3 Options for Hosting Video with Social Media
by Sean Tucker on 09/11/09 at 7:00 am
2 comments
Every self-respecting website needs a well produced promo video, and I’m not just saying that because I’m a videographer. Placing a short video on your home page, to wet the appetite, should entice people to read more about your brand and increase the time they are willing to invest on perusing your site.
It really makes t
he difference.
The dilemma with hosting videos online is that they’re usually quite big. If the quality is decent you could be looking at file sizes up to 200MB, which means you won’t have many videos on your website before you completely run out of hosting space.
The answer? Social Media.
There are already a slew of video hosting platforms out there which will not only take the burden of hosting off your site, saving you valuable space, but also giving you some top notch players to embed on your own site. As with all other Social Media platforms you start by creating a profile, and then begin loading your videos. Once done, each of your videos will have a custom HTML ‘embed code’ which you simple copy and paste into the body of your website code, and your video will appear, without taking up oodles of your precious web hosting space. Your video hosting platform will assume the burden.
Taking this route also means that you are present on spaces where people are searching for videos everyday. Who knows, perhaps someone’s ‘youtube hole’ may lead them to you.
There are many options available but I tend to stick to these three:
1. Youtube: Is obviously very attractive as it is, hands down, the world’s most popular video hosting platform with the biggest audience. If your priority is to be discovered by web surfers then this is the space you want your videos to be hosted in. Millions of people browse Youtube everyday, in fact, I heard a stat the other day which said that Youtube’s user base is so large that, were it a country, it would be the third most populous nation on the planet! Be aware however that hosting your videos here leaves you open to comments from the massive Youtube user base, and not all of them are civilized and gracious.
2. Zoopy: Is great because it’s local, and we know that’s lekker:) The practical benefit of Zoopy is primarily that the cache speeds are much quicker so people browsing from SA will wait for less time for the videos to load. It’s very user friendly and also supports photos and loading of media from your phone directly to your Zoopy profile. So if you’re shooting a lot of on-the-fly video from a mobile, this is a great platform for getting your material out there fast.
3. Vimeo: Is the one I use for my own stuff because it has the sexiest looking player. It seems to be a site which videographers gravitate towards because it has very active forums where fellow users will give crit on your videos and advice on how to improve. The videos always seem to look great from their player too. Just download their settings to make sure you are exporting your videos correctly, and getting the most out of their platform. So if you are producing your own videos, and quality is more important, this is the one for you.
So get cracking on those videos.
Get creative.
Get visual.
‘Lack of space’ is no longer an excuse.
View more articles by Sean Tucker.
Tags: social media, Vimeo, YouTube, Zoopy
JBagley
Nov 9th, 2009
Any thoughts on Viddler as an option? At Free-kick.tv, we have tried Youtube, Vimeo, Zoopy and Viddler, but still struggling to decide on which one to use exclusively or which one works best for us.
Last question then, do you have any advice on which video sharing site we should go with in terms of getting people to actually watch our videos and then follow up and comment?
Sean Tucker
Nov 9th, 2009
Hey J…
To be honest I haven’t ever used Viddler. I am going to go and have a look now and will let you know what I think.
On you second question; my gut response is that Youtube would be your best bet if you are wanting to ensure yourself the widest possible exposure and the biggest audience. Of course the quality of your video’s will determine how many people view them and pass them on. Youtube also seems to be the platform with the highest instances of viewer comments. It seems part of the Youtube culture, where as Vimeo and Zoopy seem to have a less ‘active’ casual audience.
Hope this helps.