The marriage of micro-blogging and video has produced micro-vlogging, a trend in its infancy perhaps, but some believe it’s a growing platform for the future of online publishing.

Jen Hinton is a lifecaster who enjoys sharing video blogs on her introspective blog Keep It Classy, hosts an online radio show called Chicks Who Chat, and is currently doing a 365 Vlog Project on her YouTube channel. She shared her thoughts about micro-vlogging with us…

We all know that micro-blogging has literally exploded within the past couple of years, but what if we took it a step further?…

Vlogging is the next big leap we will all make in the blogosphere in my opinion. Some people are still very scared of the idea but we should ask ourselves why? We share our every move through social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, and our blogs… I always wonder though who the person behind the blog is. I can only imagine what you look like and the true sound of your voice. If I am reading your blog on a regular basis then the likelihood is that I am interested in your world.

Micro-vlogging is basically twitterizing (love that word) your videos; giving only a brief snippet of yourself on video. There are great platforms out there like 12seconds, TwitVid, and BubbleTweet (my personal fave) that allow you to micro-vlog with a user friendly platform. The reason that micro-vlogging is the next big thing is because people do not have a lot of time. They hop online during their brief lunch break or when they sneak away from their kids throughout the day. It’s quick and easy. So give it a shot!

For anyone ready to give micro-vlogging a decent shot, here are ten platforms worth checking out:

12seconds.tv

Bubble Tweet

TwitVid

Robo.to

Twiddeo

TweeTube.com

Twitcam

Camtweet

TwitC

TwitLens

Sponsored by

Advertise on Fuel Brand Network.
Fuel Brand Network 2010 cc (creative commons license)

Just Shoot Yourself and Vlog About It

Video blogging (or vlogging if you prefer) has started to become all the rage. Bandwidth limits are increasing. Unlimited server space is available. Video sharing websites are popping up all over the internet with YouTube leading the charge. Are you missing out at a golden opportunity to stand out amongst the pack by creating video posts? Why haven’t you started yet?

The two most common reasons why bloggers are reluctant to make the foray into video:

“I get very nervous in front of the camera.”
“I’m afraid I’m going to forget what to say.”

It’s natural that this would be the case, we’re all not born performers – but you can eliminate both of these fears with a simple memorization technique. Let me teach you how.

Before we start though, you first need to do the unimaginable. Jump off the cliff and ditch the script!

Speaking naturally and appearing confident comes from having knowledge of the subject at hand. As long as you have this, a word-for-word script is uneccessary. When you speak to others in your everyday lives, do you read your thoughts from a piece of paper? Of course not. Treat your video post in the same regard – like you’re talking normally to another person.

Ok, I see you’re getting nervous. You’re probably wondering “if I don’t have a script, how will I remember what to say?”

This is simple. It takes only three steps:

1. Speak your thoughts out loud to yourself.. Write them down, not with full sentences, but with key words and phrases. Continue doing so until you believe you’ve hit every point you’d like to make in your video.

2. Create an outline that organizes these phrases in the best chronological order. Eliminate any words that are uneccessary in helping you remember the original thought. Try to narrow this outline down as much as possible.

3. Take a look at this ordered list of words and phrases. While doing so, speak your thoughts as you did previously. Do this again and again until you can simply look at that single word on the paper and remember the thought that represents it.

If you’ve put enough effort into this process, you have now successfully condensed a wealth of information into as little amount of data as possible. In addition, since a pre-written script was never produced, you will seem quite natural on camera and not appear to be reading or reciting words from a page. Pin the list next to your webcam and record away!

Practicing this method over time will make anything easier to memorize. You’ll go from one or two minute video posts to ditching the ordered list altogether and being able to remember half-hour long presentations in a snap.

