It’s spring! The daffodils are out, the magnolia trees are mostly in blossom and the daylight is brighter here in the northern hemisphere.
The long winter is behind us and even if we are a few weeks away from the official summer time, we can enjoy stronger sunshine and longer daylight hours. The great smartphone video camera you are carrying in your pocket is optimised for natural bright daylight.
This is the main reason why if you have an outdoor business, or do a lot of outdoor events, you should be planning your video strategy, using just your smartphone cameras, with some good equipment to enhance your output.
Here are the other five reasons.
- Video boosts your engagement with your customers, enhances your trust with your followers, and boosts your Search Engine Optimization on your website. If you are reaching out to customers like tourists, lunchtime seekers, outdoor activity enthusiasts, your local community, or supporters of your charity, then you should be doing short video clips.
2. If you haven’t been making many videos up to now, and know you should, now is the time to practice! As the business owner or boss, you may be too busy (or shy!) to make your own videos, so find a staff member who is an enthusiastic video maker, and get them started. Appointing someone who is given the time for creativity, put in charge of looking for stories, and putting them on your social media, is essential now.
3. Gather the content now that will build up a bank of videos for your YouTube or Instagram channel. The early bird catches the worm, so creating the videos now before the busy summer time means you have put the pressure off you a bit, and have time to start building up your social media audience. For tourism companies in particular, now is the time to get your videos out there – people are making decisions about their summer holiday destinations, or the tour company they want to use. They will find you on YouTube if you have your videos there in the coming month or two.
4. Buy your equipment and get good at using it. I mean equipment like the Shoulderpod G2 clamp, and a good tripod, which is in the photo in this blog. I have added a small light and a microphone as well – while you may not need the light for the summer, a decent microphone can make all the difference to good interviews and sound on your videos, especially the product videos you might be thinking about. Spending time with this equipment makes it easier to use, and you can train up a few staff members to use it confidently over the coming months.
5. And one more investment you should make – training! Anyone can make a video, but not everyone can make a good quality video, with good framing, sound and structure, well edited with text, logos and transitions, and even a voiceover or music. That’s what I teach on my Mobile Video Storytelling course, with pre recorded video lessons, practical tips, and editing skills. This investment will save you tons of time, and create confident video makers of your staff, giving them the essential skills to create the kind of videos that work well.
- The Rathdown Media Institute’s Aileen O’Meara is giving her ONLY tutor-led 2 half-day live Mobile Video Storytelling workshops on March 20th and 27th. Find out more and book here. http://bit.ly/4hRHjKg
- Or get in touch for bespoke training – [email protected]
