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This is a Type-A Mom Conference session I can really use, since my blog has been severely lacking… Multimedia Blogging: Using Pictures, Audio, and Video. Danielle Smith is moderating, with speakers Maria Bailey, Casey Mullins, and Kris Cain.
Using Pictures on Your Blog
We’re going to start with adding pictures to our blogs. Casey is a phenomenal photographer. She uses photos to enhance posts and to replace words. “Everything will be okay in the end. If it’s not okay, it’s not the end.” She has a gret picture with that quote. She has another photo with a quote from Twelfth Night. These are some really great pictures she’s showing us in this slideshow.
Sometimes photos can make things easier to handle, like talking about her sick kid. Adding pictures to reviews is also extraordinarily helpful and can tell a story much better than your words can. Photos without comments can inspire creative writing.
I really want to get a decent digital camera now and learn how to take pictures. (Any camera manufacturers or retailers want to help me out?)
How can you get inspiration as a photographer? Look at everyday situations and find that moment. Take pictures of everything. They don’t have to be pretty. They’re just yours. Casey has a StumbleUpon just for photography in order to get inspiration.
Kris says that there are some blogs out there that all they do is take a picture and write a post about that picture. (I may use this trick. Find pictures I’ve taken of TJ and write about the memories.) WordPress now allows you to easily put a thumbnail for each post on your homepage. I need to add more pictures and set that up.
For free stock images and clip art:
Tagging your photos:
Make sure you add tags to your photos on Flickr so that people can find them.
Adding Video to Your Posts
Maria says that video is one of the best ways to talk to moms based on the amount of information we consume every day. You can watch a video while you’re making mac & cheese. It doesn’t require two hands. You can multitask while you’re watching videos. In three minutes, you can have an answer to a question you don’t have time to read about.
As a social media influencer, video is the next “thing.” Women with the most exposure will be the ones who get into video and put their faces in front of the camera. Not everyone wants to be in front of the camera, but that’s the direction things are going. We’re evolving from self-publishers to self-broadcasters.
How do you overcome the technical hurdles of video broadcasting? HD video cameras only cost $99. And moms don’t want to watch much more than three minutes, so it’s not an overwhelming amount of time. It takes less time than writing a blog post.
Kris points out that most laptops and cameras have video built in. She also says that video editing is easier than you might think. Most laptops come with video editing software, but you can buy more powerful software.
(Sitting with Angela England, she adds that you should include text to summarize the points you cover in your videos for SEO purposes. I concur.)
Maria says that you have to differentiate yourself from other moms with social media influence in order to get the attention of companies you want to work with. It’s too expensive for companies to produce videos for themselves, so if you can produce video for them, it sets you apart from other bloggers they may want to work with, and you’ve already provided a solution for a problem they have. (Now I wish my FLIP camera would start holding a charge again. Sigh.)
Moms thrive on connections. That sorority scream we get when we meet people face to face at a conference can happen when people watch your videos at home. They can see you and hear you, and that creates more of a connection than a simple blog post would.
Using Audio
Maria talks about using audio to extend your brand. Almost everyone has an iPod or similar device now that they can take everywhere. She says Lexycast will be the next big thing. It’s like Twitter for audio.
Distribution is king. Figure out how to expand how you’re delivering your content right now. And with audio, you can do it in your bathrobe without putting on lipstick!
From the Audience:
Any advice on which license to assign to photos? If it’s something people might want to print out and hang up on the wall, use All Rights Reserved. If it’s something from a conference like this, you can give it a Creative Commons License.
Oh, and by the way, we’re live on MomTV right now, too! You can use Ustream to livestream your videos online. There are iPhone applications to livestream video, too.
Make sure that the format your camera uses to spit out movies is compatible with your video editing software. Your iPhone video may not work well with your Windows software.
Photo Dropper is a WordPress plugin that will search Creative Commons licensed photos on Flickr to find and insert pictures into your blog posts. (Ooh, good find!) For people like me who use Thesis, there’s a tutorial for using Photo Dropper with Thesis.
AVI is the most popular video format to use online.
72dpi is a good size for your blog photos. Try to keep them under 300k. Kris uses Mihov to shrink her photos, a free image resizer.
You should watermark your photos, too. You can use Picnik or Picasa to edit your photos for free.
TubeMogul.com will syndicate your videos to all of the video sites where you have accounts.
That’s me: Christina Gleason. I’m a writer, editor, and disability advocate. I'm a multiply disabled autistic lady doing my best in this world built for abled people. I’m a geek for grammar, fantasy, and casual gaming. I hate vegetables. I cannot reliably speak, so I’ll happily conduct business over email or messaging instead.
You must be reading my mind! I have decided to start saving my money for a GOOD, high quality digital camera. I’ve been pricing them and the ones I’m looking at are between $200 and $400 (depending on where you buy). Also, I think I’d like to podcast but not sure about more video blogs. They make me nervous (can you imagine? Me? Nervous? HA!)