Loic Le Meur Blog: My reasons why video comments will work (and why you have to try and give them a chance)

Description

We are thrilled that after the success of our Video comments plugin [http://wiki.seesmic.com/Wp-plugin] for Wordpress that got installed on nearly 300 blogs [http://wiki.seesmic.com/Wp-plugin-blogs], disqus enabled [http://blog.disqus.net/2008/05/14/disqus-now-with-100-more-video/] video comments using Seesmic this morning. I see lots of people wondering if they will work or not. I think it is way too early to get to any conclusion, it is a very new way of communicating and it will take time.
We are not used to talk to a webcam alone and if you remember when we started blogging, everybody thought it was kind of weird. Well talking to a webcam is much more weird. The way I do it every day is I imagine the people I am talking to. For example my videos on http://loic.tv get an average of 3000 views a day and are approaching one million views in total. I try to imagine talking to all these people, like if you are in a conference addressing the audience. What is difficult is that you don't "feel" them as when you speak in public. Still, they are here. Depending on the community of the blog where you leave the video comment, you may not reach that many people, but is it the number of people that really matter or who you are talking to?
1. get to know your community better
Video gives you a much better sense of who is talking: you get to see her or him, hear, see, view gestures and get feelings. Somebody said recently "on Seesmic you know if people are honest", I loved it. They are very authentic.
Video comments allow publishers to connect with their reader in a much better way
2. less spam
unless you put a bag on your head, video comments are not anonymous. It is like in real life. You could say you don't like me in my back or you could tell me directly in front of me. A video comment is much more direct, and straight. It will reduce spam as people have to show their faces. (Yes, they can show something else than their faces too, but you get the point)
3. it gives some accountability to people
It is really easy to leave an anonymous comment in text, insult people, criticize etc. On a video comment, you have to be yourself and take responsibility for what you say. I like that.
4. they are great promotion for you
There aren't that many video comments around for the time being, that is true, and it is an opportunity to get noticed. Leaving a vide ...

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http://www.loiclemeur.com/english/2008/05/my-reasons-why.html