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Dave discusses how to improve your videos. He discusses audio and wireless microphones, effective lighting, and proper framing. Use these tips to make your video look like it was shot by a professional.

Is there a secret for using video to grow your business?  Sometimes it seems like it.  All around are examples of video being used to grow business, but there are just as many examples of where video fails to perform.  I’ve come up with a non-scientific formula for online video marketing success and I want to lay it out for your scrutiny.  Here it is:

C (Content) x F (Frequency) x Q (Production Quality) x D (Distribution) = Success

Content is one of the most important factors in the equation.  Content must be relevant, concise, and speak to the target audience.

Frequency amounts to how often new content is being produced.  Just like blogging, video is most powerful when content comes out regularly.

Production Quality is not the most important factor, but it must match the content.  The bottom line is that all videos should have clear audio, decent lighting, proper framing, and minimal camera movement.  As the message becomes targetted at a more upscale or corporate audience, production quality becomes more important.  Production quality is also important for commercials and entertainment videos.

Distribution is important.  There are a variety of ways to put your video online.  Services like YouTube offer access to huge audiences, but may not be the best solution for all applications.  In many cases, it is critical to put your video on multiple distribution services to broaden the reach.  Keyword tags are also important so your video can be found on the web.  Along with where to post your video, tracking analytics (times the video is played) is another important aspect of distribution.  Tools like Tube Mogul help you with distribution and analytics so you can get your video out there and watch how it is performing.

If your video strategy has been just to shoot a video and post it on YouTube, make sure you’re considering all these areas so you get the most out of your efforts.  Give us a call if you need any help with creating a successful online video strategy.

As a small business owner, my days are often filled with lots of connections and meetings.  My day often starts with some sort of networking, like Rainmakers; and then meetings with clients, prospects, referral partners, etc.  In between, I slice out enough time to work on projects and manage the business.  The challenge is how to manage all the electronic communications that arrive as my day is flying by.

Recently, taking a tip from Tim Ferris, author of ‘The 4-hour Work Week‘, I created an auto responder for my email saying that I was checking email once a day now.  If someone had an urgent need, I asked them to call my Google Voice number.  (Side note:  Google Voice is cool because if you miss or can’t take a call, it will transcribe it and send it to you as a text.)  Generally I’ve gotten good feedback on this effort with lots of folks saying ‘I wish I was brave enough to do that.’  It has also helped with the quality of emails that I end up with.

Today, I got an email from a friend of mine who said he found it ironic that while I only respond to email once a day I do regularly tweet on Twitter.  I smiled and thanked him, but started thinking about the crazy quagmire today’s electronic communications can become.  I do tweet, especially if I am working at my computer.  I recently found the new Social Media browser Flock which allows me to keep a Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube stream on my browser sidebar.  Very cool for the quick retweet or random thought.

But I’m left with a lingering question – is it inconsistent, rude, or otherwise unacceptable to ask those who know me enough to email me to wait for my attention; while others – many complete strangers – get the benefit of my time through Social media like Twitter?  As I write this, my question seems a bit pompous, but is not meant to be.  The reality is that quality time is different than normal time.  Responding to email takes quality time; Twitter and Facebook do too, but not all the time.

Going a bit deeper, it seems to me that while this is totally logical to my frame of mind (and I’m assuming many of you who use SM alot), it may not be so obvious to those who are not connected to multiple SM platforms as a matter of daily existence.  To that end, I’m feeling it may be necessary to help educate my friends, colleagues, and potential contacts that my efforts to manage email once per day is actually to their benefit.  They get more of my ‘prime’ time and also have a sure-fire way to reach me (by phone) if their need is urgent.  It makes total sense to me, I just need to make sure it is understood to those who really matter!

Remember the old spy movies?  The hero was a clueless hack who had stumbled into the situation and found himself in peril.  As the plot was slowly being revealed, the villain would explain that information was being provided on a ‘Need to Know’ basis.  In other words, our hero would find out the important stuff too late to do anything about it.

If your business  – especially a small business – uses the Internet to sell, market, or communicate your value, do your prospects engage your information on a ‘Need to Know’ basis?  The very nature of the Internet marketing allows all of us to find the information we need when we need it.  Just like our poor guy in the movie who is hanging by a thread over the shark tank, if the only chance we have to connect with our customers is the first time they hit our site, it may be too late.

So what can be done to engage prospects more deeply?  That is the secret of effective Internet marketing.  Blogs, Vlogs, podcasts, and social media are all designed to let you engage your audience and build a relationship.  Building a strategy that uses these tools effectively will move you from ‘Need to Know’ to ‘Required Reading’ status.  This takes time and commitment, but is well worth the effort once you’ve built a tribe that delivers the business referrals you need to succeed.

