Watch Out for Vlogs (Video Create)

Chapter 12

Safko, The Social Media Bible

As Safko says, video blogging has a higher WIIFM quotient than most of the other social media that the book has covered in previous chapters. The more stimulating the experience, the more engaging it is, and the better we comprehend and retain.

So, if “content is king,” as the author asserts in numerous places in this book (and I agree that it is), video has some real advantages. The content does not even have to be rich in useful information. Since video is more entertaining by its very nature, a video blogger can find and keep audiences with content that relies more on entertainment and no so much on substance. People are drawn to videos.

On the other hand, this chapter is a little more technical than some of the previous chapters. Video relies more heavily on some of key technological advances, such as compression, bandwidth, faster CPUs, more disk space, and streaming technology – than some other social media to even be feasible for the average  user. And people who use video face more challenges in getting an acceptable product online. As Safko says, planning and editing play a larger role in producing the end result. The equipment and software can be more expensive than that required for other social media, and the learning curve is steeper.

Video has some real potential for Extension, where I work. Safko documents the incredible growth and popularity of YouTube, and a large segment of that popularity is how-to videos. Extension is full of experts in a number of fields. In the past, this expertise has been shared via printed publications, group presentations, demonstrations, open houses, etc. Videos have a real potential to become one of the primary outlets for education of this kind.