Agreed! No one size fits all. Still I encourage all communicators (especially “writers” ) to develop multi-platform skills.

Cheers,
mew

I am on the same page when it comes to the importance of writing. One of the things that I find most frustrating about blogging is that it’s relatively rare to find a really good writer with impressive social media skills that make for a memorable blog.

But my goal with this post was to point out that in today’s multimedia world. interview really works much better in video format. As the discussion above shows, it’s generally good to give users a choice when it comes to content format.

But sometimes it’s just not necessary to produce content in a variety of formats, and it is useful to know what works best for what purpose.

I am of the view that the future (present) belongs to the Renaissance journalist. That is to say one that offers multi-format / multi-platform content. Let me be clear. It’s ALL about the writing, the idea, and its construction. I was a cameraman with NBC (there in DC) for 18 years and I taught at AU. I used to tell students, “Take this down. The 3 most important things of being a news photographer are: 1) The Writing 2) The Writing and 3) The Writing!”. For if you have no harmony between the written word and the visual image, what have you got? Not much!

Still for those pure writers who have not adopted skill sets to move beyond text and convey their message more broadly, there is no time to waste! Get on Lynda. Com and get to work! Because there are multi-mode “content creators” out there and their numbers are growing. And that is as it should be.

Mike Whatley
Altadena, Ca.

Susan, I’d love to see a post from you about how often video comes up with your clients and whether you think freelance writers should offer video services. Or is it more worthwhile to focus on the writing and simply refer clients to video producers?

A transcript of an interview can be interesting, but it can be dull as well. Context and content play a big role there.

When it comes to blogging, I think video works well for interviews, but I’m not sure it’s equally as good for monologues. Some people do this well, like Ryan Stephens (above). But I think it’s hard for one person to be as engaging.

Jun and I have talked and I’ll be interviewing with him soon – sometime next month, I’m sure!

Video alone definitely won’t satisfy everyone, so I like your and Ryan’s point about having both in some combination. But when I say both, I don’t mean post a transcript . If you’re CNN then, yeah post a transcript, video and get the anchor to write a blog post or whatever. But if you’re a lone blogger, then I think text with highlights (like what Jun does!) works better. The goal of text when accompanying a video should be to make you want to watch it, or give you the most valuable information.

Another thing I’ve been thinking about is whether just any blogger should do interviews, and when I think about what sort of interviews I like to watch/read on blogs, they’re generally on blogs that exclusively feature interviews or offer it as a regular feature. There’s a huge difference between bloggers who focus on creating great interview content and bloggers who use interviews and content fillers.

I like video. It really makes blogging more personalized. And ditches this whole idea that we have an online life and an offline life. They become quite mashed up when video gets involved.

Anyways – enjoyed the post! Hopefully more people will venture into video. =)

When are you going to be interviewed by Jun!?