It’s been some time since I have sat and written a blog post, which has really been playing on my mind. When you blog it has to be constant and regular, and there was a time when I was always writing, and lately I have just not got around to it. I never want to lose the art of writing and already I can see that my handwriting has lost it’s ‘special touch’ – you see I actually like to write the blog out by hand before I type it!

Anyway, over the last year I have found myself getting to grips with vlogging (video blogging) which, of course, is also a very important marketing medium and one with very beneficial customer engagement stats for my business. So let’s take a look at the benefits of both platforms and see which is best:

BLOGGING – written articles on the world wide web

Need to be well written so ensure that the spelling and grammar are good
Make them regular in order to build a good following
Make them personal to you, never steal other people’s ideas or pretend they are your own
Have a good level of knowledge on the subject you are writing about and ‘discuss’ your chosen topic logically, trying to show all sides of the story
Think about keywords and the way a customer or prospective client would post a question in a search engine. What would they type in Google? Then use those phrases
Have a degree of SEO, meta-tag and keyword knowledge to make your blog stand out and gain traction
Give specific detailed information where possible
Incorporate ‘back-links’ and credit your information sources
Give yourself plenty of time as blogs take a little while to get right
Never put pictures off the web into your blog without getting a licence to use them

VLOGGING – video blog posts

These can be very quick to do as you can use most mobile phones to produce a good vlog
You can go ‘live’ on Facebook and get interaction while you are still filming
Video has a higher audience engagement than blogging and you get over a 50% increase in ‘likes’ when you use video rather than just words
Even writing the word ‘video’ in the subject line of your e-newsletters or emails can increase the open rate by 20%
You must be heartfelt and honest in front of the camera, never ‘act’ as this could put people off watching
While you can edit captions on video you cannot edit your vlog once it is published
Putting captions over your vlog means that people can watch and read at the same time, it’s a win-win but it does take some time to do
You can get addicted to vlogging and end up carrying a selfie-stick with you wherever you go

So ideally I need to be doing both – vlogs and blogs – as they both appeal to different types of customer, and of course as my company is promoting digital marketing, video production, and websites I really need to practice what I preach! So from now on I shall be scheduling some blogs AND I will continue to film my daily vlogs for Facebook. Why not follow our Facebook page and get to watch me every day????

Jane Gardner

I work all over the UK with various business owners, dedicating my creative and expert property knowledge from 35 years in the industry. I am a Level 4 ARLA Propertymark examiner, I sit on the board of Agents Giving Charity and I love everything property related! I can be contacted on 01923 627777 or by email to jane@social-angels.co.uk