Video is increasingly important for B2B Technology publications, so I was delighted when Ian Poole or Radio-Electronics.com was kind enough to pass on his views about what makes a good video in our industry:
We have all seen a large number of videos being posted on all sorts of websites and including those in the electronic engineering space. These videos vary widely in quality from the ‘wobblecam’ amateurish looking videos with an uncomfortable guru placed in front of the camera which even some professional organisations have developed through to highly polished high quality and expensive videos some organisations have made.
At Radio-Electronics.com, we have been looking at providing some of the videos that people want to see and we have been experimenting with different approaches – check out our YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/radioelectronicscom As with advertising, the video needs to match the site to be successful. It’s necessary to match expectations of the visitors, otherwise people will not be interested. With video costing a lot to produce, either in time or money dependent upon how you want to measure it, it is necessary to make sure you make what the people who visit your channel or website want.
We have produced a variety of videos and the ones that have appealed most have been those that adopt a more tutorial style, addressing a particular topic.
Radio-Electronics.com has a focus on providing high quality information for electronic engineers. So we have tried to produce high quality videos whilst still keeping within a reasonable budget.
As with articles, we need to work with companies who are experts in their field to ensure we get the best and most useful information from those who are dealing with a particular subject area each day. But it is of paramount importance not to just produce advertorial content that few want to watch anyway.
The length of the video is also important. In these days of instant everything, few people have time to watch an hour long video. It is very important to get the information over in a concise and easy to understand fashion, but without it being too rushed and too superficial.