A couple of quick tips to get started:

• Find several interactive sites in your industry or target market and become a regular contributor.  This will create links to your site and get you exposed to people who may have an interest in your content.
• Look for opportunities to be a guest blogger.  Again, exposure to a new audience widens the reach of your message.
• Get connected on all major social media outlets.  You may only regularly contribute to one or two, but RSS and other aggregating tools can feed your content to the many sites where your prospects live.  If you distribute your content to the major sites (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Plaxo, MySpace, etc), you’ll increase your audience even if you’re not a regular ‘in person’ contributor on that site.
• Blog, vlog (video blog), or podcast on a regular basis.  If you vlog, set up a YouTube page and encourage comments while regularly commenting on other videos.
• List your preferred social media links on your website, emails, business cards and other daily correspondences.  Today people get online information from a variety of places.  Letting them know where you reside can facilitate a connection.
• Seek feedback, comments, and ideas on improvements.  Make sure you quickly respond to any comments or feedback.  Every time you respond, you expose yourself, your links, and your message to a new and wider audience.

And don’t forget about your current customers.  Hy Serure from Hyquality Media discusses the impact of social media:

“Your current customers are more likely than total strangers to respond to offers posted on social networks because they already know you and trust you based on their prior purchases.”

The information that you provide will create the audience that will ultimately grow your business.  Small business owners should look at blogging and social media marketing as efforts to grow a tribe of raving fans and customers.  This is much better than being shark bait.

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Take the hassle out of professional looking videos. You shoot the video and send it to us. We’ll edit the video, add graphics, a title, and music then upload it for you to embed in your website. Harness the power of video without all the hassle.

I believe there are 3 critical elements of a great video:

1. The picture
2. The sound
3. The content

Let’s talk about the picture.  When shooting your video, there are several key things to consider in order to get the best picture

• Lighting
• White Balance
• Framing
• Focus

Lighting on the professional level is an artform.  However, advances in camera technology have made today’s video cameras able to create great images in less than perfect environments.  As you plan your video, a couple of good lighting tips include:

• Don’t aim your camera into a bright light source.  This can be the sun, an open window, or a light.  If you do this, most cameras will react by closing the iris and your subject will seem very dark.  Instead, look around and put the brightest light source to your back.  This usually means that the light will be brightening up your subject which is ideal.
• Be aware of shadows.  If you are shooting in a room with overhead lights, don’t sit directly underneath them.  The shadows from the down light will make a face appear strange.  If you have a light kit you are using, move the subject away from a wall, and position the lights above their heads aiming down (in a 45 degree angle if you can manage).  The distance from the wall should be enough so that their shadow does not hit the wall behind your subject.
• Ultimately, the best advice is to just be aware of how lighting is affecting your picture.  If you notice shadows, try moving around until the picture gets better.  In some cases, moving out of bright light to a place that is darker but more evenly lit will actually improve the picture.  Be aware, then experiment liberally.

White Balance is a term for setting the colors in the camera.  Most cameras have an automatic white balance.  Some, however, do have manual settings or presents for flouresent, tungsen, sunlight, etc.  If you are in a room with lots of different lights, performing a manual white balance – or using a preset position that accounts for the primary light source – will often make your picture look much better.

Framing is getting your subject positioned in the picture properly.

• The most important element of framing is ‘head room’.  This is a term used to describe the positioning of a subject so their head is framed correctly.  An easy tip is to draw an imaginary line 1/3 of the way down from the top of the screen.  Make sure to position the subject’s eyes on this line.  You’ll have to adjust as you zoom, but this will create ideal framing.
• It is also important to think about framing from the left to the right.  If the subject is talking to the directly to the camera, they should be centered in the image.  If they are talking to one side or the other, they should be framed to talk across the widest area of the image.  For example, if the subject was talking to a subject that they were looking at to their left, they would be positioned to the left of the frame (as you are looking at the frame).  Vis-versa when talking to the right.
• One final note about framing involves a piece of equipment that should be in any shooter’s arsenal.  That is a good tripod.  Make sure you use a tripod whenever possible.  It will help with framing, shoot stability, and making sure your image is level.  All signs of a well made video.

Finally, focus.  One of the neat features of today’s camcorders is their auto-focus ability.  If you are used to pro equipment, however, auto-focus often seems to mean nothing is in focus.  Auto-focus works by bouncing a beam off the camera and measuring its reflection.  If there is nothing between you and your subject, it works well.  If you subject is moving around and framed well, it can be a lifesaver.  However, if there is anything in between the camera and your subject, or if your subject moves a lot, your camera may struggle to find the focus.  The result is often an image that comes in and out of focus which is very frustrating to watch.  If your subject is far away, or not moving much, try using the auto-focus to get an initial focus setting and then turn it to manual.  You may find this improves the quality.

