Barbara Burns
Reprinted from my blog post for The American Tapestry Alliance, July 16th, 2019
Where to publish your video
There is an artist named Val with more than 28,000 subscribers and around 1.2 million views on Every time she completes a piece there is a crowd of eager collectors waiting to purchase her new painting. Val has been on Youtube for over 2 years. Of course, not every one can achieve what she has, but it can be done. Success with videos is based on consistency. Posting regularly will bring people back to your site. Videos don’t have to be long or elaborate, just interesting.
Places like Google, Youtube and Vimeo are the three favored search engines for video. They work as a holding pen, if you will, where you access the video from other places via a link. You can upload your video to YouTube, Vimeo or other sites and be a part of their system where people do their searches and be seen more. This can be linked to your website or other social media space. Instagram allows short videos too. If you have one that is long you can post the link in an Instagram frame.
When you are ready to publish your video link it everywhere you can; your website, Instagram, all your social media sites. If you send a video in an email put the word “video” in the subject line. Doing so will increase open rates by about 19% and a 65% boost in click-throughs. (People are far more interested in watching a video than reading a description, with a preference rate of four times.)
Keep track of how the video is doing. Try to determine which videos do best and why. This will help you do better in the future. You are promoting yourself (branding) more than you are promoting your art. People want to know the artist. That said, the more people that see your work (and you) the more chance you have of selling your work. It’s a numbers game which is why consistency is so important. Remember to keep the video short. People’s attention spans are limited.
Vimeo vs YouTube vs Google and more…
With Vimeo‘s Basic plan users can upload up to 500MB of video every week, while Plus plan users can upload up to 5GB of video every week (with a 5GB maximum file size limit). There’s also the Pro plan for customers who are using Vimeo for commercial purposes; this plan offers unlimited uploading with a 25GB limit per file. Basic is free and is what I use. You can see pricing for Vimeohere.
YouTube allows uploading of a much larger file:15 minutes is the default max length, but that can be extended to over 20GB. The current (as of Nov 12, 2016) maximum file size is 128GB and the maximum duration is 12 hours.
With Google Drive you can store videos up to 5 TB if you have purchased at least that much storage. Otherwise you are limited to how much storage you have available. You can upload video of any resolution, but maximum playback resolution is 1920 x 1080.
Vimeo attracts a different audience. So even though YouTube has more reach than Vimeo, each of your Vimeo viewers is more likely to engage more deeply with your content. You can read more about the differences here. I like Vimeo myself especially since it has no ads.
There are other sites to put your videos but YouTube and Vimeo are the most popular. If you want to check them out click here.
If you want to go all out you can set up your own channel with a channel name, banner, a channel trailer and channel icon. You don’t have to go that direction though, you can just post a video once in a while and link them to your website and other social media.
Titles
You want to have a title for your video that stands out. Use keywords within the title to draw people through search engine optimization (SEO). This is a good site to help with keywords.
#Tags
Essentially tags are keywords used to classify content. They allow readers to quickly locate topics of interest. Not only can you select as many tags as necessary, you can create new tags as needed. Tags also allow readers to easily locate additional content by reviewing all content that has been given the tag of interest. Properly tagged content is likely to rate higher in search engine results which will bring more viewers to your video. When you place your video online, as part of the uploading you have the option to add tags then.
According to YouTube, tagging is one of the most important ways to rank your video in YouTube search results: Tags help users find your video when they search the site. When users type keywords related to your tags your video will appear in their search results.
Lets do a recap:
- Choose your video platform:
- Vimeo, YouTube, Google,Your own channel are your best options.
- Titles are important
- Tag & Categorize for Video Search Engine Optimization:
- Use words or tags that users most likely will be searching for on the web.
- Add as many keywords as you can and try and match to existing content – this helps your video become ‘recommended’ in the sidebar.
- Tags are important for SEO purposes.
- Less is more:
- Keep your videos to 5 minutes or less for your best chance of creating a highly-viewed video.
- Brand Yourself in your Video:
- Video is a sure way to create brand awareness within your industry.
- Be sure and mention your brand/artist name and or logo.
- Promote Your Video:
- Use Social Media Sites such as Twitter and Facebook to market your video.
Creating videos of yourself might seem like a daunting task, but fans and buyers will appreciate getting to know you a bit as well as your insights and expertise. You just have to be yourself and do what feels right for you and your brand, and you’ll soon join other artists like Val reaping the rewards.
Some links for you to explore:
Here is an example of one of my videos on Vimeo.
A Fresh Social Media Strategy for Artists in 2017
Create marketing Videos That Inspire