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Using Video to Enhance Your Reach
Use Video to enhance your Web site or blog
In previous articles, Linda showed you how to begin to build a base foundation for your Web site, including adding news stories and articles. In this article, she'll provide resources that point to video that you can use in your blog or Web site.
Videos can Enhance Your Experiences
Additionally, if you produce videos and you want to include this talent in your portfolio, video-sharing sites can offer a place to share that portfolio. Additionally, these sites provide designers with a roster of video producers who might work with you and help to expand your talent base. But, video-sharing sites are not the only tools you might use in your Web site or in your Facebook Page or Ning community. Other tools such as software to create your own video-sharing site or places to get your video critiqued are available to the designer who wants to move video beyond the editing room into the spotlight.
Where might you find these tools? And, how can you use them to your advantage? Better yet – why would you use them unless you can enhance your users' experiences? The best way to answer these questions is to point you to these tools. In that process, you can see how some video presentation might work for you and for your site users.
YouTube: Queen of the Video File
If you haven't been to YouTube – a premier social media video-sharing site – then you live on another planet. But, if you haven't been to YouTube lately, you might be missing out on some great tools to enhance your site and your users' experiences. YouTube has proven time and again that it can deliver the goods and not let users down re: traffic, quality and more – and, it continues to grow to include new visions.
YouTube is the home of the viral video, or the video that makes rounds on Twitter, Facebook and other Web sites to become a hot commodity. This is one place where your video can make the rounds, and it also serves as a spot to snatch the hot commodity and display it on your Web site if you so desire.
YouTube also provides tools for you to become the person to create a video trend. If you can find a video that you think is hot, or if you can work with someone to make a video that you can push on the social media rounds via your 'network,' then you can create a hot commodity for your Web site and for your reputation as well.
YouTube Options
As you can see in the image above, YouTube offers menus that point to popular videos online at the moment. But, if you go to "Channels" in the top menu, you can find videos that might fit your message with more effectiveness.
When you click on the "Channels" link, you'll come to the page above, where you can find videos that fit various categories. This is a search-heavy option; in other words, clicking on a category may not help you find what you need immediately. But, if you take a chance – like if you click on the "Shows" category in the left column, you'll find a sub-category entitled, "Web originals." When you click on that sub-category, you'll see this:
First, if you're a game developer, you might notice the Inside Gaming video option. Although many shows listed on YouTube may not contain options to embed show videos on your site, this one does. How great is that? You can include Inside Gaming shows on your own Web site.
If you scroll through these options, you'll see shows from Sundance (great options for video producers who lean toward Indie options) and other choices that focus on animation and special effects. These "shows" range from three to five minutes and more, which is a great way to keep viewers on your site for a length of time.
Other options in the Channels area include education, film and animations, gaming, "how-to" and movie trailers. If you can pick and choose among videos that fit your Web site focus, you have a seemingly endless supply of options to choose from. But, you also can use search options within YouTube that may take you to your choices faster.
If you haven't created an account at YouTube, you might discover that this is how you can pick, choose and save videos that appeal to you in an efficient manner. If you want to change up a video every week, you can spend a little time searching for videos and saving them in your account. This way, you have access to options that you can use within minutes. When you create a YouTube account, you can...
- Search and browse millions of community and partner videos
- Comment, rate, and make video responses to your favourite videos
- Upload and share your videos with millions of other users
- Save your favourite videos to watch and share later
Spend a little time exploring YouTube if you haven't already become a full-fledged YouTube addict. This site is included in many social media site lists as the top video social media site for video addicts.
Linda Goin
Linda Goin carries an A.A. in graphic design, a B.F.A. in visual communications with a minor in business and marketing and an M.A. in American History with a minor in the Reformation. While the latter degree doesn't seem to fit with the first two educational experiences, Linda used her 25-year design expertise on archaeological digs and in the study of material culture. Now she uses her education and experiences in social media experiments.
Accolades for her work include fifteen first-place Colorado Press Association awards, numerous fine art and graphic design awards, and interviews about content development with The Wall St. Journal, Chicago Tribune, Psychology Today, and L.A. Times.