Video is quickly becoming a preferred medium for the Internet.  YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world.  Google is the largest.  YouTube is a search engine for video.

According to Fortunelords.com, YouTube:

• 30,000,000 (million) visitors a day watch 5,000,000,000 (billion) videos a day
• 300 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute
• 1.3 billion people use YouTube
• Mobile YouTube viewing sessions are > 40 minutes

Video has a lot of appeal.  Let’s see why you should consider adding video to your website.

Appealing and Practical

Video requires different skills compared to the written article.  Watching and listening to a video is easier and more practical than reading an article.  Watching and listening is more easily accomplished when driving, riding a subway or etc.  It is also easier to do on a larger variety of devices, i.e. it’s far easier to consume a video on a smartphone compared to reading a blogpost.

Because video requires the use of different skills, it appeals to different types of learners – those who prefer watching and listening compared to just reading.  This allows you to expand your reach and increase your followers by exposing yourself to a different pool of viewers.

Video is Better

Video is much better for certain subjects than a typical written article.  For instance, I upload many surgical videos to my YouTube channel (then embed them on my website).  Surgery is much better appreciated visually.  Effectively writing about surgery is very difficult and pales in comparison to the visual form.

Visitors can see and hear you with video and is, therefore, much more engaging than a simple article.  Video conveys more information about you as a person.

Video Should be Cheap

You do NOT need to use professionals for your videos, in fact, I recommend using your own equipment and production tools.  You probably already have everything you need to upload a video to YouTube.

Use a smartphone or computer camera.  The most important elements of your video are;

• The content – what do you have to say?
• Visually engage – your followers can see you
• Audio awareness – your visitors can hear you
• Transparency – what kind of person are you?

Professionally produced videos take away from your transparency and make you less credible.  These are two crucial elements to gaining a visitors trust.

I will share some nice tips and tools in an upcoming post.

All the best,

Randy