How to Look Good in a Zoom Meeting

Have you noticed that not everyone in a video conference call (Zoom meeting) looks the same? One person is dark, another you just see the top of their head, and another is looking like she’s watching tv just to the side of the screen. I’m going to give you some helpful tips for you to look your best during a Zoom meeting.

Know where the camera on your computer/phone is.

Most computer cameras are in the top middle of your screen and most phone cameras are at the top of the phone in the area near the ear piece. Once you know where the camera is, try to look at the camera and not at your image or other people on your screen. You should also have the camera at eye level. When your laptop is on the desk the camera is usually looking up at you. You should always raise your laptop camera to match your eye level so you are looking straight into the camera. You never want to look like you are talking down to someone and you also don’t want to feel like someone is talking down to you. Looking straight into the camera gives the appearance of talking, in person, straight into someone’s eyes.

Be aware of headroom.

Once you have the eye line right, make sure you have the right amount of headroom. Headroom is the amount of space between the top of your head and the top of the screen. Too much headroom and you are looking at the top of someone’s head, too little and it feels like your head is sticking through the top of the computer. Open your computer screen to where you are looking at yourself through your computer’s camera and place two fingers above your head. That is about the right amount of headroom you should have. Place your computer so that the camera is seeing you from your chest up.


Be aware of the space behind you.

Try to find an area in your home/office that will give you a backdrop for you in your meeting. Make sure the area behind you is interesting but not cluttered. Always be aware of your surrounding because what ever is around you will be seen in your meeting. Do not have your back close to the wall behind you. Give yourself some distance behind you so that there is depth to your image. A good distance, if possible, is around three to four feet from the wall behind you.

Be aware of your light source.

Make sure that you have light on your face coming from behind the computer/phone. Never set your computer up where there is a bright light source behind you. It might seem like a good idea to arrange yourself in front of a window so that your beautiful backyard is highlighted behind you - but unless you have a lot of light on your face coming from behind your computer to counter the light from the window you will end up being a black blob in front of a bright light.

Use the horizontal mode on your phone.

Always use your phone in the horizontal position when you are on a video conference call. When you phone is vertical everyone in your meeting will see huge black bars on either side of you. Your image will always look better using all of the screen not just the middle third.

Sound is important.

Make sure you sit around 12-18” away from the microphone. If you are too far away your voice will be too soft. If you are to close it might be muffled. Be aware of common noise in the area you will be using for your meeting. Is the washing machine or dryer making a noise? Is the heater that you never hear anymore so loud that you will have to yell? Take note of your surroundings and always speak clearly so that others can hear you.


Be aware of your appearance.

Before your meeting take one last look at yourself in the mirror (or with your computer/phone) and if you are a bit shiny dry your face with a towel or put on a little makeup base so that you won’t look like you’re nervous and sweating.

Now smile and go into that meeting with confidence knowing you are going to look your best.

Here is a video that I produced that gives visual examples of some of these tips.

https://youtu.be/12v6ZcMbYWE

How to Make a Monthly Video Newsletter for Your Company

Do your employees excel at their jobs? Do they have skills or hobbies that they don’t necessarily use in your company? Why not highlight them in a company video newsletter. Many companies have a written newsletter that they send out by email each month with stories about what the company is doing or new procedures or even the occasional pat on the back for an employee. What if your company took it up a notch? Why not have a video newsletter. This newsletter could include any new information that you need to relate to your employees, sales numbers, new marketing plans but what if you highlighted your workers as individuals? Here are a few things to think about as you plan your monthly video newsletter.

1. Sing the company song

Begin with reminding your employees what makes your company great. Have the president or CEO introduce the video and praise the company as a whole on what it is doing and what it plans to do. Workers often get in ruts and forget that it's not just about them. Go into detail about how the company benefits the community, the country and the world and then bring the employee in and explain that they are vital to ALL of what the company does. Sometimes helping a person feel a part is as good as a promotion or a raise (I said sometimes).

2. Highlight someone that is excelling for your company

Everyone likes to be acknowledged and by pointing out someone’s success in the company increases the chance of them working even harder. Talking about a salesperson’s successes will help the sales team. Focusing on an employee’s numerous years of employment or their 3 year streak of not missing a day will not only make that person feel good but will cause others to think that they might accomplish something like that too. Also, if you make it a monthly event, you might find employees striving to make the monthly newsletter the next time. It’s a win-win-win situation.

