Why Use Videos For Explanations?

If you grew up in a time period when the American education system offered a one-size-fits-all model, you might have some gaps in your learning. 

Thanks to researchers, like Howard Gardner, educators realized that not everyone can learn effectively in the lecture-style traditional classroom. Many students need a combination of different modes of instruction.

Have you ever read a book on an interesting topic but felt fuzzy afterwards? Then maybe you saw a documentary about it and the subject was suddenly alive in your mind?

Reading can work well for some people, but for others, having an option to learn with visuals and auditory explanations can make the difference between being confused or knowledgeable.

In our modern society, many people identify as learning best with visuals that show the information they need to learn while listening to explanations and examples on the topic.

If we know that many people learn best with visuals to guide their reading, how might we apply that outside of academia?  

Whether we are preparing a professional presentation, creating a new blog post, or writing a book, keeping visual learning in mind can help enormously with reaching an audience.  

An interesting thing I have found is that most people are visual learners--around 70% of American adults self-identify as visual learners.  They learn and understand best by what they see, so anytime that you want to share information with your audience, consider putting it into a visual context.  

No wonder that You Tube, Pinterest, and Instagram have done so well.  People love to see information laid out for them--whether that is in a video, a photograph, or a drawing.  

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What visual tools can writers use when communicating to a visual audience? 

1. Lists 

2. Bulleted items 

3. Icons used as buttons 

4. Pictures 

5. Drawings 

6. Charts and Graphs 

7. Gifs 

8. Interactive buttons 

9. Infographics 

And of course, 

10. Videos


OK, so how do we apply this information to our writing?  

Well, if you are a blogger and want to increase engagement with your audience, consider adding videos into your blogs or even consider starting a vlog (blog that is video based rather than writing based).  If you want to keep your blog in a written format, then consider embedding videos into the blog posts.  If video is too much to think about for now, at least consider adding in photographs, drawings, or infographics. 

If you are a writer, support your writing with a series of videos that can be shared via email or social media with your audience.  House these on You Tube or another video platform to distribute the videos where your audience spends time.  

If you are a small business entrepreneur, you want to reach out to your customers and let them know what you have to offer.  Creating a series of videos that you can share on your website, on your blog, and across your social media can make a big difference in your customer engagement.  


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