Tips on how to get started with video!

Once you've decided to include moving video content in your content strategy, the next step is to figure out what those videos should be about, which isn't always easy. It's often the idea stage that many find most difficult. I'm going to give you a tip on how you can avoid coming up with new ideas and still create great video content that we at Contitude think works really well, because you can create great content based on your existing content.

• Turn your previous blog posts and articles into videos. Pick out the best blog posts that have performed best in search engines and received the most views. You can easily determine which blog posts have interested your readers the most by using Google Analytics.
• Perhaps some of your social media posts are generating debate? If so, these posts could be the perfect basis for creating a video.
• The Q&A page on your website might also be interesting to build on. Sometimes it is simply easier to show and tell than to write an answer.

See a selection of the videos we've created at Contitude here!

How to get started creating great video content

1. Pick one of your most read blog posts and think about what it could look like as a video. You can use the content of the blog post straight away. Alternatively, you could choose to expand on something you've covered in the blog post and develop it even further.
2. Start by listing the most important elements in order to make a simpler script. Also keep in mind what in the script works best to visualise. Avoid complex sentences and abbreviations. Since video uses both images and sound, it often takes fewer words to explain a topic than if only text is used. Also remember that you need to have an intro that arouses interest, preferably in the first 5 seconds.
3. Create a storyboard. A storyboard is what is to be visualised. It can either be in written form or sketched images.
4. When the script and storyboard start to come together, it's great to read it out loud to yourself and visualise the film in front of you. When reading aloud, it's easy to notice all the weird sentences that have crept in. A really good script is clear and has good flow.

Where will you publish the content?

• First upload the film to YouTube. The advantage of publishing the film on YouTube and not directly on the website is that the film will also be searchable via YouTube (the second largest search engine in the world) and your website will not be as slow as it would have been if the film had been placed directly on the website. Read more about how to SEO your content on YouTube here!
• The website: use the YouTube link to avoid loading the page with too heavy files.
• Social media: video content is a great fit for social media. We easily get hooked on video when it pops up in the feed.
• Link to the video in the blog post that is about the same thing as the video.

That's it for me this time, good luck with your video creation!Read more about how we at Contitude can help with video here!