Written by: David Lewis | Neil Weightman Digital Studios
Of all the questions we’re asked – “where should I upload my video to?” is one we receive fairly regularly.
As with everything on the internet, networks come and go, features are introduced and things change on an all too frequent basis – but the answer usually remains the same:
As many platforms as possible.
It’s your video, you’ve gone to the effort of making it, so get it to as many potential people as you can.
“But won’t that water down my view count?” is usually the response. True, if there are 6 places to watch the video and not 1 then yes, the individual view count will be lower but remember, just like fans on Facebook and follower counts on Twitter, no one cares how many you have. If the content is good, the number of views it has is irrelevant to your potential customer.
It all comes down to you are trying to target and your videos content, but at Neil Weightman Digital Media Solutions we tend to use these 3:
YouTube
Unless you’ve been under a rock for the past 10 years, YouTube remains the world’s number 1 video site and for good reason. It’s easy to use, your customers will trust it, you can embed your videos on your website and being the 2nd largest search engine in the world (yes really!) there is a good chance your video will reach an audience organically.
If you wish to use commercially available music then YouTube is a good option too as most record companies have agreements in place for music on videos, although you will end up with adverts before or over the top of your video.
The downside to YouTube is the embeddable player isn’t particularly customisable, your customers will see adverts for other companies and it’s very easy to lose your audience’s attention as they find video after video to watch, potentially from a competitor (we’ve all gone to YouTube to watch 1 video and found ourselves still there 3 hours later 20 videos in).
Vimeo Pro
Founded by filmmakers, Vimeo was built with professional video in mind. If you are taking video seriously we suggest you give it a go. The pro option allows you to fully customise your embeddable player on your website, videos display in HD and look beautiful.
It’s less likely someone will stumble on your video by chance using Vimeo, but for use on your own website Vimeo is a much nicer option. You can also hide the stats on Vimeo videos, useful if they are of a commercial nature. There is a free version of Vimeo which has limits in place, but if you’ve invested money in your video recording equipment, you may want to invest in your video hosting and if you do, Vimeo Pro gets our recommendation.
Facebook Video
As a video maker, Facebook video isn’t a particularly pleasant experience. The upload process is clunky, the videos default in SD and not HD and you can’t customise simple things like what picture you use on the video before you hit play. So why has it made it as one of our top choices? Because as far as reaching your Facebook audience goes, we wouldn’t use any other method. Facebook video take priority over all other video networks in their complicated news feed algorithm. Put the same video as a YouTube video on vs a Facebook video and the Facebook video wins every time.
While Facebook recently allowed you to start embedding videos on your own site , we wouldn’t use it for any other use other than directly on your Facebook page for the time being.