Small Business Vlog

I was doing some keyword research for small business websites, and something caught my eye.  There was some low competition for the keywords: small business vlog.  And it occurred to me that there is a number of small businesses or people who want to start a small business who are seeing value in starting a vlog.

So I wanted to write down some thoughts of things I have found about vlogging.  First, what is a vlog?  Secondly, where can you post a vlog?  And thirdly, how often is appropriate to post?

VLog

The word "vlog" is portmanteau (a mix) of "video" and "log" or "blog."  So instead of writing information into some sort of log, you do a video instead.  What exactly should a small business make a vlog about?  Well, I don't know how much credence we should give to some sites, but here is an interesting list from SwitcherStudio.com:

• - Ads
• - Explainer videos
• - Social media clips

And here is some selected ideas from NicheMarketingCompany.com:

• - Interview a client or customer
• - What’s the best part of your job/business?
• - Give a sneak peek of a new product or service offering

Hopefully at this point you can imagine what sort of vlogs you could do.

Posting your VLog

Once you have your vlog recorded, you'll need to post it somewhere.  There is plenty video hosting websites, and the obvious choice is typically YouTube.  YouTube seems to have the majority of the traffic.  To post to YouTube, you must have a Google account.

If you would like to support other platforms, you might also check out:

• Rumble
• Bit Chute
• Vimeo

Or you could even just post a mp4 video right into a video tag on a website.  You don't technically need a video hosting website at all.  But there is the social media aspect of posting to a video site, so that helps get your vlog in front of an audience.

I think one thing I would recommend though is to do some keyword research before posting.  This can help you get an idea of what you might label your video, what tags to use, and what to put in the description.  I like using this tool:

https://www.ryrob.com/keyword-tool/

Just as an example, when I search for "vlog" using that tool, I find that the keywords "countrylife vlog" has a volume of 12.1k and difficulty of low.  If this somehow ties into your small business, you could utilize that somewhere in the description.

How Often

About a year ago I came across the business guru Clay Clark.  He put together a book called Boom: 14 Proven Steps to Business Success.  The book itself doesn't follow a traditional format, but has lots of graphics and quotes and other information.  I found his section about SEO particularly interesting.  In it, he states:

You must create more original and relevant content than anyone else in the world about your specific search engine focus.  If you want to come up top in the world for the phrase "organic supplements" you must then create the most original and relevant content on the planet about "organic supplements."  If you want to come up top in your city for the phrase "knee pain Tulsa" then you must what?  You must create the most original and relevant content on the planet about "knee pain Tulsa." (Boom)

Although this quote is in reference to SEO, which we would assume to be in text or blog form, we can also learn from his example by viewing his video channel:

https://rumble.com/c/ThrivetimeShow

Check out the timestamps on the frequency of the videos.  If I look right now:

• 2 hours ago
• 3 hours ago
• 18 hours ago
• 19 hours ago
• 23 hours ago
• 1 day ago
• 1 day ago
• 1 day ago
• 1 day ago

And it's like this, consistently.  Whether you like his content or not, his company is posting often.  Each of the videos has the description filled with links and schedules, etc.

Something else I've learned from Clay, which I can't find the reference right now, so don't quote me, is that frequently (maybe weekly) posting to social media (or somewhere) about the projects you are working on, shows others that you are a person, and your business is up and running.

References:

Boom. 2021.  Boom: 14 Proven Steps to Business Success.  Page 139.