2007 will be the year of the multimedia blogosphere. If you don't have video, podcasts, photos, screenshots and other visuals on your blog, well then you're soooo 2006. Not to worry. Adding a YouTube video to your blog is as easy as copy and paste. Here's how you do it. But first, why? There's something immediate, authentic and engaging about a video that even a well-written blog post can't emulate.
Companies as various as IBM and Six Apart (makers of Movable Type and TypePad) are creating and posting videos to YouTube. Take a look:
- Six Apart's holiday video Yes it's funny.
- IBM's Art of the Mainframe spoof This is Part I of a three-part series. Watch them all! Hard to believe that Big Blue is willing to make fun of themselves. And yes the videos really were created by a guerrilla marketing team at IBM.
Step One
But let's take this one step at a time. If you haven't created and uploaded your own video to YouTube yet, not to worry. Start by visiting YouTube and typing in keywords related to what you're interested in. One of my current clients, MACPA, found a humorous public service announcement about financial literacy. It's called Feed the Pig. You can also see it embedded on CPA Success, MACPA's new blog.
Step Two
Look for the little window on the YouTube page labeled "Embed." Here's what it looks like below. Notice that there's also a window with the direct URL for the video. That's *not* what you want. The URL is what you use when you want to direct someone to the specific video on the YouTube page.
Grab the line of code in the Embed window (do a "select all" and then "copy). It starts with <object width="425" height= ...
Step Three
Now paste it into your blog in the HTML or code view (i.e. not the WYSIWG view that you normally use when typing a new blog entry). Here's what it will look like on a TypePad blog:
Step Four
Click publish to make your blog entry live on the Web. Below is what you'll see on the public face of your blog. Click the arrow icon and the video plays. It's magic! Read Pete Blackshaw's ClickZ column about this viral video created by Unilever / Dove as part of their Real Beauty campaign.
[youtube]iYhCn0jf46U[/youtube]
Have fun experimenting and let me know below if you have any more simple tips for creating or posting online video.
Previous Comments
Marina Fabiano said on December 21, 2006 at 02:55 AM
Thanks too much for your generous tips. Do you have any suggestion about audio blogs? I’m not prepared for video… but audio chats would be a nice add on to post. Thanks again.
Marina Fabiano from Italy (Europe)
Philippe Borremans said on December 21, 2006 at 06:18 AM
Hi Debbie,
I agree, we’ll see more and more “multimedia” on blogs and that’s a good thing as long as it makes sense in the context.
Another aspect that I think will be very 2007 is that more and more multimedia content from blogs will be “delivered” through RSS to mobile phones, MP3/4 players and TV.
I amazed myself watching the latest Rocketboom episode on my Nokia smartphone yesterday…
On the web2.0/widget side of things: check out the multimedia player for blogs on http://www.stickam.com/
Wishing you a great holiday and all the best for 2007 !
Mike said on December 21, 2006 at 10:42 AM
Debbie,
I agree that video, photos, etc are a great addition to a web site but even videos found on youtube could have limited use as far as adding to blogs based on copyright law. This is definitly somthing that needs to be considered on a case by case basis. For example, what if their is a famous trademark used in the video, you could then unknowlingly infringe on another’s trademark.
Michael Stelzner said on December 28, 2006 at 12:01 PM
Hey Debbie;
I have tried many times to get YouTube to work in WordPress and it does not.
I am very tech savvy (yet need not be considering how easy it is).
Any ideas?
Mike
Lucas McDonnell said on March 15, 2007 at 02:34 PM
Mike,
YouTube videos in Wordpress are a little weird. You first need to go Users->Your Profile and uncheck ‘Use the visual editor when writing’. Then go back to your post and insert the YouTube HTML into the post (using the ‘Code’ tab—assuming you’re using WP 2.1). Note: if you go back to edit that post, you will need to always have the visual text editor disabled to do it, or else Wordpress will ‘correct’ (pronounced ‘break’) the YouTube HTML.
Also note that YouTube’s code doesn’t validate. Use these instructions to get valid XHTML<a>. Hope that helps.</a>
Michelle Sullivan said on November 2, 2007 at 01:14 PM
Thanks for this, Debbie - any suggestions for uploading non-YouTube videos to a blog? Not all my clients want to go the YouTube route.
I look forward to seeing you in Montreal on November 13th at YULBiz!
Linda Abraham said on December 26, 2007 at 04:51 PM
Dear Debbie,
Thanks for these tips. I also really enjoyed the interview with you that was part of the personal branding conference. In that interview you highly recommend the FLIP video recorder. Does it have an advantage over point-and-click digital camera that does video. Are the videos clearer or better quality with the FLIP?
Regards,
Linda Abraham
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