There’s no doubting the power of video content. Video captures the viewer through sight, sound, and sometimes interactivity; it’s a medium that allows you to be creative in a way that writing cannot. Video, however, is still one of those types of media that not many understand. The reasons often land on the fact that people may not have the equipment, know-how to produce, or they’re simply camera shy.
The point of this post is to compile the awesome power of video content with the flexibility of WordPress so you can create visual media for your audience; it will take you through the basics of video production, suggest WordPress tools for publication, and guide you on what you can do to improve your video creation skills and presence.
Let’s get started…
The Basics of Video Production
Video production is actually quite easy to accomplish considering that you may already have most of the tools already at your disposal. If you have a smartphone and a modern OS you have what you need to record, edit, and publish videos. Alternatively, for those that do not wish to be on camera, there is always the option to do screencasts.
Smartphones, video cameras, or even web cams can piece together great recordings for video. Tools like Camtasia, Screenflow, and Screenr are fantastic options for those wanting to do screencasts.
Getting started with video production is as easy as hitting the record button, exporting the video to an editing suite/program, doing the necessary edits, and publishing it so you may upload it to video sharing websites (like YouTube, Vimeo, or Vevo) or your WordPress site.
To go above and beyond with your video production work, it would be worthwhile to invest in online courses, video production literature, or considering digital art courses through such institutions as Platt College, which will combine the many programs, areas of study, and techniques so you may create incredible content in the form of video.
Additional information can be found in these video production basics.
Considerable WordPress Resources
Now that the video has been created it’s time to get it distributed to your audience which may be on video sharing sites, social media, or, in our case, through our WordPress website.
WordPress has many features and plugins that allow you to easily share video; here are but a few that will the job done:
- YouTube Upload Widget – This simple plugin allows you to quickly add and embed videos from YouTube to your WordPress website or even creative video and quickly share it to YouTube without bouncing back and forth.
- TubePress – For those wanting to share multiple videos in a gallery type structure there is no better option than TubePress.
- ReelSEO – A staple in sharing information about using video for exposure – ReelSEO – is a go-to place to understand how to gain higher views, subscribers, and larger distribution for our work once you’ve uploaded it to your site and the various video sharing platforms.
- Mashable’s Guide to YouTube – found here – is a fantastic introductory guide to using the largest video sharing platform; combine this with a few WordPress plugins and you should have no problem getting your video found.
Mixing It All Together
Once you have all the elements in play it’s a matter of taking time to learn and be comfortable with producing video. Video may be intimidating at first because you may not want to show your face and like the way you sound but people dig it up regardless so there’s nothing to hold you back considering all the great benefits of the medium such as exposure and site traffic.
Combine your efforts with your WordPress site and you will have no issue with the production and distribution of your work. In due time you could create entire sections of your site dedicated solely to the video side of content which will greatly improve engagement and keep individuals on your site longer (which improves the chances of conversions for community building or business growth).
Combine the power of video, WordPress, and all the great resources & tools available and you’ll soon find that video may be our shining platform for content creation.
Do you think you’ll begin creating video for your WordPress powered site? What’s stopping you? Now you know the basics so grab that camera, start editing, and get on out there!
3 Responses
I also think that screencasts will be the better options for us
Binfer is simply the easiest way to send videos. See
Screencast seems a good start to learn. For an unattractive guy like me, its better to post video through a screencast.