Advantages of Audio and Video
Accessibility
Not everyone likes to read. Not everyone can. Making more formats available simply makes it more likely that people will engage with your content.
Speed
While the learning curve might take you half a day, once you’re up and running it is much easier for most people to talk than to write. So podcasting and video give you the ability to quickly create useful content and get it published.
Portability
No one is going to take your blog post to the gym with them. They might just take their iPod, though. Similarly, you can take your flip video camera places and create videos a lot easier than you can stop what you’re doing to capture the moment in words on your blog or even on Twitter.
Coolness
As easy as it is, most people are just not doing it.
You could easily become the only podcasting magician in your county.
SEO Note on Audio and Video
Search engines don’t really index the content of video and audio files.
If you want your media to help with your rankings:
- Use search friendly file names. No one searches for “2009-01-05-vid2764f.mpg.”
- Transcribe the verbal content (by hand or with text-to-speech software) and put that on your site as well.
