The best way to share your knowledge with others is to demonstrate or feature a product or service that you have to offer is through the use of a screencast. A screencast describes short, informational videos that are posted on the web. Screencast software gives you the ability to take content and create video clips that can easily be placed on your website or posted elsewhere online, such as YouTube. These clips help you build and manage your brand, demonstrate your expertise and can help drive additional web traffic.

Screencasts are made up of several different types of genres that are used to tell a story: tutorial, how-to video, conversational demonstration, feature story, software review, animated whiteboard, screencast-enhanced video, and concept screencast. Each of these types can be useful ways for you to promote yourself and harness the ability of your computer to create a video mediated clip that draws attention. In order to begin the process of screencasting, below is a list of the top free screencasting software products for you to try.

TouchCast 
TouchCast is a free software suite by developers Erick Schonfeld, Edo Segal, and Charley Miller. Available through Apple’s App Store, the software allows users to create narrated video from web content, pictures and other online content and post the screencast (called vApps) online via your website or on YouTube. The software has a lot of great features such as the ability to integrate Twitter feeds for an interactive experience and highlight content on screen to further enhance a point or message.

Touchcast’s only disadvantage is that it does not allow for the integration of music with voiceovers presently, but over time it would appear that this is something that will come about in another version of the app. Also the app is only available for the iPad.

Cinemagram  
Cinemagram is an easy and simple way to create short screencasts and videos that is available in both the Mac iOS and Android formats. This application, which is free to download in the App Store or Google Play, was created by a Montreal startup called Factyle, Inc. It was created chiefly to create animated gifs from photos on your iPhone or Android smartphone and post those images on the web. It has since evolved into a full power screencast tool that can take your content and post it on social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr.

There are some complaints about some of the “buggy” aspects of the software, such as slow loading and refresh times. However, Cinemagram has enough functionality and video handling capability that helps its appeal as a free screencast app.

Screenr
Screenr is a one-stop, all-encompassing app for your screencast needs. This software can be downloaded from the web (the only web-based screencaster available for free). Screenr is easy to use, intuitive and can be employed immediately after downloading. Screenr requires users to have a Twitter account and the maximum for any screencast is 5 minutes. Despite these requirements Screenr is a powerful free tool that gives users a great introduction to how screencast can be a powerful value-add for your website.

An example of what a Screenr screencast looks like can be found on the Content Runner YouTube channel. This program is easy to use as long as you have an updated version of Adobe Flash. If you have recently downloaded the latest version, remember to refresh your browser if you are having issues loading the recorder. Both the sound and the screen captures translate into a comprehensive tutorial that will help navigate visitors around different areas of your website. As you are allowed to create an unlimited number of 5 minute screencasts you can showcase multiple features of your site in short segments and upload each of them instantly to YouTube. Screenr is a great tool to communicate with your users at the most affordable price.

Screencast Script Writers
For a truly professional experience, consider the use of freelance writers to help you with script writing and story boarding your idea before creating a screencast. This will help relieve you of the burden of generating content for your screencasts and put a more professional spin on your creations. Such an approach will have huge benefits  by providing you with scripts that are professionally done and are meaningful in relationship to your pitch or message. Content Runner currently has a number of writers available to create engaging content for your next script.

If you would like to learn more about Writers who can generate a script for your next screencast, contact support@contentrunner.com.