In my previous post, Video is Queen, I wrote about why video is queen (if content is king) and that video has the potential to strengthen endorsements and brand recommendations.

It’s no secret that one of the values for brands is when multiple viewers click through in a timely manner to purchase based on a video endorsement. These conversions are relatively easy to measure. However, it gets more difficult for a brand to track conversions over time, especially for videos.

Over time, it also gets harder for people to find video reviews.

I may remember for a few weeks or months (depending on the effectiveness or affectiveness of the video), but unless I use social bookmarking, I’m not going to be able to find the video review easily over time because searching video content is still not fully possible.

Sure, on YouTube or social bookmarking sites, it might be easier if people use good tags and descriptions, but that might not be a full explanation of what the video actually contains. That will only begin to happen when the content of the video becomes searchable.

If a blogger wants to transfer more long-tail ROI to the brand because of positive feelings about the product, then in addition to doing a video review because of its affective potential and popularity, they might also consider writing optimized copy including a blog post, headline, and tags that are search friendly along with the video review.

Despite the affective nature of video and its popularity, video is hard to find via search unless combined with text that can be optimized. It’s an issue both brands and bloggers might consider as they calculate longtail ROI.

If content is king, video is queen.
YouTube is now the second most popular search engine. People are creating and watching more and more video these days. Textual content is still strong and has it’s uses, but video captures our attention in more and more ways.

Video is queen because:
1. Video is fun and engaging.
2. Video is personal.
3. Video can make for a stronger connection.

Video is fun and engaging.
Yesterday a colleague and I were trying to find information on YouTube’s Overlay function. After exploring Help, I tabbed to search Google. Only when that didn’t work did I chuckle and click back over to search YouTube to see if anyone had created a video with specific instructions (People will create videos about everything these days!). Today I didn’t have any luck finding what I needed. Instead I found short videos exclaiming what a COOL feature Overlay is!!!!! You should use it because it’s a cool. new. feature!!!

The over-the-top appreciation gave my colleague and I an opportunity to laugh and connect. Plus, I was hamming it up talking to my computer, “Dude, I don’t really care right now how cool it is, I just want to know how to work it.” While I didn’t learn what I needed to know, I did have a good time in the process.

Video is personal.
I’ve been watching Chris Brogan’s video reviews. I love his video reviews because by watching them, I get a glimpse into his world and get to witness another aspect of his personality. It’s not about his conveying or learning the same amount of content as in a product description or a book review on Amazon. It’s because a video is more personal than plain text.

For example, last week he talked about these fabulous bags. I don’t remember the make of the bags. Right now, that’s not important because I’m not in the market for a bag; however, if I needed to buy a really nice bag for a guy, I’d go back to his blog and search for it, because the experience is going to stick with me because Chris made it personal. He and his daughter think it’s a really nice bag.

Video can make for a stronger connection.
Yesterday, Chris did another video book review. Again, I love the video, not because I learned 7 important take-aways or the top 3 must read chapters, but because at the end, Chris’s son threw something, and it wasn’t edited out. Chris just nonchalantly said, and that’s my son who just threw his train. No heavy scripting and no editing it out.

It’s real. It’s not heavily scripted and we see his personality and how he interacts with his family, and as such it has the potential for a stronger connection. Now that is cool, and I want to watch more.

The affective aspects of video can make it an effective tool for people to use to convey not only the primary message or endorsement, but also convey the passion behind the message and any corresponding emotions or affects in the viewer. However, if it’s overly scripted or edited, it would lose its potential.

On the other hand, I think big brands can move in the direction of less scripting and less editing, being more personal, and engaging; however, I don’t think they have the same levels of freedom. As I work on developing more video content for Allstate, it’s one of the things I consider and try and hit the right balance.

Massumi: “Affect enlivens. Its vivacity, ever on the move from situation to situation, strings context-orderings together in eventfulness, holding them together from the angle of what new and unpredictable enters into them. Its context-rocking trans-situational drift is the life-glue of the world–a world capable of surprise (surplus value of being)” (Parables for the Virtual, 220).

Your thoughts?

I looked over my blogroll and decided to narrow things down by choosing bloggers I’ve met in real life because they are just as rockin’ f2f as they are here in the blogosphere.

