Online video, audiences, sharing: Putting it all together
I thought about titling this post “Another stupid way news sites waste time and effort by failing to understand the Web and how people use it,” but I thought maybe that was far too broad, since it covers so many things.
This post is really about how journalism organizations could use video intelligently:
- Embedding
- Linking
- Sharing
- Full screen
- Downloads
- Engagement
- Promote other pages and stories
I spend a lot of time speaking (and thinking) about online video — both journalism video and the broader YouTube varieties. When we think about how people use online video — and by “people” I mean mostly North Americans in the college and university student age group — we absolutely must consider sharing.
How young people find out about videos (and — let’s face it — a large portion of all news and information) is because one or more of their friends posted a link on Facebook, or shared it in some other way that brought it to their attention.
It doesn’t take too much intelligence to conclude that it’s very important to make it very easy to share the videos that you produce.
The video embedded above (from the Toronto Star) won an award at this year’s Online News Association annual conference, and I really love the way it tells the story in a manner that can grab the attention of almost anyone — even if you have no particular interest in Africa or in windmills.
Embedding: I had to install an extra plug-in to embed that video here (and on a free WordPress.com blog, I would not be able to embed it). That’s one consideration — if a video is on YouTube or Vimeo, it can be easily embedded almost anywhere, in any kind of blog, and on Facebook. Make it easy for people to embed your video in WordPress, Blogger, Tumblr, and anywhere.
Linking: From the embedded video above, you can’t view the original. There’s no link. That’s one consideration about linking, and here’s another — the video is like an appetizer to a bigger, more detailed story. That’s often true of online journalism videos, and often there is a fuller treatment in a text story, or even a big package of related features. But how will anyone ever find those other pieces? Even at the Toronto Star’s website, this video does not appear on the same Web page with the text story! (Yes, there is a link. But it’s asking people to click and wait, and that’s not necessary.)
Sharing: These cute little buttons make sharing on Twitter, Facebook, etc., simple — this is essential.
Lots of journalism sites are missing the boat on sharing. Earlier today I watched this video from GlobalPost: On Location: Cairo – Egypt’s pre-election crackdown (excellent work by UF grad Jon Jensen). On the stand-alone video page, it has NO options for embedding and NO options for sharing. (Note: Some GlobalPost stories have been “Liked” more than 1,000 times via Facebook.)
I had to make a screen capture from the video and upload it and link it to provide you the incentive you see above (an image that will take you to the video), and most people just are not going to do that much work to share your videos.
Journalism videos SHOULD be embedded and SHOULD be shared, but they need to LINK BACK to the journalism, to the original. The video is a promo for the rest of the story. The video is a tease, an entry point to MORE. The video should BRING people TO your site.
Does this mean online videos should not include pre-roll advertising? Maybe.
Full screen: From what I’ve seen, young people always make a video full screen if it’s possible to do it. Some videos look great full screen, and many do not. Of course, there are bandwidth constraints, etc. I’m just saying we should consider how the videos look when blown up to a width of 1200 pixels — or larger.
Downloads: If I could download the windmill video and keep it on my iPhone, I would show it to people. Too bad — the Toronto Star does not allow me to download it. If more journalism organizations treated video as (downloadable) podcasts, they might get a lot more leverage out of the video work.
Engagement: The windmill video above has some non-standard enhancements to the storytelling, and I think they work fantastically well to grab and hold the viewer’s attention. Usually I feel uncomfortable about using music in a journalistic video — I’m concerned that it takes away from the journalism, the credibility, the realism. In this case, however, I just love the music because it really does enhance the story. (Too many videos use bland music loops that add nothing.)
Most people are quick to click away from a video if it fails to engage them — 20 percent of viewers will quit a video in the first 10 seconds (source; from analyst firm Visible Measures). To me that says the crucial characteristic of every video is a strong opening. Grab people immediately; guarantee that they are going to see something interesting.
The windmill video is not too long (3 min. 10 sec.). It does not try to tell us everything. That’s why we have the text story.
Video as promo: Increasing page views
Online video is immensely popular, especially with younger Internet users, and its popularity is still increasing. That’s the reason to think about it more, and figure out effective ways to use it to bring good stories to people’s attention.
Consider the two videos linked here: The story about William and the windmills can be bringing viewers to the Toronto Star for years (because it’s not tied to any breaking news), but it ought to be linked better — not only to the Star’s text story but also to other sites and pages (inside the Star and outside) — about NGOs and Africa and Malawi and the 2007 TED Talk that introduced William Kamkwamba to the world and the book and the blog. A video with long legs is worth extra time and effort — in production AND in promotion. (Educators: Show your students the TED video and the Toronto Star video and discuss storytelling!)
The GlobalPost video about current elections, on the other hand, has a short shelf life — nevertheless, it could be linked to a zillion other stories related to Egypt and the region. The BBC has always been my exemplar for this kind of cross-linking (and self-promotion); see this example: Egypt holds parliamentary poll (two insets within the story: Related Stories and Parliamentary Vote). Why doesn’t GlobalPost have links like those on its video page? Why squander that opportunity?
