“Video Social Media: A Reference for Integrating and Applying Video Social Media as a Technical Communicator”
by Danielle Rose | Xchanges 8.1
Introduction
Technical communicators specialize in the development of communication materials. These materials are developed specifically to instruct and provide information in a format that is designed for the audience. Part of being a technical communicator is learning and working with new technologies and information as they develop. Current levels of technological sophistication allow the internet to be a large source for finding, creating, and incorporating new technologies. The internet is often the starting point for finding information and communicating with others. Sites like Facebook and Twitter are more popular every day — Facebook integrates more than 10,000 websites daily and has 70% of their 500 million users outside of the United States (Facebook). Twitter averages about “300,000 new users a day,” and Twitter users are posting “55 million tweets daily” (Bosker). Technical communicators also use these social media sites because of their popularity, accessibility, and global reach.
YouTube is the most popular and well-known video social media (VSM) site of its kind according to statistics from internet surveys (Bonson 24). There are more videos “uploaded to YouTube in 60 days than the 3 major US networks created in 60 years” and YouTube monetizes “over 2 billion video views per week globally” (YouTube). VSM sites like YouTube are potentially very valuable to technical communicators who want to reach and interact with a large audience because VSM sites allow for communication in a unique visual and interactive format. VSM videos can be used to convey information like news, history, personal blog entries, and reviews of books, articles, and movies. The audience of these videos can link other users to them, comment on the videos, or post videos along the same topic as a “response.”
Much has been written in the technical communication field regarding the possible uses and areas of caution for social media sites like Facebook and Twitter. However, there is very little written by technical communicators about the incorporation of the popular website YouTube and other such VSM sites. This thesis will introduce Video Social Media, as well as the need to incorporate VSM as a technical communicator because of the way VSM sites allow content to be delivered visually. These topics will be addressed by focusing on the features of VSM sites and discussing how those features, and VSM sites as a whole, can be used to help technical communicators achieve a common technical communication goal: quick and easy communication with the audience. Using the information in this article, technical communicators can efficiently start to use VSM for specific projects and applications with reservations and concerns minimized.