Video Quality or Video Quantity?
The combo is possible but expensive — start with one.
First off, I want to point out that neither of my articles in either language has been written with the help of AI. I feel like getting this out of the way is vital as more of my existing and potential customers are reading these posts. This is not a knock on AI — rather — the rule we abide by in my agency: ‘do it on your own or closely watch your AI assistants’.
AI is bad at reading between the lines.
While understanding context is crucial in various facets of our work, whether creating thumbnail design or coming up with associative visuals, writing a caption on LinkedIn or describing a YouTube video — it’s easier to process things with a human brain minding clients’ businesses than rely on the AI. I know I know: we can write more comprehensive prompts, but I just feel that explaining the context to a trustworthy human (i.e. a designer, video editor or a PM in my case) is just much more rewarding and helpful, especially when it comes to growing a team from inside out.
Anyhow, this is not the focal point of this article, which in fact is a recollection of my recent discoveries as I develop my video production agency called “Beverly Productions”.
Recollection #1: Why and When a Professional Video Editor is Better than Riverside
Riverside is your go-to tool if you want to become a professional podcaster. I have been using it for 7 months and the number of new features these guys have rolled out in this time span is ridiculous. From recording videos on various devices to streaming live shows to different platforms, it seems like Riverside covers it all. As a matter of fact, it even offers video editing tool embedded in its system, as you don’t even need to open any video software to produce your video podcast.
Now, the downside of it: even though Riverside is the coolest start-up I’ve interacted with in my 10 years of business experience, it still falls flat when it comes to giving me, a pretty demanding video podcaster, the tools to knock it out of the park with the final quality of the product.
For example, this one is the sample of the podcast we did with my team of video editors, copywriters and designers, for the channel we manage: https://youtu.be/m1Wfzl_4OGg
And this one is an example of a product without emphasizing the quality, but plain content: https://youtu.be/5U8fXTo8tiU
As you can see, the package matters but what also matters is what’s inside.
On a subconcious level, we, as content consumers, draw the parallels between the HQ thumbnail and the quality of a video product we’re about to consume. That said, details do matter.
Next thing: as an aspiring podcaster, you can reap the benefits of a special ‘Magic Clips’ function, that is an AI-powered feature that helps to choose the best short highlights from your long-format podcast, also inside Riverside. However, even though their content recognition does a very good job, later enabling you to pepper clips with Gifs and some visuals effects, in my experience the social media clips created with their editor are nowhere near the results that a professional editor can yield with a human eye.
Examples of the viral clips we created:
https://www.tiktok.com/@chadsowash/video/7379178720923421998
The aesthetics of the video make us, people drawn to beautiful packaging, want to watch the thing till the end, or at least not scroll away instantly. As a result, you get deeper watch time which signals to YouTube/LinkedIn/TikTok that the content is worthwhile. Hence — more views.
I truly believe that any podcaster needs YouTube ASAP, you don’t want this golden opportunity to slip through your fingers, especially seeing everyone else making the turn.
This is not limited to podcasters — any business needs YouTube, I believe — from the very early going. The second-largest website in the world in terms of monthly active users still offers good-quality traffic for free. Sure, it doesn’t happen overnight, but if you persevere sooner or later you’ll crack the code, minding that you do everything right.
I will end by saying that combining Quality and Quantity is the definition of success, which comes to you as a result of a perpetually growing work on your craft. Don’t get jealous of anyone when you see someone succeeding on a media platform — it simply means they have endured and not given up, and thus — well-deserved.
Can you do the same?
P.S. I assemble the team of most talented video editors, thumbnail designers and motion pros on Beverly Production Team. If you know English and you’re fascinated by what we do for our clients — send me a note and I’ll be glad to work with you.