1. Donna at Why Not Blog – She is one of the coolest persons I know. I admire her outlook on life and how she puts things in perspective. You never know what she is going to blog about, but her cats are featured prominently and they rock too!

2. RMH aka senioritis at Schenectady Synecdoche – I’ve been reading her blog for a while now. Girl Howdy can she get the work done. I wish I had 1/2 of her focus and drive. I so enjoyed meeting her in person. Her presence and warmth really come through. Her blog is one of the first I read every morning.

3. Jenny at Working Blue – She is really rockin’ cool! I’ve been reading her blog since before it was Working Blue. I’ve also read some of her print stuff and even heard her present. I really like how she writes and expresses her ideas. Plus, I keep thinking, V. has it made–one day she will surely realize just how rockin’ her mom is.

4. jo(e) at Writing as jo(e) – Speaking of cool moms, jo(e) is it. Plus, she is a rockin’ girl blogger for sure. I love the stories she tells and the cool pictures she takes. She is such a talented writer, and she has perfected the back of head shot. Now I want to take those shots of all my family and friends.

5. repressed librarian – She is such a caring and thoughtful person. Her deep values and principles are so integrated in her life. I admire her so much. I look forward to reading her blog whenever she posts. Maybe now that I’m in the same general vicinity for a bit, we can do another blogger meet-up.

Billie gave out an honorary rockin’ girl blogger award, but I want to give out an alternate mention to R.A.D. Blogger – Even though she hasn’t blogged much yet, when she does get going, you’re going to see how smart she is. I hope you get to know her more. She rocks!

But, I’m wanting to help out the professor and say, look…here are all of the great things that I’ve noticed while blogging. Besides what I’ve noticed personally and all who have stopped by to comment on my blog, which I think is fabulous, I think about all of the teaching carnivals, the semi-annual reading carnival, Collin’s Networked Rhetorics class, all of the other grad classes in the blogosphere, and just the daily circulation of ideas.

I wonder if 20 of you who are reading this post, commented on it, would that make a difference for them? If I listed out the benefits, would they be swayed? What does it take before the light clicks on? Or, more likely, there are just some people who won’t see the value of it, ever. Darn!

Yet, I ask you, my readers…what is your approach? how do you explain blogging so that students, or maybe even colleagues, get what is happening? Or, do you not bother? Do you only offer your opinion when someone asks you for info?

Update: from my stats, this post is getting the hits…people are curious, but as of yet no one has commented. Hmm…interesting question, but no takers??

Donna was kind enough to call me a thinking blogger. See the Thinking Blogger Award meme.

I’ve made several passes through my blogroll and there is just no way that I can pull exactly five bloggers who help me think from all the wonderful bloggers on my list.

More updates to follow here at mwrites.

I started thinking about my classroom presence this summer when I listened to one of Ellen’s talks. In the talk, Ellen told a story about how she was talking to a friend and congregation member and said that she was hesitatant to use an example from her own life on a particular issue she was discussing in her talk because she knew she didn’t consider herself a role model on this issue to the congregation. Her friend said (and imagine the Oklahoma southern drawl), “you think we won’t know if you don’t tell us?” So, I thought about my own case and decided that students are pretty smart and they’re going to be able to figure out whether I have the qualifications to teach the course and offer relevant real life examples.

I think my classroom presence is much better because of the change that I’ve made. I think I’m more of who I am. I also think telling stories from my past reinforces that I’ve got a valid reason or example to illustrate what we’re talking about in class.

In other news…

I’m really excited about the expert project assignment I’m using in my professional writing class. After going to the Computers & Writing Conference this summer at Texas Tech and listening to Amy Hanson’s talk, “Blogging: The Newest Form of Professional Communication?”, I decided to change the way I was asking students to blog for class. This summer I did an initial run of the assignment and it seemed to work pretty well in the summer session course. For the assignment, students are required to create a professional blog on a subject of their choosing. Their goal is to become an “expert” on this subject by the end of the semester. I have the expert project assignment sheet posted on the course blog if you’d like to take a peek. Further, the research that they do on this expert project can feed into the other writing assignments that they do over the course of the semester.

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