Online Video Killed the Anonymous Internet Star
Posted on April 20th, 2008 in Breaking Fear, Business, Creation Station, Empowerment, General, Marketing
I confess that up to this point, I have been happy being the anonymous internet blogger, writing for clients and not worried about them seeing who I am, what I think and having to put a face to everything I do. Now with this push on social media and video — the secretive life of the digital diva is being exposed — in fast detail, even.
I love video — I think short videos around 6 to 7 minutes are the bee’s knees, but if the speaker catches a topic I’m highly passionate about — I’ll definitely watch lengthier videos.
Making video has been an uphill battle, because it’s that “first impression” issue all over again: how do I want to be perceived? When I write, I get to backspace, re-align, breathe, and keep going. If I come across mean in a video, I have to start over and re-do the whole thing. I also don’t get to hide behind the curtain — I’m in full view, unable to hide my face from the world. It’s definitely a big step, as I do have to break the fear of speaking “in public” — it’s something I’ll be posting on in the near future as this experiment goes along.
We want to see faces. We want to see lips move and hands shake, because it’s the surest way of seeing the speaker’s passion.
Have you gotten into video yet?
April 22nd, 2008 at 8:24 am
No, I haven’t yet. I’m not sure how to do it. It sounds fun, weird and instructive. Are you going to do a tutorial?
I don’t have a fear of speaking in public, but I have never had to watch myself speak. That would be a strange experience. Actors/Actresses do it all the time. Why can’t we?
April 26th, 2008 at 9:07 pm
Yes, people want faces to connect with what they read. Video is just the next step. While I agree, it is a little ‘out of my comfort zone’ to get on video, it creates instant credibility. And if your in a unqiue niche you can immediately begin to build expert or ‘guru’ status all from a few short videos.
April 28th, 2008 at 4:36 pm
I believe video, audio, photos, and text all have their respective places. Radio never completely replaced newspapers; later, TV never completely replaced radio. (Even the Internet won’t completely replace newspapers; it may change the way the words get to the reader, however.)
As my online/blog presence solidifies, I probably will use video (and audio) but will make a transcription available as well for those unwilling to watch/listen. In my previous participation on a social networking site that allowed voice posts via telephone, I did make use of the feature occasionally.