Don’t be afraid to do video posts anymore! Quash your fears about your confidence and memory. Just remember the three steps above and you’ll do just fine. Oh, do you need help memorizing them? Well…

Sponsored by

Advertise on Fuel Brand Network.
Fuel Brand Network 2010 cc (creative commons license)

How To Memorize Anything and Make Great Video Posts

We’re spending a bit of time this week talking about video blogging (or “vlogging,” though I’m not a fan of that word). There are a plethora of tools at our disposal, but a few seem to rise above the crowd and offer the best experience for sharing video content on the web. Aside from self-hosted video, the five most popular platforms, according to Mefeedia’s State of the Vlogosphere, are:

• Youtube (36%)
• Blip.tv (14%)
• Vimeo (9%)
• MySpace (7%)
• Daily Motion (3%)

Many professional vloggers choose to utilize multiple channels to draw more viewers and each platform offers up its own inherent advantages and disadvantages. We wanted to ask you, our readers, which you’ve found to be most useful, powerful, or productive? What’s your favorite and why would you recommend it?

Sponsored by

Advertise on Fuel Brand Network.
Fuel Brand Network 2010 cc (creative commons license)

Spill It: What’s the Best Platform for Vlogging?

I’ve tried to ignore video as long as possible! I’m not a fan of cameras – they’re too revealing, intimate, and personal. They capture everything. They convey more emotion and carry more impact, and they reveal more flaws. Actually, these are a few of the reasons you can’t afford to ignore video.

We’re going to be addressing the subject of video blogging throughout this week at Fuel Your Blogging because it has arrived as a vital medium of communication. But what’s the relevance to blogging, which has to this point been primarily an art of words on the screen?

Video Is A Quick and Easy Medium

This wasn’t true a decade ago. I grew up in the 1980’s when packing around a camcorder meant carrying something the size of a diaper bag. And we used those… what were they? Oh, tapes! The last two decades have shrunk the size of our devices but only recently has it become so extremely easy to share video with the masses via the internet.

Tomorrow we’re going to showcase a few of the best video platforms. I say “best” because there are a plethora available. Anyone with a cell phone, webcam, or camcorder can shoot and distribute video in a matter of minutes.

Videos Have a Viral Nature

Because of rapidly developing platforms, videos can spread quickly. When was the last time one of your blog posts reached 17 million pageviews? That’s how many times a 17 second clip of a surprised kitten has been watched.

While it’s not likely that very many videos will enjoy such success, it does highlight that people will pass along anything they find valuable or entertaining.

Video Offers Multi-Layer Communication

Within the organization for which I work, we have a policy that nobody ever handles confrontation over email. The biggest reason is that with the written word, you perceive only one layer of communication – words. Face-to-face communication adds at least two more layers – voice (inflection and tone) and body language (gestures).

Video conveys all of these. The viewer doesn’t just get a message, they get that message in the tone in which you intended it. Video establishes a context for our words.

Everybody Else Is Doing It

Video is big. There is a reason why Google purchased Youtube when it was losing money. Whether it’s paying off now is up for debate, but it’s a virtual guarantee that the purchase will make perfect sense as time rolls on.

Video is mushrooming in popularity as a blogging tool. The future most likely holds advances in the way video content gets cataloged by search engines. Devices and platforms will only become more user-friendly and inexpensive. While avid internet readers have learned to tune out most other advertisement models, video opens new possibilities for the monetization of the web.

Our challenge to you as bloggers is to tune in. Give it a shot, experiment, and stay abreast of the industry. I released my first video post just yesterday, and you’ll meet me face-to-face here at Fuel Your Blogging before the week is out.

We would also challenge you to be careful, however, to guard the quality of the blogging art. Just because video is getting cheaper to do doesn’t mean your blog needs to appear cheaper too.

Join the discussion this week here at Fuel Your Blogging. Let us know in the comments what experience you’ve had with video blogging, or how you feel about the technology.

photo credit: jsawkins

Sponsored by

Advertise on Fuel Brand Network.
Fuel Brand Network 2010 cc (creative commons license)

Why You Can’t Ignore Video