Video marketing is something I am NOT comfortable with, how about you?  A few days ago my business partner at All Things Social Online, Jackie Ulmer, and I sat down to make a video introduction for a group we will be training.  Jackie is a pro at video marketing and I think I have tried my hand at 3 videos total.  I speak in front of groups, I’ve been interviewed on TV  ~ basically I have no problem speaking to people, so why in the world do I have such a problem speaking to a video camera on a tripod?

Until talking to a video camera feels like second nature, here are 5 tips to increase video marketing comfort levels that I’ve come across that just might help all of us who are video camera shy get better with our video marketing: 

1.     Interview someone.  Rather than being solo, interview an expert on-screen.  Focus on your interviewee instead of the camera!  Remember to speak slowly, not talk over your guest, and occasionally make eye contact with the camera to engage viewers (still wondering how to do that so I don’t look like a total geek!).

2.     Choose a camera person.  Instead of talking to a camera mounted on a tripod, have a real, live person hold your camera.  It’s much easier to speak to a human instead of staring into the camera lens and trying to act natural.

3.     Keep it short.  Aim for just a few minutes.  Creating longer videos is much more difficult, so start small.  Bonus: Most people would rather watch five, three-minute videos than one, 15-minute video.

4.     Pretend you’re the interviewee.  Answer questions in soundbites.  If you have good editing skills, you can add transitional slides in-between your answers that list the question your (invisible) interviewer just asked.

5.     Keep going.  (This is particularly difficult for me, how about you?)  If you mess up, DON’T STOP, rewind, and re-record.  Just keep going!  You can trim out any mistakes in the editing phase.  Restarting again and again is time-consuming and you lose the flow of what you were saying.  Proceed and when you watch it later, you may discover your “good grief” moments weren’t nearly as bad as you thought!  

Recording video isn’t like reinventing the wheel; if you make a mistake, it’s easy to correct.  I read somewhere that you need to “give yourself permission” to be in video marketing learning mode, and to get better gradually.  Focus on video marketing improvement, not perfection.

What are some video marketing tips you can add?  Whether you’re a video marketing pro or a novice, please share with us!