If you want to increase the viewership of your K-12 education videos – select better thumbnails. The thumbnail is the small image that is displayed on the video hosting page when the video is not playing. They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but a video is worth many more. But, people will be less likely to watch your videos if the thumbnail does not tell a story and pull people in. A video thumbnail is like the cover of a book or movie trailer – it has to capture attention and tell a story.
Commercial sites and others use the term “clickbait” to describe this concept, but many take it too far. That is, creating thumbnail images are overly suggestive or enticing and in many cases, has little to do with the video or story itself. Don’t get caught in that trap because it can backfire.
Why Don’t You Often See Custom Thumbnail Images On Videos?
The problem is that most K-12 video creators just let their video hosting system select which thumbnail will be shown and that is usually the first scene of the video or cover slide of the presentation. This is the great thing about using SchoolTube for free education video hosting, there are 3 ways to select or edit the thumbnail of your video. But first, let’s talk about why a good thumbnail is important.
- Video thumbnails attract attention
- They entice the viewer with what’s inside the video
- The explain what the video is about.
If you are competing for viewers or the attention of your students, to increase viewership, create stronger thumbnail images.
How Can You Create A Custom Thumbnail In SchoolTube?
Create an image and upload it
This process can be completely separate from creating the video itself. You can use something as simple as PowerPoint or photo editing software such as Adobe or Microsoft Paint. Create a strong, compelling, interesting image, save it as PNG and use the SchoolTube thumbnail editor to associate with your video.
Capture a thumbnail image
Using the thumbnail capture tool, you slide the video scroll bar across the video play area and watch the thumbnails pop up with each frame of the video. Whey you find one you like, press capture and save, and voila, you have a brand new thumbnail image for your video.
Auto-generate tool
With the auto-generate tool, the SchoolTube system will randomly select 9 images from within the video. Just pick the one that looks most interesting and conveys what the video is about, select save and its changed!
Learn more about creating custom video thumbnails today!
