Just as meeting planners are beginning to use blogs on their event websites, a new trend has emerged: video blogging. While adding a video component to a blog is taking a big step, it can deliver a new dimension of multimedia to further set a site apart from the rest. For the purpose of this article, we will assume that the typical pre-event blogging site is structured such that several contributors can use the system to hold discussions on multiple topics in order to promote the event. Just take a look at www.tradeshowweek.com or www.emergeblog.com to get an idea of this kind of structure. When transitioning from a traditional blog to a video blog, issues concerning production, quality, and cost will need to be addressed prior to implementation.
Presentation is a large part of selling and must be reflected within video blogs. More so, it takes a certain amount of investment to maintain a level of quality, especially when contributors are geographically dispersed. However, this creates a challenge between optimizing production value and cost efficiency. We have proposed a number of options to achieve a balance between maximizing production quality and minimizing cost.
Option 1: Gather All Your Eggs In One Basket.
Capture video blogs at your next event. Depending on the type of event you could rent a studio or use an available room or booth to schedule time for your bloggers to have their one-on-one time with the camera. Hiring a professional film crew with high definition cameras and proper editing skills will give your blog a professional look.
If you are not able to gather your bloggers often, then this solution might not be for you. Although your video blogs will look polished and professional, they will be so infrequently published as to make them virtually worthless. Remember, one of the alluring features of blogging is regularity. If your blogs look great but come out so infrequently that they fail to create an audience, then they fail their initial purpose - to be viewed.
Infrequent as they may be, people may still choose to subscribe to your blog, but remember: infrequent blogging leads to diminishing your influence as you lose your presence both on the web and in the minds of your audience.
Option 2: Shotgunning It.
Instead of capturing video at those rare moments when all of your bloggers are together, you might want to increase the frequency of postings by implementing a system where bloggers are recorded individually as they attend events. For organizations consisting of multiple chapters or holding frequent meetings, this could help solve some of the inconsistency issues with Option 1. Creating a "roadshow" of blogs would give bloggers the chance to more frequently produce video blogs with some degree of professional quality, thus shining a brighter light on the blog's specific topics and content. Furthermore, having a greater number of blogs should entail a greater retention of viewers than the previous solution.
Option 3: Winging It.
The last solution would be to have each individual blogger produce their own video blog. The budget for each blogger would be meager, as the website would have to stretch its blogging budget thin across all of its bloggers. Your organization would have to ensure that each blogger had their own equipment and knowledge to properly produce a video blog. The production quality would not be as high, but there are still advantages to this option.
First, each blogger would be able to post their videos as often as they want. They would be free from having to wait on productoin staff to help record their blogs. In theory, by recording their own videos all the bloggers need to do is just sit down with a webcam and start talking.
Second, each blogger can publish videos on a consistent schedule since they can now record on their own time. Posting new content on a regular schedule is one of the keys to securing a regular audience..
Options 4, 5, 6...
It should be obvious that these three solutions are not the only solutions. Most websites would prefer to mix and match. One organization might choose to both distribute webcams to their bloggers and occasionally produce professional quality blogs during events. Or, some websites might prefer Option 2 but decide to focus their investments more heavily in a particular area. The three options presented here are just the primary colors - feel free to paint your own picture.
Keep in mind that the laws which apply to your personal video blog also apply to video blogging on a larger scale. First, each video blogger must be a personality. Second, and most importantly, the blogger must actually have something to say, but this should be true of both text-only and multimedia blogs. Remember, the main purpose of adding a video component to your current blog is to enhance content with the face-to-face interaction available through video. No matter which implementation method described above is chosen, adding video to an existing blog is a great way to engage your audience and raise visibility to your topics, bloggers, and events.
Author: Oscar Alarcon and Nicholas de la Garza
Published on: 10/10/2007
Vendors referenced: None
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