Video is a real must-have part of any information business’ arsenal these days. I know it can take some getting to grips with especially with a “face for radio” like mine, but it’s worth persevering with as a way of getting your message across and building your personal brand at the same time.
I kicked off 2016 with a short video shot at my London office a few days back, and I’ve spread it about a bit to get more coverage.
Here are the places I posted it
1) Youtube
https://youtu.be/VBOiuw33Imo
The obvious place for video – the world’s second largest search engine in its own right, owned by Google.
Surprise, surprise. Youtube videos are pretty good at getting ranked well in Google so if SEO is part of your content strategy, definitely look into what types of video get watched most and ranked best.
We consistently link back to the blog page where we have a version of the video embedded as a way of bringing as much traffic and commentary to our own site as possible.
2) Vimeo
https://vimeo.com/150476032/
A less advertising-heavy platform which is great for sharing creative projects. They do have some rules about commercial content though so read them carefully if you’re selling direct from your videos, we’ve know accounts to be shut down out of the blue for this.
Pro options allow more and larger videos to be uploaded and more control over branding and where your videos are seen.
3) Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/1511478972446049/videos/1553950651532214/
Facebook is making a play for Google’s turf and wants to have more videos hosted by themselves rather than driving a ton of traffic to Youtube every minute of the day. Take advantage of this.
We upload our videos to our Facebook business page and our private Facebook group as appropriate.
4) Twitter
https://twitter.com/automaticbsnss/status/683031163586351104
In line with it’s super short messaging ethos, Twitter allows you to upload videos, but only 20 second clips.
Never mind, this is where you should get the benefit of watching the rest of the video across, and tempt them over to your main site.
5) Wistia
https://automaticbusiness.wistia.com/medias/lwfca7vggs
Wistia is a more commercial service. It’s for businesses who really don’t want anyone else’s ads or branding on their videos.
I like it most for the reporting features which tell you how many people stay through your videos, or if not, exactly where they wandered off to make a cup of tea.
It’s also got some good data capture tools like its evil “turnstile” which throws up a data capture form before your visitor can carry on watching. There are some others like clickable calls to action at the end of the videos too. I know these existing free tools, but they’re dead simple to set up here.
Wistia’s interface isn’t at all techy, so if you’re wasting a lot of time on this stuff it’s worth a look. The paid plans start at $25/month so it’s not too onerous.
Conclusion
There’s plenty of options out there, and almost all of them allow you to link back to your main site.
If you’ve gone to the effort of shooting video of any length, go the few extra yards to spread it about a bit, link back to your main domain and pick up a few more views.
If your video is really top quality private content, then services like Vimeo and Wistia will allow you to manage where it’s shown too.
If you have any other places that are good for hosting good marketing content, maybe share them in the comments below?