Is Video Blogging Better?
I enjoy Robert Scoble’s blog. However, I often disagree with him, like in his recent blog post, where he writes that traditional blogging is inferior to video blogging. Hardly a surprise, as Robert makes a living from shooting video and posting it all over the Internet.
Scoble’s point?
Robert gives examples to prove his point, including video game blogging and the success Gary Vaynerchuk has enjoyed with his blog’s video. I believe that for certain types of blogs, video is highly effective. Gary Vaynerchuk is a showman, a performer – and he benefits from a video the same way he would from TV. Equally, gaming is a visual medium; again, it works better with video.
What is the problem with video blogging? Very few people do it right!
I don’t believe that video blogging is a good fit for most bloggers. Why? Because so few people seem to be able to do it right! Not everyone looks as good on camera as iJustine or has the production skills that Cali Lewis and Neil had when they started Geekbrief.tv. That’s why we see so many naff videos on YouTube, with people who have no presentation skills talking over an audio buzz into a cheap webcam. Who knows if their content’s any good – the video’s so poor that no one sticks around long enough to find out!
Traditional blogging is fairer!
However, with traditional blogging, anyone with interesting, valuable content and a nicely designed theme can give a polished account of themselves. If they also understand SEO basics, they can gradually develop a valuable, significant readership.
Bandwidth issues?
As Leo Laporte has pointed out on many occasions recently, with many ISP’s now capping customers’ bandwidth usage, some people are already starting to think before downloading video. Yes, even with the lower-capped packages, there should be enough bandwidth available – but it has started to get some people thinking about how much data they download. This is not a huge deal, but it’s worth considering.
Mix it up
Fortunately, we don’t have to choose between video blogging or text blogging. Many blogs use both with GREAT success – often linking to 3rd party video content.
The beauty of traditional blogging is that it allows all of us to get our content out there fairer. The average person couldn’t hope to produce a better quality video report than CNN – But they might write a equally valuable or compelling post!
