The numbers speak for themselves. YouTube is quickly becoming the top dog when it comes to Internet searches – in fact, more than 3 billion videos are viewed worldwide each day. That’s incredible.

Here’s what’s not incredible: crappy videos.

Let me rewind a bit. In college I majored in Television Production at the fantastic Roy H. Park School of Communications at Ithaca College. I was living the dream, having fun and loving my classes. Well…most of my classes. I had a hatred for the most basic, introductory class that covered media theory. “Just give me a camera,” I’d protest. Theory? Blah!

To be honest, I did love studying theory. I just didn’t agree with the theory we studied in this class. The focus of this particular class was a long-deceased media theorist, Marshall McLuhan, and boy, did he annoy me. “The medium is the message,” we’d recite over and over again. I couldn’t stand the idea. I mean, the guy wrote about how a light bulb was a medium that didn’t contain content. That was a little much for me.

But you know what? That McLuhan had something going for him. Underneath all of the cerebral, philosophical musings, one idea broke through to me, and it’s one I still believe in to this day.

The type of medium you use to convey your message is as important as the message itself. That is, you should NOT use a certain medium just because everyone else is doing it, if your message does not lend itself to that medium.

Video is…wait for it…visual. If you don’t have anything to show in your video, don’t make a video. Simple as that.

One of the biggest rules of documentaries is: avoid “talking heads.” Cutting from one guy to another speaking to camera and telling you about an idea is straight-up Boring-town.

Now, as with everything, there are exceptions. And, I realize there are now even more exceptions due to the changing nature of how people search on the web.

So, I leave you with my simple test to see if you should make a video, or if you should write an article, blog, tweet or post to Facebook instead.

Do you have something visual to show?

• Are you out an about somewhere and want to show your surroundings?
• Are you reviewing a product and want to show how it works?
• Are you in the presence of a great, interesting, well-known person and want to ask her or him a question on behalf of your fans/followers?
• Do you have supporting visuals to add to your video? Charts, graphs, close-ups, etc?
• Is it a how-to video?
• Are you showing or cutting to your computer screen to offer examples, show websites, or how-to-navigate something online or on a computer?
• Are you showing something different than you usually post? Something that is not your face over-and-over again?

If you don’t have something, ANYTHING, visual to add to your video, don’t make a video.

Regarding the “exceptions,” I will concede three things…you may make a video if:

• you are a president, CEO or expert delivering an important, special, personalized message to fans, under 60 seconds. Do so sparingly to make sure it maintains its impact.
• you are creating a series of videos (“Friday Face-to-Face!” or “The Once Weekly Entrepreneur Tip”) that are, again, under 60 seconds.
• if your delivery of the material and facial expressions are important to how your followers perceive it (i.e. humorous stories, recounting serious, emotional experiences, etc…).

So there you have it! Make a video if you have something visual to show, other than your darling face. If you don’t have the visuals, get those fingers to the keys and start typing!

If your idea doesn’t fit the criteria and you still REALLY want to make a video: challenge yourself. Find a way you can incorporate a visual element to the topic you’d like to cover, and there you have it. You can now make your video and it will be much more interesting than the happy chat you were about to post.

Happy filming!

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Kate Kennedy is an award-winning writer and video producer/editor in the DC-Metro area. With more than 14 years of experience in entertainment from television production, network marketing, branding, and writing to live production, promotional events and performance, she is passionate about teaming up with small businesses, start-ups, non-profits and creatives to design clever production strategies and produce quality videos that will stand out.