How will you present yourself?

You will want to ensure that you present a consistent version of yourself, so try to avoid, recording videos straight after getting up in the morning before your shower. Remember, this is going out TO THE WORLD! So, before you press record ensure you putting across a version of yourself that you’re happy being seen by anyone that you’re trying to impress.

What’s in your background?

Remember to think about what your environment is saying about you. Does your background include a grubby dressing gown hanging on the back of a door, or a dirty pile of washing stacking up on the floor? Eugh! Think about what’s behind you.

What kit are you using?

The kit you use will make a huge difference to the quality of your video. Now, you don’t have to go and spend a huge amount on your video kit, but essentials you need to think about are the audio and visual quality. People will be a lot less forgiving with rubbish audio quality – if they can’t hear you they certainly won’t be watching you! So do some dry runs to listen to your kit.

Where are you looking?

This will depend a lot on the kit you’re using. If you’re using your webcam, then you need to be careful that you don’t record your video by watching the video of you on the screen. If you’re doing that, you’re not looking at the camera and it just looks a bit weird, like you’re cross-eyed. This is never a good look.

If you’ve got a free-standing camera on a tripod, great! This will make it much easier to look straight at the camera. Unless, you’re reading some notes off camera. If you’ve not managed to get hold of some auto-cues then make sure that any notes you’re using are behind the camera so that it still looks like you’re speaking to camera.

Are you using notes?

If you’re using notes, what ever you do, DO NOT READ THEM OUT! Did you get that? DO NOT READ THEM OUT! This is not only intensely irritating to listen to, but it definitely does not help you to convey your expertise. People who know what they’re talking about don’t need to read their notes. They might need prompts, to keep them on track, but that is it. If you need to read your notes word for word, then you need to question why you’re doing this.

Have you practiced?

Before launching into video blogs, put aside half a day of just faffing with your kit and getting comfortable with it. Get comfortable talking to camera and watching how you look. Look out for any weird on camera habits you may have [hair flicking, looking sideways, eye twitching, licking your lips, etc).

Have you heard yourself speak?

One of my main challenges with videoing myself was to slow down my pace of speech. I talk waaaaay too fast. So, one thing I’ve had to learn is to SLOW down. And the only way I’ve done that is by practicing. Some may say that I still do, but believe me, at least you don’t get out of breathe just by listening to me now! Listen to what you’re saying and how you’re saying it. You might have to cut out your colourful language (if appropriate) or stop saying “uh” and “you know” every other sentence. Ask a friend who’ll be honest to give you some feedback.

Are you aiming for recording your video in one take?

This is ambitious, so you’ll need to think about how long you want to speak for and what points you want to get across. Waffling does not score high points here. Sometimes, you’ll be able to pull it off in the first take, other times you’ll be there all afternoon!

Do you have an editing suite?

If you’ve decided that a one-take shoot is too much, then you’re going to have to edit. Make sure you have some good editing software to help you do a good job. Some cameras come with their own easy-use software, but watch out because these can be very limited in their scope. On the other hand you don’t want to get caught up using professional software, because you could waste a lot of time faffing.

1-2-3 Action!

It can be too easy when you’re recording yourself to talk to yourself in your head and count yourself in, usually while getting your words straight in your head and staring out the window. Then when you reach three: you flick your hair while taking a deep breathe while simultaneously turning your head toward the camera. Then you deliver your perfect video, finish off and quickly walk toward the camera, happy that you’ve done a good job. UH-OH! Your video is a nightmare to edit!

Before you decide to start recording make sure that you’re looking at the video for a few seconds. Then at the end, stay looking at the camera for a few more. This ensure that you have sufficient footage to edit your video without cutting it too short.

If you’ve got any more tips that you’d like to share, feel free to post them in the comments below.

A bit of a debate has kicked off on Quora prompted by the question “How much should a digital coach be paid to help develop and implement a social networking strategy?” Answers  varied from “impossible to answer” to “zip, nada, squat”. As I read through the difference in opinion it became obvious to me that the root cause of the disagreement is the fact that the term Digital Coach is not really understood. Or at least, there isn’t a definition that we can all agree on.

So, what do we mean by a digital coach? For a start, a coach, digital or otherwise, is not a consultant. To be clear, a consultant is someone who advises someone else directly using knowledge transfer. Coaching purists would say that a coach NEVER gives advice. Rather they help the client to find the right solution for them based on insightful and probing questions. The benefit of sector experience for a coach means that they know WHAT questions to ask. But they don’t do the DOING bit. Nor do they advise.

Digital coach is a recent term that I think applies more to assisting individuals than to business teams. Sure, the individual may own a business, but the business requirements themselves are met by social media/digital consultants. In the current climate where more and more of our lives are conducted online and through social networks, understanding the landscape is critical for one’s success in whatever endeavour we may be pursuing. However, for many people this landscape is foreign and very scary. Believe it or not there are people out there who have only just got onto facebook, they haven’t heard of Linked In and think that Twitter is something to do with Stephen Fry. For these people, learning to go digital is something that they need support with. They need someone to hold their hand and help them to make the right decisions (not TELL them). And it is for these people that digital coaches will be useful. These people will need to get their head around what they want to be saying about themselves in the digital space, how they present themselves and what networks they should be a part of. And then, the big bit – get comfortable using it all and adopting the digital/social mindset. All this is why coaching is a critical part of the process. Nobody else can tell you what you should be saying about yourself, or indeed what’s right you, other than you. Hence a coaching approach is more appropriate than a consultative one.

So, back to the question! If you can find someone who uses a coaching-led approach with a blend of gentle guidance and credible knowledge of the digital landscape with an ability to help you get started, then surely that is worth paying for. Especially for someone who hasn’t set foot online properly.

This question “Is personal branding a fad?” came up on Quora recently so I thought I’d give my view which I’m happy to share here.

The term personal branding may be relatively new, but the concept has been around much longer. There is some misconception that personal branding is all about the hard sell and this is where the term gets a bad name (Obnoxious?). The reality is that we’re ALWAYS selling ourselves. Selling in this sense means trying to influence others to buy us / believe us / like us / hire us etc.

What’s changed is the environment in which we’re now able to do that. And it’s this that is forcing us to be much clearer as to how we choose to define ourselves. Before, it was adequate to merely be mindful as to how we presented ourselves in the flesh. This kept it pretty simple, as long as we dressed and spoke consistently in line with our image of ourselves and what we wanted to project, that was fine. But now we can present ourselves online in endless ways – blogs, personal sites, YouTube etc. And it is because of the extensive possibilities of online presences that we need to think a bit harder about what we want to say about ourselves. We cannot escape the harsh reality of earning cash. Nor can we escape the fact that we are all naturally nosey. So, if we are presented with the opportunity of possibly working with someone (hiring them, buying their stuff etc), we are going to seek out information about them. Just as we would before purchasing a product. Hence the need to be clear as to what you want to say about yourself and to present that consistently. We know from the world of corporate brands that to be bought you need to build trust, and this is done through communicating a consistent message and delivering upon a promise consistently. So it’s no surprise that people are now adopting these practices. Let’s not forget the fact that the world is more competitive in terms of jobs, and those that have grasped this are those that are getting the work. So, it will soon be a neccessity for the majority if they want to keep up.

So, to answer the question, no it’s not fad. At least the concept isn’t. It’s here to stay.