This is a Guest Post by Beth Barnes, student in a nearby college. She was asked: if you wanted to roll out a video clip introducing your product, which service should you use?
Beth said:
With so many web 2.0 Video Services available now, how do you choose the right one? I think that the decision really should be based on what is must important to your specific situation. I looked at three of the video broadcasting, pod casting and social networking sites in an attempt to see which were the most versatile and user friendly. The sites that I looked at were
- bliptv
- bolt and of course
- You Tube.
All three sites offer seemingly the same services free of charge but to an audience are quite different. During my first examination of Bolt.com I felt that it was easy to navigate and the videos were clear and easy to search. I was irritated however that the videos were not able to be enlarged to full screen. When viewing videos claiming to be news clippings they seemed short, choppy and sloppily edited. I also noticed that there was no advertising on this site which made me wonder what their source of revenue was due to the fact that the membership for positing videos and blogging on this site were free.
Despite its good first appearance I was discouraged by the blogging when I tried to gain user feedback on bolt.com. Under the informational bolt.com blog the conversations had shifted from informational to highly personal and had almost nothing to do with the site itself. While reading the postings I felt more like I was on a dating and love site then a video broadcasting site. If I was ever to post a video for work or other professionals this site would be one of my last choices.
I got a very different impression from bliptv.com. Blip TV was refreshing, clean and easy to navigate. The site boasts it’s built in syndication to AOL video, yahoo video, myspace, facebook, twitter, flickr, MSN video, google video, itunes and many more. The compatibility of this site is astonishing! I loved it. The main premise of this site was to be able to download and organize all of your videos in one place but yet still be able to promote yourself practically anywhere else. What could be better? I was also excited that Blip TV will promote your video for you on their homepage if it becomes popular. Blip TV is a great site for anyone looking to seamlessly set up pod casts or video clips for their homepage. It is a great media organization site.
One of my old favorites is still You Tube. Any company that Google is interested in buying out is definitely worth your time. You Tube enables any visitor to search and view videos. You tube now has relationships with many news stations and it is possible to watch news clippings from anywhere that you can browse You Tube. I am not only impressed with You Tubes clear home page when viewing on my pc but I have become more and more excited with the fact that I can upload videos to You Tube from my blackberry and also watch videos, wherever I am. You Tube contains such a wide variety of videos which makes the possible audience that much greater. For anyone who wants to broadcast themselves or their business to a large and easily accessible audience I would definitely recommend You Tube. It is a social video sharing community that really puts the power in the hands of the video creator.
[When not reviewing video sites, Beth Barnes studies graphic design and art history.]