50 Tips to optimize your Video Clips

Nowadays it is possible to create good video clips without expensive equipment. One of the easiest ways is to appear in front of the camera and promote your products or services.

I have analyzed numerous video clips over the last few months and have listed a number of suggestions to ensure that your efforts really lead to success:

• Your clothes are an essential part of your appearance

• Make-up is good, but discreet

• A blouse that is too wide open looks dubious

• Avoid large headphones

• Record several versions, because your voice is more relaxed in later versions

• Speak slowly and clearly

• Lower the pitch of your voice

• Take short pauses after important information

• Modulate your voice and do not speak too monotonously

•  Avoid filler words such as "eh ....". Take a short break if you can't think of a word straight away

• Avoid the raised index finger

• Maintain eye contact with the audience (= camera)

• Sit or stand upright

• Use gestures to emphasize your text, but avoid gestures beyond shoulder width

• Avoid crossing your arms

• Tell a story with a benefit for the audience

• Choose an interesting introduction (current case, a statement, a question)

• Avoid too long texts

• Avoid long, convoluted sentences

• Avoid technical terms that are not commonly known (or explain them briefly)

• Prepare a fully formulated text, - but only use a summary of bullet points and formulate freely in front of the camera

• Do not read the text verbatim

• Position the cheat sheet as close to the camera as possible so that you do not lose eye contact

• Choose a neutral background that is not distracting

• Avoid digital backgrounds

• The camera should be at eye level, like when talking to a friend at the table

• You should not stand too close to the camera, as this appears intrusive and can distort your image (frog eye effect causes a large nose)

• Avoid to zoom or move the camera during the recording

• Make sure there is sufficient lighting in the room and on your face
• Too much light makes you appear pale

• You can use the microphone on your cell phone, but avoid holding the microphone or playing around with it

• Videos longer than one minute are usually switched off early

• A video blog should not be a mass production that you send out every few days

• It is only worth creating a video clip once a week, but the better it is

• If possible, you should display subtitles synchronized with your spoken text. This increases the comprehensibility of the text and stays longer in the viewer's memory

• The accompanying text can be the text you speak in the video or a short form of it

• This text is very important because it shows your expertise on social media platforms, as these platforms cannot "see" your video, they can only "read" it

• This text has also an important function: Here you can insert your website, your public contact email address, as well as the hash tags under which you want to be found

• Modern equipment enables videos in 4K quality (4096x2304 Pixel). But this is usually not necessary for a vblog. It takes too long to load and is usually automatically reduced to HD (1920x1080 Pixel) quality

• 16:9 (Landscape, best for PC screens, like YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn) or 9:16 (Portrait, best for Instagram and Pinterest) are the most common HD formats, but with square 1:1 format (2160x2160 Pixel) you cover various social media channels

• Test your video without sound

• Turn off the sound and watch your body language (see 1) d.)

• If you have the technical ability, play the video at a higher speed and you might notice recurring movements

• Use the full video with sound and concentrate on the technical content

• In most cases, your listeners are not at your expert level. Can everyone understand your text?

• Should images or graphics be displayed to explain your spoken text?

• Watch similar video clips from others in your branch and check what you could do better

• Watch video clips from other industries and check which useful elements you can adopt

• This is the hardest part, because you often have to deal with criticism and rejection.

But every criticism contains learning potential

• The principle "less is more" also applies to the publication of video clips. You can also say "good is better than fast". One to a maximum of two videos per week is sufficient to maintain recognition and to remain in the viewers' memory

• There are many channels on which you can publish your video clips. But be careful!: Some channels also check the channels of their competitors and show your video clip less often if it has already been published elsewhere. You can partially avoid this by using different accompanying texts and preview images

• Professionals know that an advertising measure only makes sense if it can be measured.

• Since Google Analytics only works to a limited extent, this measurement has become somewhat more difficult.

• Create an overview of when you published a video clip and how many visitors you had before and after publication. Over time, you will get a picture of which types of video clips are more successful than others

• Priya Sher (Feng Shui Expert, London, UK) LinkedIn, Instagram

• Tamara_Heilmassagen_Berlin (alternative practitioner and therapeutic massage, Berlin) Instagram

• An Sterken (Feng Shui Expert and Business Coach, Brugge, BE ) LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook

• Sam Plovie (Feng Shui Expert and Business consultant, Victoria, BC, USA) LinkedIn, Instagram