First things first when it comes to vlogging, regardless of what the vlog is on, is the intro. When thinking of what a ‘vlog’ actually is we have to remember that it is defined as a “video blog”. When we look at blogs, everyone notices the title first, who the author is, and what the topic is. This is all summarized by the title of the blog (see this blog for reference).
Now, if we are going to take this to a vlog, many videos have ‘thumbnails’ for people to get an idea about what the vlog is about. But not all have this, many do not even have a title. Therefore when vlogging it is essential for the person to state who they, and what they are discussing within the first 10 seconds or so of the video. This can also be thought of as a ‘hook’ similar to that of an essay or paragraph writing. It is this first 10 seconds that is going to grab the viewers’ attention and make them either watch what you created, skip this video, or be disengaged when viewing.
If we want to look at good examples of this, find any popular YouTuber out there. Everyone who includes a face camera or vlogs has this key component. This creates a personal relationship with the people watching even though it is a recorded video.
When relating this to educational vlogs, teachers are probably having to watch 20+ of these vlogs every time so it is important to get your name and point across quickly, but while also keeping things interesting to grab the attention of the viewer. Some suggestions to help this out could be sticking with one intro every video so the viewer knows exactly what to expect, or to pre-write a script so there is no room for error or winging it. Besides that, it is extremely important to have fun with the vlog. Vlogging is supposed to be loose and not extremely professional but still educational so the more fun you are having with it, the more engaged your audience will be!
Riley, Ari and Adrian
