If you are thinking of starting a Podcast, you may be wondering whether it is best to go with an audio podcast or a video podcast. Video can take a little more effort, you certainly want to make yourself presentable before going in front of the camera. But video also brings with it a number of advantages. Most notably, you can have your podcast on social platforms like YouTube and GetVokl that will help you build your audience. In this post, we’ll talk about some of the advantages of a video podcast.

Why start a podcast at all?

Everyone has opinions that they’d like to get out there. Or perhaps you simply have an area of expertise and you’d like to share your knowledge with the world. Regardless of what your motivations are, humans are social creatures. We love interacting with other humans. Podcasting allows us to do that on a level that we usually would not have access to.

Why video podcasting?

Video podcasting, in particular, is good for our need for social interaction because, if you have guests, it allows you to see who you are talking to and connect on a level that is not possible when you can’t see the person’s expressions and emotions. If you do not have guests, then your audience can still see your emotions and expressions. They can connect with you as a creator on a deeper level than an audio-only podcast would allow for.

Minimal equipment needed

An audio podcast will require a decent microphone. Pretty much anything above the quality of your built-in microphone will do. You can get by with the built-in mic, but they tend to be a bit noisy. The goal is just to have a cleaner sounding audio feed than a cheap built-in

microphone allows for. Transitioning to video will allow you to use the same microphone, so in that regard, video does not need any additional equipment.

You will need a way to record video. Unlike the audio aspect, most built-in webcams are suitable for use in a video podcast. As you gain more success, you might want to purchase a better camera or a better lighting setup, but it is not necessary.

More platforms

Podcasting via video will allow you to thrive on video hosting platforms like GetVokl and YouTube. If you are doing a video podcast, it is always possible to extract the audio and upload to an audio-only podcast service. Granted, you could upload audio only to YouTube with just a static background image, but then you are sacrificing one of the primary reasons that people go to YouTube. Visitors are going to expect at least some minimal form of video accompaniment to the audio.

Advantages of YouTube

YouTube is a huge platform, with over a billion users. Having your podcast hosted on YouTube will allow you access to those users. You will also benefit from YouTube algorithms that recommend videos to users. If you broadcast live on YouTube, you will show up in that section and can get a fair amount of organic views from being on that list.

YouTube has many other ways to help you grow your audience organically. It can be linked to other social media platforms like Twitter, so you can reach more people and let them know when your podcast will start. It also allows your audience members to share your video via Facebook, Twitter, and other social media sites. All of these are important features in helping your audience members also become your greatest advocates.

This makes YouTube an invaluable platform for growing your audience. Most audio-only podcast hosting platforms do not have the same advantages with discoverability as YouTube, and none of them have the subscriber base. YouTube alone is a great reason to go with the video format over the audio format.

Advantages of GetVokl

All of the advantages of YouTube can be capitalized on using GetVokl. That is because when you are streaming with GetVokl, you can automatically stream to a Facebook page as well as your YouTube channel. This is a great feature that will allow you to maximize your social media reach versus broadcasting on one platform alone.

GetVokl also makes it easy to host a video podcast. You can easily invite guests on, who will all appear on screen at the same time. There is no need to learn complex video broadcasting software such as OBS, that is likely overkill for your needs. It’s as simple as scheduling a broadcast, giving GetVokl permission to use your chosen camera and microphone, and pushing a button.

Unlike other hosting platforms, GetVokl combines aspects of social media. Viewers of a podcast can friend each other, which allows users of the platform, and members of your audience, to engage with each other in a way that other services do not. Of course, your audience can also engage with you via chat to increase their involvement with the show. This helps them to become a meaningful part of the discussion.

Finally, it is easy for you to bring viewers onto the show as guests. The feature will be of particular benefit for call-in style shows. You can now talk face to face with the caller. GetVokl makes the social act of podcasting even more social.

The numbers

Luckily, we have plenty of data on the effectiveness of video versus other platforms. Most of the data is targeted towards marketers and will not be relevant to our discussion. There are some takeaways that are of interest to us, however.

For example, we know that video is shared 1200% more often than text and images combined. If you were wondering whether or not podcasting was worth additional effort over just creating a blog, this should give you a pretty good indication of how much better engagement will be with video.

We also know from the data linked to above that video increases organic traffic from search engines by 157%. This is a huge boost in organic traffic that will help you to grow your audience. It should be noted that the option to use YouTube will probably increase that a bit more. Google not only owns YouTube, but they index it for their searches.

Conclusion

Video podcasting is one of the best options you can choose for making a direct connection to your audience, and for growing that audience so that your message can reach more people. Usage of tools like GetVokl make things so easy to set up that anyone can do it. There has never been a greater time to make your goals of having your own show come true.

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