Why Posting to Every Hosting Service is a Bad Idea

So, you’ve got your awesome new corporate video and it’s time to flood the internet and upload it to every hosting service and social media account you can get your hands on, right? Slow down! Now that you have your video, you need to make sure that you’re getting the most out of it.

Why not use every hosting service out there?

Uploading separately to a variety of hosting services may sound like a great idea, but you risk losing viewership data by spreading views over the different hosting services, which could lead to you missing some valuable insights. Think of it like a science experiment. An experiment must have a certain number of trials and test subjects to confirm that any one experiment has significant results. Without this confirmation, you’ve learned nothing. The data gained from your online viewership is no different. Any knowledge about what your viewers are watching, for how long, and what your viewership is like is invaluable in helping define your brand and engaging your audience. Not to mention that it’s far more exciting for YouTube to tell you that your video has 15,000 views than for your 5 hosts reporting 3,000 views each.

Which hosting service is best?

The answer to this question depends entirely on your company and the goals you have associated with your video. The differentiation between different hosting services is complex enough to fill an entire blog on its own. However, here’s a quick breakdown of some major hosting services:

• Youtube is the king of discoverability with its powerful search engine and suggestion tools.
• Vimeo has a beautiful player that you can customise to cater your content the way you want to.
• Wistia has powerful analytics tools and integrates with Salesforce.
• Vidyard has powerful analytics, facilitates live stream and interactive video and integrates with all major sales and marketing integration platforms.
• Facebook (like all social platforms) is great for viewer engagement and will host your video. We’ll cover how to properly share your video on social below. Don’t upload directly to Facebook.

Armed with this information, you can make a selection as to which hosting platform is best. It’s important to note that the cost of these services has considerable range. While Vidyard charges a premium for their variety of services, YouTube, conversely, will pay you a small royalty for the views that you get on your content if you activate advertisements.

What if I want to share to social?

You can! When it comes to major social media sites, it makes no material difference if you upload directly to the site or use a different host. Facebook will automatically embed a player! The benefit of this is that your viewership information will be collected by your host, most of which collect better data than Facebook, Twitter, or Reddit does.

Now you’re ready to move forward with posting your video! Using the lessons above, you’ll be able to develop a strategy for distributing your video and ensure that you’re getting the best results and best data from your hosting service.