The pandemic has brought us many challenges but it has also made some things easier – such as generating video content easily.
We’ve gained skills and knowledge and ways of working we never thought we would ever embrace.
I know that before the pandemic lockdown very few clients wanted to do training workshops remotely or even take video calls instead of in-person meetings.
But then – almost in 24 hours – we all became video-conference experts.
And the upside of that is the familiarity with being on camera, managing your webcam and learning how to turn your presentations and meetings into video content. It’s also enabled us to share more easily and be more confident around video making on our phones and laptops in all sorts of new ways.
Videos are by far and away the best way to communicate with your audience whether you’re a small tourism provider or the head of a University department, a business or a trade union or anyone in business or marketing.
More people are watching more video than ever before.
Video content improves sales, leads and audience understanding.
And video content doesn’t have to be perfect for people to watch it.
It does great things for your Search Engine Optimisation and it no longer requires a huge investment in equipment or time.
Here are SIX WAYS TO EASILY GENERATE VIDEO CONTENT in the pandemic environment.
1. RECORD A ZOOM CALL WITH YOURSELF
Set up a meeting with yourself and record it on Zoom.
Deliver a presentation with you talking to camera for around 3 minutes. Talk directly to that laptop camera or webcam.
You can easily trim each end of the recording when you open it. Do remember to leave a pause at the beginning when you start and at the end when you finish to make it easy to trim.
2. RECORD IN GOOGLE MEET.
Google has replaced Google Hangouts with Google Meet and anyone who has a Gmail account will already be familiar with it.
It’s easy to use and free with lots of clever features.
It’s right there in your Gmail calendar when you create an Event and is very easy to use.
(screenshot of a calendar event with it in it here)
G Suite users can set up the Recording option and enable meetings to be saved in Drive; participants must give permission. This is a clever way to do a two-handed interview with someone that could make a great video for your YouTube channel with a short edited promo clip for your social media.
3. TURN YOUR POWERPOINT SLIDES INTO A VIDEO PRESENTATION.
Screen share your Powerpoint slides in a recorded video conference call – and talk over them. Now you have a great video to share with your audience. Whereas before we would have brought our Powerpoints to a meeting and delivered it there now we have an actual recording with our own voices and faces in it and that’s a powerful piece of video content for promoting your work.
4. RECORD A VIDEO DIRECTLY TO YOUTUBE ON YOUR PHONE OR TABLET
Using the YouTube App and signing into your YouTube account enables you to record a video directly onto your YouTube channel.
Your phone’s selfie camera is not as high quality as your main camera on your phone but they are catching up pretty quickly.
You can also record a piece of action with a voice over on it as you go – live TV!
Click on the Video Camera Icon, tap RECORD and off you go.
I like how YouTube also enables you to trim your video clip easily and enables you to save it in Private or Unlisted mode if you don’t want to share that video clip immediately. And you can download it to share elsewhere if you wish. And do remember that YouTube is a huge Search Engine Optimiser for your brand.
5. RECORD IN FACEBOOK MESSENGER
Facebook Messenger now allows you to easily record – click on the video icon and hold down the big red REC button and continue to hold it down until you are finished recording. Easy video content produced in minutes.
6. WHATSAPP VIDEO RECORDING
One of the easiest and most popular ways to share video clips with a niche audience (via a Whats App group) or to push a video clip out to your audience to ask them to share.
You can record either on your phone and then add to WhatsApp or record your video directly into a Whatsapp message.
SOME TIPS FOR BETTER RECORDINGS.
- Keep steady. This always helps – invest in a tripod mount.
- Think about a good webcam camera if you are recording a lot of video conference calls for your content.
- Remember to try to look into the camera lens when talking – I know it’s easier to look at your slides but this does make a difference.
- USB microphones are a great investment to improve the quality of your voice on video conference calls and on recordings.
- Watch that there is good natural lighting on your face – a dark environment is not great.
- Remember the background for your call – ensure it’s not too cluttered and appropriate for your business meetings.
Good luck and enjoy!
August 5th 2020.
