We have a lot of new bloggers joining the ChangingAging Blogstream and I thought it would be useful to offer a brief video tutorial explaining how to create a video blog post and share it with your followers using social networking tools like Facebook and Twitter.
Creating video blog posts, or “Vlogging”, is one of the best ways to share stories about changing aging. This is especially true in the culture change community we work so closely with. Culture change advocates, care partners, elders and their families have so many wonderful voices and stories to share. And there are many opportunities to capture video from conferences, seminars and workshops that would have great value shared throughout the culture change community.
It’s easier than ever to shoot videos and social networking makes it easier than ever to share videos with a broad audience. But if you’re new to blogging there are a lot of important details you don’t want to overlook.
Below is a simple three-step plan you can follow to choose a video, blog it and share it with your network:
1) Get a Video — Either pick one from YouTube to share or shoot your own. Follow these simple rules:
- Take advantage of simple HD cameras, such as Flipcams or smartphone videocameras.
- Keep it short and sweet — one topic, less than two minutes.
- Use free editing software to upload to YouTube.
2) Blog the video — To feature a video in a blog post, you simply copy the code from the “Embed” box on the video’s YouTube page and paste it into your blog post under the “HTML” viewer tab. You can find the “Embed” code by clicking the “Share” button on the YouTube page.
Next, write a brief blog post about the video. Here are a few simple rules to help you craft a blog post (Notice this post follows these rules):
- Write a clear lead sentence explaining what the blog post and video are about.
- Write one or two sentences explaining why this blog post or video is important. In journalism this is called the “Nut” paragraph.
- If necessary, add important details such as background, names, location, instructions, etc.
- Close the blog post by asking your readers to do something specific, such answer a question or share your post.
- Write a headline and select the proper Category and Tags for your post. Tags should include keywords that appear in your headline and blog post. Categories can keywords describing the type of blog post, such as Video or News, or they can be keywords similar to Tags (Using Tags and Categories properly will help boost your blog’s search engine visibility).
3) Share Using Social Networks — Okay, you’ve written your blog post, embedded a video, added Tags and Categories and finally… you hit Publish. Ta-Da! You’re a Vlogger! That’s it right?
Not quite. Unless you’ve cultivated a loyal audience who checks your blog multiple times per week, chances are nobody is going to know you just published the world’s greatest Vlog post. That’s why it’s critical you share your post throughout your existing social networks.
If you have email subscribers, make sure they get an email update linking to your post. If you have a Facebook account or Page, share a link to your blog post on Facebook. If you have a Twitter account, send out an update with the title of your blog post and a link. If there’s anyone mentioned in the blog post who is friends with you on Twitter or Facebook, share the link on their wall, tag them on Facebook or send them an @message on Twitter. Do the same thing if you use MySpace, LinkedIn or any other social network.
To summarize, it’s pretty straightforward: 1) Get a video, 2) Blog the video and 3) Share Using Social Networks.
Follow these steps getting started, and as you get more experienced and build your audience you will find that your readers will begin doing the sharing for you. That’s why it’s called Social Media.
Finally, to follow my own advice I have two requests: First, if you have any questions share them in the comments section below. Second, if you found this blog post helpful please share it!
