Social media videos tend to be more engaging and tend to get ranked higher in the algorithm but not all social media videos are created equal. With a little prep, you can be ready for effective videos that really resonate with your audience! Here are my best tips for both people-focused and product-focused videos.
Plan Ahead
Planning probably goes without saying, but make it strategic. What is the point of the video? Are you saying things that people could honestly just read? What value are you giving them by going on camera? Get your goal in mind and think through your video’s value and it will definitely be something that speaks to your audience!
Keep it Steady
If you’re going to do a lot of lives or videos where the camera holds still while focused on someone, please get a tripod. It is impossible to hold a camera still for minutes at a time. You don’t want people wondering if there’s an earthquake where you are and totally tuning out on the point of the video.
Be Yourself
For people-focused video and lives, I would probably make this #1 because this is my absolute essential piece of advice. People get so caught up in what they’re “supposed” to say, that they turn into like the 8th grade version of themselves giving a report on Custer’s Last Stand in front of their history class.
Don’t worry about it. Truly. Be yourself — people are tuning in to see you! Just relax and try to hit the high points. Or better yet — some great advice I recently received from a friend: plan on the outcome you want and trust the words to come.
What would you rather watch? Someone hitting all of the things they wanted to say, but in as a super stiff version of themselves, or someone who’s engaging and fun but messes up a few words and has to start over? Take a cue from SNL: grab some posterboard and write your key points and have someone hold them up behind the camera. If you need to reference it, it’s there, but you’re not so focused on saying the exact right thing.
Check the Audio
This is more for the case of product-focused videos, but does the background noise add to the video or distract from it? Most people will listen to non-people videos on with the sound off as a default, but you don’t want someone to turn the volume up and get blasted with the noise of someone running an espresso machine and your coworkers talking loudly in the background. The next tip gives you an easy way to lift the audio — because “be quiet guys! I’m filming” always leads to someone loudly walking into the room during a critical point.
Use an editor
If you’re just taking videos on your smartphone for social, I cannot recommend InShot enough. You can easily lift audio (see above), link clips together, add transitions, layer in a logo, resize for different platforms … the list goes on. And it’s FREE! There are some paid options, but 90% of how I use InShot involves the free features.
You can slow it down or speed it up, overlay text, add a filter, trim the front and back and more. This is turning into a love letter to InShot, but it’s really a great tool and super intuitive to use.
Here’s an example of a video that was just medium at regular speed, but really popped with a quick speed change!
Any tips I missed or questions you have about taking videos for social media? I’d love to hear in the comments!
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