3. Highlight someone that is excelling in life

Not all jobs are the same and some jobs are easier to quantify than others. But most people have an outside talent or hobby that can be highlighted to inspire others at your business. You might find someone in your company has a black belt in martial arts, or can bake fancy wedding cakes or flies remote-controlled helicopters. If you highlight these talents it might encourage your workers to expand their outside activities as well. More important things you might want to highlight; volunteer work, church life, work in service clubs or organizing protests for any number of social problems. Your company will benefit from your employee’s outside activities. A well rounded employee is a great employee.

Anytime that you can feature the talents of your workers helps with team building and morale. A monthly video newsletter will not only increase morale but it will help to connect your employees to each other creating a strong working environment.

How to Make a Whiteboard Video

Whiteboard videos or as they are sometimes called explainer videos are very good at delivering complex information in a simple way. You’ve seen these videos, they look like someone is drawing words and images on a whiteboard as if you are in a business meeting or a classroom. This draws the viewer in and they become part of the video. They are in the room as someone is giving them information. These videos use images, words on the whiteboard and the spoken word to convey sometimes very complex information and because it's in a familiar environment the viewer is relaxed and receptive.
Whiteboard videos are also great marketing tools giving a company a way to explain their products or services in a way that is easily accepted and understood.

Here are some things to think about when planning a whiteboard explainer video.

1. What is the message?

In a paragraph or even bullet points, what do you want to say? Whiteboard videos are usually shorter so you need to be very concise with your script. If you have more than one or two important points you might want to consider making more than one video. Boil your message down so that you can convey it in less than a minute.

2. How do you visualize your message?

Not all messages are easily delivered in a whiteboard video. Explainer videos are usually very concrete and have images that easily explain the message. If your message is more ethereal then it will be harder to find appropriate visual images for your video. Ideas that have a physical component will have images that can express the message more effectively. Think of what pictures say what you want to say and then find those pictures.

3. Which words can easily express your message?

Whiteboard videos work best with limited use of words on the screen. In this way it's like a slide presentation. You can use words as bullet points but go deeper in the voice over of the video. If you can be selective in the words on the screen then they will be remembered more easily. Long sentences on the screen will be easily forgotten even if you echo them in the voice over. One or two words or a series of short combination of words works best. The word exercise and then images of workout equipment or people working out works better than a sentence saying “Exercising everyday helps you to get in shape and helps your mental health.” Use those words in the voice over and just use the images on the screen.

4. The voice over is the backbone of the video.

The voice over or the spoken word is where you can express more of the content of the video. In the above example the words and images on the screen are sparse but powerful but the voice over can drive the message home explaining the message in a more in-depth manner giving the viewer one more way to remember your message.

Whiteboard videos are great at explaining your product or service and also at explaining how your company is better than your competitor. Every company should have a whiteboard video to help them get their message to their clients or potential customers.

How to Make Better Home Movies

We all have a fancy phone/camera that we always have with us so we can always be ready to record those important moments. Wouldn’t it be nice to actually make better videos and even put them together so that someone might want to see them? Here are some tips on making better home movies.

Tripods

Steady shots are better than shaky shots. I believe that’s a quote from Gandhi. No one wants to watch a video that has the shots bouncing all over the place. Invest in a cheap tripod or at least a table top version. When you shoot with a tripod you can make nice sweeping shots that show the whole area. A full sized tripod is critical when you are at your child’s elementary school play. You don’t want to be that person that’s holding their phone up in front of all of the others just to get the only 30 seconds that her kid is on the stage. With a tripod you can go to the back of the room and zoom into the stage. That way you can get the whole show, your arms aren’t tired and you have a nice steady shot of your child’s wonderful moment.

Lighting

Always be aware of the where light is coming from when you are shooting your videos. Never shoot your subject in front of a window or a bright background. Your subject will look like a big black blob. Most phone cameras look good even in low light but if you are shooting indoors make sure you shoot in such a way that any bright lights (windows or doors) are behind you not your subject. If you are shooting outdoors try to shoot with the sun behind you. That isn’t always pleasant for your subjects so try to find a shady spot that still has enough light. This helps because when you shoot in bright sunlight there are usually very strong shadows which makes for bad video. The best days to shoot outdoors are on cloudy days. This defuses (flattens) the light so that there are no heavy shadows on your subjects.

