Please let me know your thoughts, and if you chose video, any recommendations on a good affordable camera?
Blogs can be written from anywhere, on any computer, and in bits and pieces. You could write an update in an airport terminal, at your home, at your work, or in the park.
A vlog will require a quite location, a solid chunk of time, and in most cases a pre-written script, which could have probably just gone to your blog in the first place.
I suppose vlogs could put a more personal face on the startup, which may or may not help you connect with your customers. If you think it would help, you could create vlogs much more infrequently than the blogs, maybe just for large milestones in the company.
Interesting side note: Even though they broadcasted live 24/7 for a while, Justin.tv also had a blog. I'm not sure exactly why, but I'll bet that elad's point about blogs being indexed had something to do with it.
I feel there is an importance to put a face to my company because I believe I can better share my enthusiasm and passion.
Text.
The written word works best because your readers can search, read and print text. It is difficult to get Video to work because it costs $$$ to make it look good. This has nothing to do with getting a message across to an audience. It just sends the message - "I have money and time to burn on hardware". Having said that If you have a reasonable audio setup ~ http://podcastacademy.com/shows/detail1600/ plus a good speaking voice, I'd recommend doing a podcast on topics that you personally have researched, discovered. I'd suggest converting only your best ideas into a podcast. It hits the middle ground between text and video.
I think the biggest hurdle for doing anything but a blog is the technical/experience hurdles. Not everyone has the voice and experience of a Doug Kaye. Not everyone has the technical chops of Justin.tv
is that out of %100,000?
1) stare straight into the camera and emote-- but this makes for awful video content that nobody will endure.
2) take advantage of the visual medium-- you'll make compelling video but it will take SO DAMN LONG to produce that your startup will wither and die.
I blew 10k on hvx200, arris, and audio only to learn: focus on the startup, focus on the startup, focus on the startup.
Everyone likes to be famous and on tv because thats what our culture drills into us. Think about all the kick ass products you respect... how much do they blog? vlog? I didn't think so.
This can be incredibly hard for the mind to accept. I used to work in the cell phone components industry. In a fab, you begin to realize how many incredibly talented engineering careers are spent designing and integrating parts that will never be seen by you, the person who carries them in your pocket.
It's weird because that anonymity also works in reverse: The software that I wrote back then has played a crucial role in producing over half a billion parts, for half a billion handsets... and I never really notice, unless I pause to think as I'm doing now. A really astounding percentage of humanity has been touched by my work [1], and they don't know, and they certainly don't care, and I barely even think about it.
[1] Not that this makes me particularly special. There are many thousands of fab techs and engineers who could say the same. Many of you can say the same.
Unless you've got an extremely compelling reason to use video, there's no question that the written word is the way to go.