Over the last 15 years of producing videos I have found a common thread with clients:  they are rightfully very excited about creating and producing their own video, but they don’t necessarily know what to do with it once it’s complete.  “How do we distribute it?” they ask, or “where do we distribute it?” or even “who’s going to watch this thing, and why did we make it in the first place?!”

If this sounds like your current state or you can relate, I hope that I can shed some practical light on these questions and give you some tangible answers, with only two shameless plugs!

Who’s going to watch this thing?

It may sound simple but before you start throwing your video to the wind-of-the-web you may want to re-think this point:  who is going to watch this video you just created?  Better yet, who do you want to have watch it?  Your friends?  Your customers?   Internal employees?  The public?  The world?  Narrowing down and answering this question is actually quite often overlooked and becomes the very reason your video could see limited success, even with a ton of labor and effort.  My advice?  Answer this question as soon as you can and hold those answers clearly in your mind.  Now the next step:

How do we distribute it?

To start with, get your video hosted online.  Here comes a shameless plug:  upload it to a VideoBloom account!  If you are going to distribute your video on the web you really need a hosting company like ours that can not only host your video but give you great tools to enhance the process.  With a VideoBloom account you can host your video, distribute it to multiple portals (from YouTube to Facebook, and on and on,) tweak the SEO of the video so it gains traction and views, and have access to an abundance of easy-to-use yet thorough analytics tools that will help you actually see how your video is performing.

Where do we distribute it?

Now that you have your video hosted and you already answered the question of who you want to have see it, where should you post it?  This is where you are going to have to do some more thinking.  Where does your target audience (that you determined in step one) hang out?  Facebook?  YouTube?  Twitter?  Your blog?  Do they even have access to the internet or a computer?!  (I’ll come back to that.)

After you have combined this mental data together and have targeted websites to upload your video to, my bet is that we will have a simple distribution process already set up for you.  With your VideoBloom account, distribution is as simple as a click of a button and there are a bunch to choose from.  Check it out in your VideoBloom Platform account!

Don’t see a simple button to push for your desired video destination?  If so, then just copy the pre-made embed code on your video’s VideoBloom video management page and physically paste it where you want it to go.

This is actually a little used guerilla technique!  Many comment boxes on the web can accept HTML code.  Simply embed your video in one of these to extend your reach.  Just note that it may not get past the moderator, but at least you tried!

As I noted earlier, your target audience for your video may not even own a computer.  (It’s possible!)  If so, don’t rule out physical media like DVD’s and distribute it that way.  You may even want to go straight to Broadcast via your local TV station or through the Google Ad Marketplace.  Just make sure you produced the videos to the needed specs beforehand!  Of course VideoBloom’s Production Department will happily handle all of this for you if you choose us to produce your video!  (Shameless plug #2.)

To sum it up, obviously the act of producing your video is just one step in the process.  If you happened to make it your first step or you missed the other steps in the furor of getting your idea recorded, don’t despair, follow the steps above and you will be sure to get the most out of your investment, with the least amount of wasted time and headache.

Hans
Senior Editor/Producer