Audio

Sound is very important but is very often overlooked when people make home movies. Of course if you have external microphones that would be ideal but most people don’t. For the best sound you need to have your camera close to your subject. Don’t try shooting grandma from the other side of the room. She’s probably a soft talker anyway and you won’t hear those nuggets of wisdom from afar. Get as close as possible but not so close that it’s uncomfortable. This is good advice if you are in a controlled environment but what if you are at your kid’s play. One trick you might try is using one phone/camera in the back on a tripod to get the steady shots and use another phone/camera closer to the stage or even the speakers if they are close to the ground. You will have to edit your video but if you both start recording about the same time and neither one stops recording until it's over, it should work fine.

Different Angles

One way to easily make your home movies better is to shoot from different angles. At your twin’s 6th birthday, try shooting them looking at the birthday cake and then go behind them to shoot over their shoulders to see Grandma and Grandpa singing happy birthday to them. Then move away from the group to get a shot of all of the people at the party. The main thing you want to do is tell a story. While you are shooting the party think of the story you want to tell. Maybe how your son is always the shy one and hides when the camera comes around but how your daughter lights up and plays to the camera like Meryl Streep. Try to record shots that show those moments. Make sure you get wide shots, medium shots and close up shots to have a variety to choose from when your are editing.


Editing

Home movies have become so ubiquitous that most computers come with some sort of editing software installed. These are usually pretty basic but you really don’t need much to make a nice video for your family, friends or TikTok. Think about the films that you see in the theater or on Netflix. Most feature length movies only have cuts in them. A cut is where one scene cuts to another without any sort of effect or transition. So if blockbusters can use cuts so can you. Take the story you had when you were shooting and put it together using the footage that you shot. If you tell a compelling story no one will object to watching your home movie and it might be so good that it will go viral and make you famous.

With these tips you can go forth and make Ron Howard and Steven Spielberg proud.

Planning a Live Stream Talk Show

Do you need to put a human face on your company? Do you want your business to connect with your customers on a personal level? One way to do this is to have a live stream talk show. You can have a talk show and interview your president, CEO or anyone else that could be a spokesperson for your business and because it’s live you can take questions from people in your audience both in the room and across the world. Do you need to communicate a new product or way of doing something? Have a talk show and have someone explain the new operating procedure or demonstrate your new product. The format is great because by asking questions to your spokesperson they can comfortably answer instead of making a big speech. It’s a great way to present information without being stiff. Having a regularly scheduled live stream talk show is a great way to reach customers but it can also be a great way to communicate new information to your management and staff.

Here are some tips for when you are planning on having a live streaming talk show.

Carefully pick your spokesperson.

This person should be knowledgeable of your company and able to field questions easily. It’s good to have someone in authority so that when they answer the viewer feels that it is the company answering not just the PR person answering. You want the person asking the question to feel like she’s being heard not just getting the PR spin. Your spokesperson should be relaxed not worried about what he or she will say. This will come across on the live stream and will reflect negatively on your company. The spokesperson should be charming but not come across as a slick mouthpiece for the company.

Carefully pick the topic for the talk show.

Decide what the topic or the theme will be for the talk show. Have a plan for the show so that when you start to field questions from the audience you will have an idea of how to respond. If the topic is about sales and marketing you don’t want an audience member to ask you how to report a co-worker to HR. You don’t want your spokesperson to be blindsided on a live stream. Explain up front that on this live stream we will be talking about the new sales tools and the marketing strategy. You may want to have your audience submit topics for upcoming live stream talk shows allowing them to participate more and to buy in to the whole purpose of the talk show.

Carefully pick the live stream company for your talk show.

Make sure that you carefully choose the video production company that you plan to use for your talk show. They should be a good fit for your company. They must understand what your message is and help you communicate that correctly. Don’t pick a company that will execute their plan and ignore your ideas. You must go with a live stream company that can make your talk show look like an actual show that would air on network television. People see talk shows all of the time. They are on in the daytime, they are on in late night television. Everyone knows what a talk show should look like so make sure your live stream company can do that. They must have multiple cameras so that when someone talks they have a closeup. There should be proper lighting so that everyone looks the best that they can. The person asking the questions should be attractive and able to keep up with the conversation. An interviewer that asks a question that has just been answered makes everyone uncomfortable.

