Will video help of hurt your personal brand? Actually, it can do both. A poorly made video will give the impression that you don’t put forth quality products or service. And, a poorly executed video will give the impression that you’re less than professional in your appearance or position.
Yet, for any brand video is hard to ignore. It’s viral, it attracts more people and just like words, it can communicate so much – very quickly.
How do you succeed at it?
Practice speaking succinctly. And, practice your speaking voice.
Read books out loud. Practice reading quickly yet emoting at exactly the right times to emphasize key points of the story.
Practice to ensure that you voice stays at the right decibel level and consistent. Waivering in a voice give an impression of weakness and uncertainty.
Practice telling stories in two to three minutes.
Then, practice doing so in half that time. It’s important to be clear, on video, and just as important you must be brief. Practice to become better at quickly going through –
- Stating the Problem
- Describing why you are best able to solve it
- How you would solve it
- And, a call to action
Practice also ensures that when you speak to the camera you speak like you’re in conversation with someone across the table. Instead of rolling your eyes to the top of your head (a common reflex when people are trying to ‘remember’ what to say next) and appearing forgetful, you can look someone (and yes the camera is your ‘someone’ when you’re shooting a video) in the eyes and engage.
Get rid of the teleprompter.
It is more powerful when you speak from the heart and with your eyes looking directly into the camera. If you’re a professional anchor person, then you posses a practiced skill in reading a teleprompter yet looking like you are giving good eye contact.
Sadly, that’s not true for the rest of us. Even a few inches away from the cameras lens, reading a teleprompter (or just your notes on a poster board, dry erase board or on anything) looks fake, insincere and actually hurts your brand. Think of the last video you saw someone post who was most definitely “reading” yet hoping they can fool you into thinking they are having a conversation with you?
What I recommend is to just shoot a video of you speaking passionately about something you enjoy in your industry or in what you do. Then, enlist the help or pay for someone who is a really good video editor. That video editor can make sure that any of the useless or redundant items that exist between golden nuggets of information is discarded – leaving a richly passionate, genuine video.
