I asked 353,000-ish people which blogs they’re reading lately. The answer: almost none. Most replies came like this: I watch YouTube or I listen to podcasts. As much as I preach about audio and video, I was surprised by the answer. And no, I’m not saying blogging is dead. Sheesh.
Watching and Listening are the New Reading
People are reading on average a total of 19 minutes a day. Across everything. That includes texts and emails. 19 minutes. YOU might read more than that. But “people” are not. And you and I are in the business of reaching those people.
By contract, people are watching over 1 BILLION (Billion!!!!) hours of YouTube every day. That’s just on YouTube. Not counting Amazon, Hulu, blah blah blah.
Your boring old white paper? Snore. Video. Audio. That’s the thing. BUT…
Yes, And
The real goal is creating and sharing information with people is helping THEM make their lives and businesses better. Your job is to inform and entertain. But the people’s job is to find what they’re looking for and get out.
So the BEST solution? Create your media in a few formats. Do some audio, some video, some text. The stuff that needs a lot of reading? Do text AND.
In all cases where you’re doing text, do text AND. Text and audio. Text and video. Audio and video.
Oh, But CHRIS!
But Chris, my voice is bad! But Chris, I’m too fat/skinny/old for video! It doesn’t really matter. Get practicing. Shoot stuff. Take out your ums and ahs. And get on it.
The Matter of Context
Some people have a commute. Some have kids. Some are tired after work and don’t really want to read. Some people have dyslexia. Some are blind. There are LOTS of reasons that audio and video are helpful. But just the same, realize that some people are hearing impaired and thus, text is still a part of the mix.
Inform AND Entertain
You have two roles when you create material for others. 1.) Inform. 2.) Entertain. If you’re making audio and video versions of your text, it’s your job to do more than just read into a mic and stare into a video. Do something to dress up the information with something interesting.
But how?
Well, I’m glad you asked. I’ll cover this in an upcoming Jumpstart. Being that I started podcasting in 2005 and making videos the year after, I’ve got some experience with this. I can help.
Grab my newsletter to get the update when that jumpstart happens. I promise it’ll be worth it:
