With YouTube now the worlds 2^nd largest search engine with over 2 billion views every day and over 200, 000, 000 blogs in existence, the power and importance of video has never been greater. 

At Quest, we’re training SMEs and our peers in vlogging – now known as the video-blog and so called because it features video shots instead of text.

Follow our 12 step plan and boost your google rankings and get close to your clients and prospects.

1. Film your video on a camera that has an external microphone and always use a tripod.  Invest in good lighting and take more footage than you need.
2. Save your footage onto the PC to ensure it is not deleted off the camera by mistake.
3. Download Windows Movie Maker which is free and edits video footage very adequately.
4. Import your media onto the dashboard. You can also include audio clips and photographs.
5. Open up the story board and place your clips in the order you want them to appear. You can also add sound tracks and narrations.
6. Keep it short, creative and interesting.  Cut out any unnecessary footage – you can always put it back in. Remember people get bored easily especially with video.
7. Add transitions and effects between clips to make it more professional. Fade in from black at the beginning and out to black at the end for a smooth finish. Also add fades between clips.
8. Add a title at the beginning and a credit at the end of the film. You can also add titles between clips and personalise them with brand colours and fonts.
9. Save the project as you go along – just like you would do a Word document.
10. When you are happy with the film in its entirety publish it and save it to the PC. This is like making a PDF copy of a Word document – it doesn’t mean you have ‘published’ it anywhere.
11. Sign up for an account on YouTube.com and upload your published film onto your account.
12. Here you can tag your film for SEO purposes, rename the film and change the thumbnail image. You can also add a coloured border around the clip. Click on Embed to copy the URL for WordPress blogs.

 For more information you can contact me by email sharon@quest-pr.com, follow @sharoncain on Twitter and find me on LinkedIn under Sharon Cain.

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