I'd be hard-pressed to think of a style of content that has grown as quickly as short-form video. YouTube is certainly the most interesting company in the space, but new competitors are emerging.
But despite the enormous popularity of short-form clips online, few B2B publishers have offering video on their sites. There are exceptions -- mostly the larger players that cover the media business such as Variety and AdWeek.
If you're thinking about online video, or if you already offer some on your site, take a look at this commentary from MediaPost. It does a pretty good job of explaining what not to do.
For an earlier post about online video, click here.
tags: journalism, b2b, media, trade press, magazines, newsletters, business media
Why more B2B publishers, especially those that cover manufacturing, haven’t tried this is beyond me.
ReplyDeleteThis past March, I was in Germany at a press event organized by a robotics company. The company was demonstrating a new case-unloading system that used industrial robots. Later, as I wrote the article (basically just giving an overview of how the system worked), I thought how cool it would be if I had video of the demonstration to post on the Web. All I would have needed at the time was a digital camera that allowed me to capture a few minutes of video.
Readers would have gotten a much better idea of the process if they could have actually viewed it. I would have a video to refer to as I wrote the article. And sales might have sold a video sponsorship to the demonstrating company, so they would have been happy too.
Cost to record and post the video? Virtually zero…
Hi Matt,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comment.
You're right...among the advantages to short-form video is that it adds to reader comprehension and it doesn't cost anything to upload.
I think that many reporters fear that they have to become TV-style journalists, learning to do stand-ups and to frame shots at various levels (distant, middle, close-up, repeat.) But that's silly. Start slowly. Just get a few seconds of some interesting material and upload it. You can learn to get fancy, add graphics, etc. at some later point.
I hope this doesn't sound like a commercial . . .
ReplyDeleteI have recently joined a firm that specializes in broadband video productions, and the creation of online video channels.
As a former B2B group publisher (with McGraw-Hill and RBI), I will be contacting publishers concerning the potential of creating their own "channels", etc.
But, of course, Matt and you are correct: there is no reason why editors could not add video content now, and expand their offerings later. The growth of broadband usage, combined with the amazing growth (if not success) of YouTube shows that the audience is eager for short form internet video. For example,today YouTube announced that they have hit the 100 million mark (100 million downloads per day).
Again, I apologize if this sounded like a plug.