With careful planning, a live stream talk show is a great way to humanize your company, relay new in-house information to management and staff, and reach out to your customers in a new and innovative way.

Making a Web Video for Your Company

Why does your company need a web video? According to Adam Hayes
@wyzowl in 2020 “85% of businesses use video as a marketing tool. What’s more, 92% of marketers who use video say it's an important part of their marketing strategy.” One more statistic, “88% of video marketers reported that video gives them a positive ROI.”
Now that we’ve established that you should use video, let’s talk about how to make that all important web video.


Who is your audience?

You must start with this question. Knowing your audience is vital to whether a video works or its just filler on your page. We are not necessarily talking demographics, but that does play into it. You need to know what brought your audience to your website, why they are interested in your product and how they will use it. You need to target your audience. The shotgun approach won’t work. I video for all people is a video for no people. Know your audience.

What is your message?

Just like with an audience, web videos with one message work better than videos with multiple messages. The way to decide your message is to ask yourself, “at the end of this video, what do I want my audience to do?” Videos are great communication tools. Videos can use visuals and sounds to accomplish many outcomes. Do you want your audience to pull out their wallets? Do you want them to understand how to use your product? Do you want them to change their lifestyles? Video is the best medium for pulling heartstrings. When you get a person’s emotions involved they are more likely to do what you want them to do. Know your message.

How do you convey your message to your audience?

After you know your audience and your message, you need to start thinking about how you will communicate that message. You need to think about the script. Whether you hire a professional video production company or you do it in-house the first thing you do is start working on a script. No one ever goes out to make a video without first putting pen to paper (fingers to keyboard). Sit down at your desk and think about what is visually interesting about your company. Do some brainstorming and put some ideas down. Once you have your ideas, work them around and see if they fit into the message you want to convey. Pretty soon you will have the backbone of an outline for your script. Once you have an outline then you can work on the words. You don’t need fancy script-writing software, any word processor will do. Like any speech, report or fairytale, a web video has a beginning, a middle and an end. The old adage, “tell them what you’re going to tell them, tell them, then tell them what you told them” works every time. Start strong, give them good information in the middle, then finish strong.

You know your audience, you know your message and you’ve put the words together that gets that message to that audience. Go and make a web video.

4 1/2 Reasons to Live Stream

Live streaming is the latest and best way to set your business apart from your competition and create an inclusive experience for your employees all while letting you interact with people in real time.

1. Broadcast an event or conference
The most common form of live stream is to broadcast a seminar, conference or event. This is the best way to get your message to the most people possible. Studies have shown that even if it is a paid event, live streaming does not lessen the attendance to the event and in fact raises attendance year over year.

2. All Hands Meeting
Traveling for business in the modern age is work, not to mention expensive. Bringing team members from different parts of the country or the world is costly and time consuming. Having the president or CEO travel to the different branches often causes the message to drift from place to place. Live stream your All Hands meetings. Its quicker, cheaper and you can keep your message consistent.

3. Product Launch
How do you get your new product in front of your distributors or customers? You could travel to different companies and demonstrate your new product. You could send out letters, post cards or emails about it but what if the customers/distributors have questions? Then they have to phone you or write to you and what if they don’t take the time? Then you’ve lost a customer without even knowing it. The better solution is to live stream your product launch. You can let your customers/distributors know before the live stream and they can watch and ask questions live while you demonstrate your new product. Live streaming is interactive so you can find out immediately what your customers are thinking about your new product.

4. Present Your Message to the World
Your company might not have a product to sell but you still have a message you need to present to as many people as possible. You have a message, live stream it to the world.

4 1/2. Get Your Business Noticed
Much like this 1/2 a point, live streaming gets your business noticed. With live streaming you can interact with the world and they can interact with you. No support team, no phone banks. Just you and your message together with your customers and their questions, all in real time.

Live streaming gets your message out to your employees or your customers, launches your product, and adds thousands to the attendance of your event or conference all while letting viewers interact with you and your company.

