Though there are quite a few video hosting sites out there, I’m only going to talk about the four I use most often; Youtube, Facebook, Vimeo and Wistia. These four should be able to cover nearly all of your needs, and each has something unique to offer.
Video Hosting Top 4
YouTube
YouTube is clearly the king of online-hosted video. No longer just a place to share videos with friends and family, it is now a platform for ordinary people to become internet celebrities.
The online video powerhouse has an average of 300 hours of video uploaded every minute. And, now that Google+ and YouTube are directly linked, it’s also an ideal place for businesses to put up videos and engage with their audience.
Pros:
- It’s easy – Embedding a YouTube video to your website is fairly simple and gives you decent customization. Other options, like Vimeo, require you to get a paid subscription to access some of the features YouTube offers for free; the biggest being the ability to control what people see after the video finishes.
- Google+ integration – Google+ still doesn’t have the reach that facebook has; but because it’s directly tied to the biggest search engine in the world, its features are invaluable. Every business should have a Google+ profile, which automatically grants access to a Youtube account.
- Money – YouTube gives you the option to monetize any of your videos by allowing them display ads before the video. You get paid based on how many clicks that ad gets or how many times the ad is watched all the way through.
- 60fps! – Unlike Vimeo, YouTube allows streaming of videos in 60fps. Many channels are starting to release every video in 60fps, making it their standard practice.
Cons:
- YouTube is a crowded place – If you want your video make a big impact, (lots of views, or likes or shares) Facebook is a better bet. YouTube doesn’t give you the kind of options Facebook does when it comes to reaching a large audience.
- Quality – Due to Youtube being the largest internet video viewing platform, the way they maintain and store this mass of content is by keeping video file sizes low. Low file size means low quality. This is why more creative individuals or businesses tend to use Vimeo.
Facebook is still the world’s largest social network, and the form of content that Facebook users engage with the most is video. Facebook is first and foremost a platform for sharing, making it a much more powerful tool for reaching a large audience.
Our company recently created a “Watch Me Whip” video, where we had our client dance to the song. The video went viral on Facebook and was a great way to establish the brand.
Pros:
- The game is sharing… targeted sharing – Facebook has gotten very sophisticated when it comes to making sure their users see what they want to see. No matter who your audience is, they’re likely on Facebook. And Facebook knows who they are and what they like. Facebook gathers the data people put into their profile and takes note of the kind of content they engage with. That information is available in the form of detailed demographics, making it easy to share your content directly with your target audience.
- Autoplay – Facebook has an autoplay feature that makes it easy for users to passively engage with your content. Users do have the option of stopping the video, but the autoplay feature means that they may be drawn into watching by something a still from the video wouldn’t show.
Cons:
- Quality – Much like YouTube, Facebook wants to be able to control how much data it stores. As such, quality often suffers.
- Facebook doesn’t monetize – If your goal is to make revenue directly from your video content, then Facebook isn’t for you.
In part 2 I’ll explain the pros and cons of both Vimeo and Wistia. Hopefully, you can already see that your goals for your videos will impact where you put them. The right platform can make all the difference.