You may be wondering if you should mix things up and swap out some of your blog posts with video, or maybe even a podcast.

Quick Answer: Yes.

This question was posed in a group I’m a part of by someone who said he was thinking about posting video on his firm’s blog now and then.

You Don’t Have To Choose

It’s 2021. You don’t have to choose between them. If we acknowledge that different people have different modes of content consumption, which they do, then why don’t we think about how we can incorporate various forms of media to meet them where they are?

Where Should You Start?

Blog To Video: What does that look like? Well, it can take various shapes. You can write a blog post, then, if you are natural at interpreting that in front of a camera without sounding scripted, then do that. That’s a very challenging thing for some to do, so be careful with this one. You can naturally record the entire blog post on camera, or you can take the five most important points in that blog post and create a conversational video talking about those points. In case you’re curious, people can be coached to become more natural on camera.

Video To Blog Post: Let’s say you are pretty good on camera and you either have someone ask you a question to get started, or you let your viewers know you are going to answer a question that you received. Turn your recording software on, tease the topic, then start talking. Introduce yourself, then get into your answer. Then what you can do is upload that video and have it transcribed. While you’re there, have it captioned, too, because we know for a fact that a large percentage of people are watching video with the sound off, and some are unable to hear your video. Providing captions is a very user-friendly thing to do.

From that transcription, you can turn that into a blog post. You can post it as a transcription the way it came, but you will want to do some cleanup and maybe even reformat it so that it seems more like a blog post.

Video To Podcast: Another approach is to strip the audio from your video and turn that into a podcast. Some people do that but it is not always structured in a podcast format. When you know what you want to say, it doesn’t take that long to re-record your message on audio software and make it sound like a podcast.

Video, Audio, and Blog Post: You can approach this process in any number of ways. It depends on your knowledge, your comfort level, and the resources you have or can find to do all of this. Who’s to say that you don’t end up with a blog post that also has an embedded video player like this one? There are different ways you can host that and embed that in your blog post, including posting it on social media and embedding that social media post there so that they are then also exposed to your social media content.

You could also embed a podcast episode player within that blog post as another method of content consumption.

A Content Buffet

When you offer different formats for your visitors to consume your content, they have a smorgasbord, a buffet, right in front of them, and they can choose the method that works for them at that moment. That may be different at different times for them. Don’t assume that just because someone listens to audio this time, they won’t watch video another time if they are in an environment that’s more conducive to doing so.

Variety Invites Deeper Content Consumption

Don’t assume that just because someone tells you they prefer video or audio that they won’t read as well. I watch the analytics on my blog posts where I have more than one format incorporated into those posts, and the time on site is measurably greater than it is when I publish with the written word alone.

Bottom Line

It’s 2021. We have so many choices in front of us and we can do just about anything we want. It doesn’t have to be one or the other. For your clients, the consumers of your information, your referral sources, media, and anyone else who consumes your content, let’s give them what they want.

Knowing that many people have different ways they like to consume content, why don’t we try to give it to them in the format that they like?

Do What You Can, Then Add On

You don’t have to do all of this at once, or every time. I know you only have so many resources to do this, so start where you can, then add additional formats that give the consumers of your content the format that is most pleasing to them. Watch your analytics to see what is being consumed, if average viewing time increases, if your video and podcast numbers change, and any other changes that are out of the norm.

Don’t give up after trying something different one time. One time isn’t an indication of success or failure. Keep testing and refining…then do that again…and again until you know you are confident you are making the right decision.