Text Vs. Video in Social Media
The past couple of years has seen much discussion surrounding the rise of video. Reading the writings (note we say “reading”) of pundits and analysts alike, it would seem the keyboard is fading to a faint memory. Then there are those that hail the doom of good grammar, spelling and creative writing. So, which is better? Text or video? We set out a few weeks ago to explore this question, not in any extensive detail, but using our mediasphere360 tool and plumbing the brains of our team.
Essentially text is very much alive and well with no signs of slowing. In fact, the use of text is growing, we argue, more so than video. We see the reason for text as being predominant over video as a mix of issues, mostly that there are bigger barriers to video than text. More technology is required for video; camera, editing software, the right PC and the knowledge to make truly effective use of these tools. We also noted some key changes in the use of text, noted below in this article.
As monitored blogs we found that using estimations by eMarketer, Gartner and Forrester (all respectable research houses) we see there are roughly 60 Million text-based blogs. Then there are the microblogs like Twitter, Plurk and identi.ca, all text driven. Add in the increasing use of SMS to blogs, microblogs and participatory services, you have about 60% more text than video. In our research of monitoring daily blog entries we found that there is on average over the past 4 weeks a ratio of 3:1 for text over video blogs. Additionally, underlying the use of video on video sharing sites is that user comments are 95% text based even when video commentary is an option.
It is still easier and faster to produce text-based content than it is video. Additionally, we find that video when shot personally using a Webcam on a PC tends to be more “personal” and a quick survey found that users were less comfortable putting their “face” out there versus writing a blog entry in text. The other factor was that with a Webcam mounted on a PC or in a laptop creativity has limits; the person must operate within a restricted field of the cameras range. So to really make video interesting, you need a camera operator to create more movement, since this is how broadcast television and movies have trained us to view video productions.
We believe that video will continue to be very strong, and predict that video and text will grow closer together in the coming years. The ability for Smart Phones to have higher quality video, quick in-device editing and lower cost uploading will impact the increased use of video as well; but these technologies need to develop and become easier to use.
The changes we have noted in text are interesting as well. This article/blog post actually exceeds the average blog post by a few hundred words. We found that of 10,000 blog entries (we though “n” should be about n=10,000 as a minimum representative number) the average entry was 150 words or 3 paragraphs. We found only 30% had poor grammar and found 70% had spelling mistakes. We found a common use of contractions as increasingly popular (i.e. LOL, IMHO etc.) which we think is carried over from mobile device usage and microblogging. We’ll post more on these findings later.
So why does this matter? On the one hand it is a signal to how we are evolving our communicating styles and preferences as a society, and on the other hand it can be a good guide when developing a Social Media strategy to determine a good mix of video and text and where to place effort.
(Author: G. Crouch, Managing Partner)