Blogs are hot. Vlogs are hotter. A vlog, or video blog, is the newest way to engage your audience while kicking up your buzz factor. You can use video to enhance your blog, or you can use it as your blog’s main content.
Why vlog? It’s got publicity power. A good video clip gets attention online--it’s instantly talked about and linked to by bloggers. Every day, ordinary people are becoming superstars thanks to online video. And business professionals who jump in early and publish “infotainment” will generate a whole lot of traffic.
Don’t use vlogging as a hard sales pitch. Boring. Not wildfire-worthy either. Create commercial-style clips like those you’ve seen passed around the web. Or, promote a contest where vloggers create videos for your company’s marketing campaign. To boost the contest’s viral potential, you could invite the web world to vote for the best clips on your vlog.
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Less entertaining, more educational videos are good, but they rarely have the fun factor that’ll catch fire on the web. Like blogs, successful vlog marketing requires the enlisted help of raving fans. Reach out directly to bloggers and vloggers; ask them to rate and rant or rave about your videos. And post your clips on social sites such as iFilm, My Space Video and YouTube.
To evaluate if vlogging is right for you, host a meeting your marketing team is sure to enjoy: Brainstorm video ideas. Nothing is too wacky, so long as you tie ideas to your business and create a call to action for this campaign. That’s key. Always tie a promotional campaign back to a valuable action you can track--a newsletter sign-up or a sale, for example. The buzz about your business might last just 15 minutes, but that could be all you need to capture an entire new community of customers.
Vlogging can provide your business with instant, massive exposure on the web. Are you up for the challenge?
Catherine Seda is an internet and search marketing expert. She’s also a dean of LA College International. Get her “Top 10 Internet Marketing Mistakes” report at www.catherineseda.com.
Originally published in the March 2007 issue of Entrepreneur Magazine