Hopefully these tips will help you get your video looking perfect.  Contact us if you have any questions, and don’t forget about our Video 101 classes and boot-camps.  We teach these tricks and more.

I was talking the other day with Serina Kelly of Relevate and a crazy analogy came to mind – Ideas are like Goldfish.

Every kid has shared the experience of bringing home a brand new Goldfish at one time or another. Remember, Goldfish were fun. It came in a cool bag of water and then into a nice shiny bowl. This was YOUR pet! You gave it a name like Goldy, or Slimy, of Phish. For the first few days, you jumped out of bed in the morning to rush down and drop the pellets of food into the bowl. What a time.

But, soon enough, other things came along, and Goldy was just another decoration. The initial passion of feeding him gave way to apathy, and soon it was mom feeding the fish (when she remembered). The bowl got cloudy and green with algae. Then, one day you came in and Goldy was a floater. You said a few words and… flush… he was gone.

It hit me that ideas are like Goldfish. I have lots of ideas and get genuinely excited when a cool one hits. It fires me up, and inspires me – for awhile. Then, like my old pet, the excitement fades. Too often, my ideas end up as floaters, just like ol’ Goldy.

Don’t let your ideas go ‘belly up’. When you have a good idea, commit to making it a reality. Write it down, tell it to friends and colleagues along with your commitment to carry it through to fruition.

Normally I refrain from going off topic on this blog, especially to rant on political topics. Today I’m making an exception.

For most folks – except us political junkies – this news item may not register in your world at all. On Tuesday, Senator Jim Bunning brought the workings of the nation to a brief halt as he held up approval of an extension to unemployment benefits. The press played this off as another typical Republican dirty trick and an especially ruthless one since it threatened to delay or cancel benefits to ordinary people out of work.

Digging a bit deeper, however, Senator Bunning’s demand was not to shut off benefits, but instead to force Congress to dedicate the money to pay for them. Without this measure, the cost would be applied toward the burgeoning budget deficit.

Now only the most heartless among us would suggest that an extension to unemployment benefits is unnecessary. This is the deepest recession/depression of my life and one that promises new economic realities as we emerge (assuming we do). Many legitimately need help, and that help should benefit us all by mitigating what otherwise could become catastrophe.

On the other hand, as a small business owner, and one struggling to keep my doors open, make payroll, pay the bills, and take home enough to pay my mortgage each month, I cringe at what I’m seeing in Washington. Sure, this little stunt was a PR play, but it highlighted the fact that the folks we’ve elected are not being good stewards with our resources.

In the current economic climate, it is nearly impossible to get small business funding without paying a draconian price. While we are spending billions here and billions there in the name of stimulus, where is the help for small businesses? As the larger companies lay workers off in record numbers, it is the small businesses that are left to pick up the pieces. The number of qualified professionals with years of experience who are out looking for work today is staggering. The reality is many are going to find their next job with a small business trying to serve a market created by their former employer’s belt tightening.

So what is being done to assist this transition? Not much that I see. I don’t want to take someone’s unemployment check, but if that same money were made available to me in the form of loans and tax credits, I could hire the person who is otherwise stuck at home and frustrated. Isn’t that a win-win? Are you listening Congress? President Obama? Tea Partiers? NBC, CBS, ABC?

While this post is a general rant, what I am looking for in the next round of political leaders is a commitment to building an economy that will allow business to grow and thrive at a sustainable pace; spending policies that understand we cannot continue to borrow to support our bloated ways, and leadership that will stand up and be accountable for their actions. Let’s hope some help is on the way.

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How much would you pay for a great video to add to your website or social media pages?  It is not uncommon to pay several thousands of dollars to make a professional online video.  It doesn’t take great math skills to realize that one or two videos could equal a significant investment in cameras, software, and an intern who can pump videos out all day long.  So why not do it yourself?  Great question.

The one thing that professionals offer is experience.  The pros know how to make your video look and sound good.  But, today the message is more important than the medium, and sustance generally trumps style.  Also, it is critical to put as much relevant content into the as you can.  If you can produce more content for the same budget, you’re better off than staking your claim on one or two professionally produced segments.

Ok, so when should I do it myself?  Here is a checklist:

• Are relationships important to your sales and marketing process?
• Do your customers value a trusted advisor to help them understand your products or services?
• Are you a small business competing with a larger company?
• Can your customers benefit from training on your products or services?
• Are social media sites like Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter important parts of your marketing plan?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, your business could benefit from using regular video content.  In many cases, you may find that with some training and practice you can make great videos to support your campaign.  In the next few posts, we’ll be providing some basic tips on how to make great online video content.  Keep checking back.

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