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I don't like the notion of publishing to YouTube.
At least, not for:
a) a professional service or professional documentation of a product or service
b) content on a website that you expect/wish to generate income.
To rephrase, I've got nothing against ALSO putting your stuff on
YouTube for additional exposure, but you might want to re-think
having actual YouTube links inside your GUI.
For a professional software or service, it seems cheesy to
toss somebody out to YouTube, where you expose the customer
to advertising (and not even for your products/services) and
where the natural function of YouTube is to ply the viewer
with distractions meant to suck them into YouTube and not
return them to your site/GUI.
A more controlled and professional-looking approach might
be to use a video-hosting service. Whether your videos are
part of an instructional "document" or interface, or whether
they are attention-getting or entertaining items on a
hobby or commercial website, the paid hosting service has
advantages.
A big one is that you get to control what happens when
the video ends. The customer is still on your site or
in your GUI... they aren't off chasing after "related
content" that YouTube thought would interest them -- it's
amazing how quickly such chains of relationship lead to
porn videos or to homemade equivalents of the Jackass movies...
not an image you want associated with your product.
Another is that you control what the customer sees before
they run the video (which frame is presented as the representative
still shot), during the video (no overlaid ads and logos
appear unless you deliberately put them there) and at the
end of the video (instead of floating icons to launch new
"related" videos on YouTube, or compiled-by-a-demented-engine
lists of the top 10 other videos you are most likely to want
to see (or that others viewing this video have gone on to see),
you can place your own trailing message or link or list of
other videos and docs that YOU want customers to see).
Again, there's nothing wrong with ALSO publishing to YouTube,
with a link back to your own site-or-GUI if you can swing it.
In most cases, that public exposure should be good. If you
use a video-hosting service, you get to control all aspects of
how and where your videos are served and one of the options is
that you can ALSO have it submitted to YouTube and other sites as part of the process.
In my experience, it doesn't cost all that much. Regardless of
the cost, it would be simply a cost of doing business in a
professional and businesslike manner, wouldn't it?
"Free stuff" usually has other costs. YouTube is no exception.
Thoughts?
If I've misconstrued how this use of YouTube is done, please
tell how it works. Do they have a "professional services" version?
- Kevin
> -----Original Message-----
> From:
> techwr-l-bounces+kevin -dot- mclauchlan=safenet-inc -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr
-l.com [mailto:techwr-l-bounces+kevin.mclauchlan=safenet-> inc -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com] On Behalf Of Blount, Patricia A
> Sent: Friday, January 15, 2010 8:55 AM
> To: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
> Subject: Integrating movies into documentation (Erika Yanovich)
>
> Erica,
>
> I've just started using video for product information and have to say,
> love it.
>
> We're doing very brief task demonstrations. Our original plan was to
> document a procedure, then place a Show Me link beneath it
> that animated
> it. Both text and video would appear in the Help.
>
> We've since strayed from that path. Instead, we're posting the video
> demos directly to YouTube and linking to the YouTube Channel from
> directly inside the GUI.
>
> Here's how we're doing video:
>
> 1. With screen capture software (Captivate, Hypersnap,
> Camtasia, etc.),
> record the task to be demonstrated.
> 2. Edit the recorded output with text callouts that explain the reason
> why a selection was made, and the results of every click.
> ("Choose x if
> you want to do A, choose y if you want to do B...")
> 3. Adjust timings appropriately.
> 4. Regarding voice-over narration. I have done it. As others have
> already pointed out, the workplace is not conducive to this
> effort. I do
> it from home using a standard headset/mic. I haven't been making huge
> Hollywood productions out of these videos, adding opening
> fanfare, etc.
> But I have used the voiceover to explain concepts not immediately
> evident from the GUI alone.
>
> For narration, I write a full script and print it out with italics
> marking points I want to emphasize and bold marking the ones I want to
> "punch". I practice reading the script until I can do it without
> stumbling over words. I have to substitute certain words. I
> am a native
> New Yorker and hiding my accent is difficult with a word like
> "explore".
> It tends to come out as "explaw". Another term that required extensive
> practice was the product name "D2D". It sounded like a
> stutter: "dee da
> dee".
>
> Practicing the script helped me eliminate verb-age, you know... the
> verbal garbage that comes out of us in conversation. All the
> you knows,
> ums, sighs, lip smacking, lip popping, and so on.
>
> Once I felt confident, I recorded the narration from home, where there
> are no air conditioning hums, people walking by, conference
> rooms to be
> kicked out of, and so on. It's good enough - certainly not great, but
> effective for the purpose of conveying product use.
>
> Visit Tom Johnson at I'd Rather Be Writing. He just did a webinar on
> Screencasting.
>http://www.idratherbewriting.com/category/screencasting-topics/
>
> Feel free to contact me offlist if you'd like to discuss further.
>
> Patty B.
>
>
> Patricia A. Blount
> Technical Writer
> Recovery Management and Data Modeling
> Tel: +1-631-342-3528
> Mobile: +1-631-678-3437
> Patricia -dot- Blount -at- ca -dot- com
> CA, Inc.
> 1 CA Plaza
> Islandia, NY, 11749
>
>
>
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