the paid accounts.
- Daily motion
Daily motion shares a lot of similarities with YouTube but demands higher quality videos.
ZippCast
ZippCast is a lot like YouTube because a wide range of people whether amateur or professional provide the content. It identifies and removes copyrighted videos, although unlike YouTube, if you have a license your video will stay uploaded.
- Wistia
Wistia is popular with business people, online entrepreneurs, and content creators. Though costly, it provides a lot of great features including analytics; private viewing, lead capture and call to action links on the videos. You pay for the videos you upload no matter how short the video is.
- Brightcove
This is a very popular site for Fortune 500 companies. It supports plug-ins and customization of your channel. It is a paid-up site with a 30 day trial period.
Finally
Vlogging is a great way to make money and the internet provides many free sites that you can upload your content on. Once you know your audience and the content you want to post make sure you are clear about where you will use the video. You may also want to consider setting aside a budget to get on some of the paid sites like Wistia and Brightcove especially if you are an entrepreneur or content creator.