If you’re not familiar with GlobalPost, read this from Nieman Journalism Lab (November 2010).
Update (Dec. 1, 2010): If you thought anything in this post was good, you should read Will Sullivan’s 15 reasons why it’s time to abandon your corporate video player and just go with YouTube (Oct. 19, 2010). Will is the interactive director at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, and right now he’s in the midst of a fellowship at the Reynolds Journalism Institute, at the University of Missouri. If you’re in online journalism and you don’t know who Will is, you should.
Categories: examples, ideas, multimedia, participation, training, video
The windmill story is OK but it’s got problems.
First, the music. Anyone who has spent more than 10 minutes on iMovie will recognize that tune. As soon as I heard it I cringed. I have heard that same stupid song 9 million times. Enough! It’s easy enough to import or create original music with Garage Band that you don’t have to use THAT one AGAIN! Please!
I agree with you about the first 10 seconds, but your first 10 seconds is a still on a light switch. Not exactly the most compelling video in the world. In fact in light of what comes later, its one of the most banal shots you’ve got. Start with the cu on the windmill. Let people say, ‘what the hell is that’?
It needs narration. I have to work to follow this guy and too much work makes most folks go bye by.
It needs a more coherent arc of story. It’s a great story but it just sits there.
Other than that, nice.
This is all well and good. But how many people watching the embedded video will click through to the original site? Video hosting isn’t cheap and paying for people to watch your story doesn’t make much sense from a financial point of view.
Video journalism has failed to take off largely because editors have failed to understand that not every story is best told in video.
The fact remains that text is still the fasted and most efficient way to communicate 95% of stories.
Thanks for this post Mindy, some good advice here and we’re putting a lot of it into action on WalesOnline to up our video content and views.
We’ve been trying to produce more set-piece video that will stand the test of time – while we have good weekly shows we do e.g. football/rugby, and good video content tied to specific stories – one of our most successful videos this years was a trip into the South Wales Valleys about a UFO sighting: http://www.walesonline.co.uk/multimedia/news/video/2010/08/06/ufo-sighting-over-the-valleys-91466-27011826/
Dear “reader”: I agree with you that many editors (and reporters) have failed to understand which stories are best told in video.
But the fact is, U.S. university students watch far more videos online and spend more hours doing it than they do reading text.
We can write all the text we want, but if no one reads it, what good is that?
Mindy,
The online videos which people are watching are not video journalism. So what if a video of a cat falling out of a tree gets 7 bagazillion views. It’s completely irrelevant.
Regarding your comment about text I’m confused. People are reading text in online newspapers. The same proportion of people are not watching video on the same site. The analytics speak for themselves. This is a moot point.
Ever wondered who are the people saying video is the all important medium of the future? Yes, it’s the same people with a vested interest to sell video which no one wants to watch.
Just how long we’re going to have keep on with this pretense I have no idea. Seems everyone gets it but the people holding the reins.
I’m reading on an iPad and wish I could view the embedded video. I hope the next version of the device will read Flash. In the meantime, I think it’s important for producers to offer video options for this audience.
Great post as usual, Mindy. I have a somewhat different experience with this statement, though: “From what I’ve seen, young people always make a video full screen if it’s possible to do it.”
I see a number of students watching the YT in the regular viewer while reading the comments or looking at related video links. Anecdotal, but thought I’d throw that out there. Also, especially for video of people giving a talk or something, I know I would have no interest in full screening. I’ll usually turn the player on and leave it running in the background or something (multitasking, I know). It’s especially useful when there’s no transcript (which is something of an agreement with “a reader”‘s point.
Finally,
Are news organizations who use YouTube or Vimeo paying for hosting on those sites? Is that something I’ve missed? Seems like YouTube is seeking content partners.
Largely? That’s one part of an explanation, but I wouldn’t call it the largest part.
(sorry for the long reply)
Hi Mindy. I’m a longtime fan of your musings. I oversee video at GlobalPost and I appreciate your thoughts on Jon’s Egyptian elections segment. Part of the issue was that GP’s initial site/cms wasn’t set-up to best seed the web and cross-pollinate with other stories. But we’re working on a major overhaul that promises to give a lot more “shelf-life” to all the great work our shooters are doing around the world. Thanks for taking the time. -M
@Mark Scheffler – Wow, that’s good news (major overhaul). I look forward to seeing it!
Rick Byrne, vice president and director of communications and marketing at GlobalPost, had earlier sent me an e-mail alerting me that there IS a sharing option on the page I linked to — but it’s this weird little dark-gray box in a corner of the video, and frankly, I did not see it even though I was searching for a way to share!
@Bryan Murley – I too have seen students watching YouTube in the regular viewer (not full screen) while doing something else. But then I consider that not really “watching” the video. Sometimes its a music video, for example.
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