This morning I discovered Kyle Lacy's video blog. Kyle is a social media evangelist who owns an online marketing company in Carmel, IN, and he has definitely been one of the key people who have shown me the ropes with social media. Kyle's 'Vlog' (actually I hate that term - I'll stick to calling it a video blog) is fantastic, because he seems to be differentiating it from his standard text blog. In his traditional blog he discusses various online topics, marketing topics, interesting posts on other blogs, and really anything else that he finds interesting. His video blog is a bit different, in that it is dedicated to helping business professionals understand how to use social media to effectively impact the bottom line. So the question remains..... Why do I need one? (or better yet why do you need one?)
Let's look at another example. If you were visiting the greater Indianapolis area and you were to search for a local liquor store on google, there is an excellent chance that you would find Greenfield Liquors on the first page for most keywords. The reason they consistently score so highly is that they have invested a great deal of time and money in their online presence with Smaller Indiana and their Compendium Blog. One of the most interesting things they do on their blog is to include drink recipes. More interesting still is that they use video in conjunction with the recipes and actually SHOW you how to utilize the liquors they sell. So..... Why should you be doing this?
Video creates a TON of value for your customers (and potential customers)! Kyle Lacy is providing a valuable resource for business professionals who are seeking to learn more about social media. At the same time he is establishing himself as an expert in his field (actually he probably has already accomplished that, but the vlog can only help). The folks at Greenfield Liquors are providing an awesome service to their customers as well; they're teaching them how to better enjoy the products they buy. The fact that they are providing this service (and the fact that it helps them rank so highly on google) means that people looking for high-end liquor will be much more likely to buy it from them.
Basically what I'm getting at here is that video is a great differentiator for your blog and for your organization. While I don't have a date set in stone, I have been planning on launching a video blog for a while now and it IS coming. So kudos to Kyle and Greenfield liquors for giving me an awesome topic and doing such fine work with their online marketing. Keep it up!