Nine Ways to Use Video to Enhance Your Business Part 2

Website videos, according to the CMI (Content Marketing Institute) “are great for audience retention and can increase purchase intent by 97%.” Why wouldn’t you want to use a marketing tool with that kind of potential? Here are some ways to consider using videos to enhance your business.


6. Customer Support Videos.

I was having trouble with my internet router. I went to the router’s website and there were videos that walked me step by step through rebooting my router. Also, how to sync my satellite boosters and even how to reinstall it if I messed up completely. Customer support videos might not eliminate your help lines but it might go a long way in getting some questions answered before actual people have to get involved.


7. Live Streaming the Launch of a New Product or Service.

Live streaming is one of the newest ways to reach your customers. This is very similar to the EPR but it has the extra advantage of being live so that you can interact with your customers. As you live stream you can watch viewers comment on what they are seeing. That way if they like your product or service you will know immediately. Also, if they see a potential problem with it you will know and can interact with them, either live on the air or in the comments section, to explain any nuances that they may not be understanding. Modern customers like to have direct access to a company. They don’t want to jump through a bunch of hoops to get answers to their questions.


8. Live Streaming Company Training Sessions, Meetings or Conferences.

Any event that you have at your company that you want more than just local employees to attend, can be live streamed. Studies have shown that even a paid event like a conference if it is live streamed can boost attendance from year to year. People that are at home watching see that there is added value to being at a conference in person and will sign up to attend the next year. Training sessions can be live streamed and eliminate the need to have more sessions in different locations and the archive of the live stream training can be viewed over and over again giving added value to the sessions.


9. Live Streaming a President or CEO’s Message.

One of the hardest things to do as a company is to relay a consistent message to either your customers or even to your employees. Having manager’s meetings to explain a new policy and expecting those managers to correctly convey that policy to customers or employees is risky. Each manager will hear the message slightly differently and will take what they think the most important thing is and relate that to those he manages. Pretty soon the message is not what the president intended at all. Having the president or CEO state that message directly to her customers or employees all at the same time will keep the message intact and eliminate the possibility of any confusion.

Videos, especially ones that can enhance a companies website, are poised to be the next great marketing tool for any type of business.

Nine Ways to Use Video to Enhance Your Business Part 1

Website videos, according to the CMI (Content Marketing Institute) “are great for audience retention and can increase purchase intent by 97%.” Why wouldn’t you want to use a marketing tool with that kind of potential? Here are some ways to consider using videos to enhance your business.

1. Intro/Welcome Videos.

One of the best ways to immediately show your customer the face of your business is an intro/welcome video on your home page or landing page. Use a video to welcome your customer with a few words explaining what your company is about or what type of experience they will have on your website. It gives your website a very personal appeal and makes your company feel like its people oriented not just technologically oriented. Having the company president or CEO say hello to their customers will enhance their experience and put a face on your company giving it a personal touch.

2. Company Image Videos.

Your company has a mission statement. It also has a brand style that you work hard to convey to potential customers. Why not make a company image video that explains your mission and shows off your company brand. Company image videos can be simple, like showing the world the front of your complex and the insides of your factory or it can have interviews with your key staff having them explain their roles in your company and anywhere in between. The main objective is to show your customers the real heart and soul of your business.

3. Informational Videos.

Every website has a FAQ or Frequently Asked Questions section. Wouldn’t it be nice to have a video that gives your customer the answers to those questions before they know to ask the questions. Informational videos can do that for you. Don’t wait for them to ask, give them the information in an easy to digest way that helps them understand your business, effectively beating them to the punch.

4. Electronic Press Releases.

You have information about a new product or service that you want to release to the world. One way to do that is to make an EPR or electronic press release. Local news facilities are always looking for stories and you are looking to get information about your product to the general public. An EPR will basically write the story for the news agency and if they are a television station you have given them all they need to feature you in a newscast.

5. Company Video Newsletters.

Most companies have communication systems in place to showcase company news or employee highlights that happen from month to month. They are usually in the form of an e-newsletter. Video newsletters can take that function to the next level. Why not show a clip of your top sales person winning a national sales award. Or a video of your presentation team on the convention floor wooing new customers. Or a new baby born to your HR manager. Anything and everything can be a great moment recorded for posterity.