Tips to keep your business moving

As we all enter new phases of restrictions, businesses have to reconsider their operations in light of new needs. This new standard will look different for everyone, and there’s no one-size-fits-all approach to returning to business. But whether you’re a small business right up to a global corporation, video is a vital part of staying operational right now. 

Here are five tips on how to keep your business going right now.

1. Be willing to pivot

It’s always important as a business to be adaptive in uncertain times, and in these times, it’s more crucial than ever to think acutely about your audience and customer needs. Make sure you’re offering services and products that are most useful to them — even if you are running a limited operation at the moment.

If you are planning a few more months of staying remote, use video to announce your latest venture, thought leadership insights, or communicate your new policies for safe transactions. Let your audience know how you are adapting to the ‘new normal’. 

2. Engage with your audience

This is a perfect time to let your audience lead and let your business tactics follow. Use this opportunity to poll your customers and find out what questions you might be able to answer right now. Or even create and send them a personal video message.

3. Give status updates

Whether you’re preparing to reopen or still building out your virtual presence, it’s crucial to let your audience know where you stand. If you’re gearing up for a brick and mortar reopening, consider making a video made for sharing what steps you’re taking to keep your customers safe, and let them know what to expect when they return. 

4. Learn video marketing basics 

When it comes to video marketing, even the smallest strategic steps can make a difference. Know your peak posting times — Thursday and Friday afternoons are best for Facebook sharing while hitting Twitter on Monday mornings should give your content the best chance at grabbing maximum eyeballs. 

5. Just get started

I get it — starting a new venture or changing up your practices during this time is daunting. “A lot of people are going to suffer from paralysis analysis — they’re going to overthink it,” says Clayshare co-founder Kevin Phillips. “Don’t worry about trying to make it perfect. Just get on there and do something to provide benefit to your audience. They’re going to appreciate the fact that you did this for them to help them through this situation.”

Share your knowledge with your customer base and provide them with videos to help make them succeed right now, whether that’s sharing tips on how to reopen or helping your people to stay sane and healthy. It doesn’t matter if you’re thinking about holding a virtual event or just want to share a quick social media post, video can help you keep things in motion while you figure out the rest. 

Thank you Aubrey Page from Vimeo for the inspiration of this blog post. 

The Power of Now

The Power of Now

Each Sunday for my video challenge, I am doing a book review, focusing on a book which has made an impact on my life and business. Today’s is not an exception – The Power of Now.

This book as sold millions and I have read it at least three times. This short review will not do the book justice as there is so much it in.

There are so many points in this book. If you read it, you’ll find that some resonate more with you than maybe me but let’s hear three things that I’ve taken away from it.

1. There is no such thing as time. It’s all made up.
2. The past and the future don’t happen. The past is gone; there’s nothing we can do about it. The future is something that we often create in our head.
3. The ego makes us overthink things. If we could stop thinking, I think we’d probably all feel a lot better for it.

The book is about The Now. The only thing we have is the present. I think if we realise that the mind is a superb instrument, it is very powerful but also it can very destructive in the way that we tend to overthink things.

Reading this book has opened my mind onto how I think and how the ego can control the way you do things and how the only thing you can do is be in the present. So I’d like to end on this quote, “Realise deeply that the present moment “is all you ever have. “Make now the primary focus on your life.” I highly recommend this book.

“Realise deeply that the present moment is all you ever have. Make the now the primary focus of your life” – Eckhart Tolle.

Has video become a tick box exercise

Has video become a tick box exercise

I’m just wondering if video has become a tick box exercise? I understand as busy business people, video is just one of many things to be done if you are launching a new website or champaign. So when it comes to video, there is more to just finding a video production company and tick it’s all done. Follow me today as I travel into London as I visit a digital agency to see if this is true. Day 21 of my video challenge.

Rather than looking at video from a strategic point of view, it needs to be seen in how it integrates into the whole marketing and business plan.
Put some thought into how you are going to distribute and market the video to make sure that you get a return of investment. There seems to be a missing link here between the, what I call the pre-pre-production, the strategy part, and the promotion and distribution of the content. Then there is no following up and checking on the metrics and measuring it to make sure it worked. Video is so much more than another item on a list to be ticked off.

How to overcome your fear of being on camera

How to overcome your fear of being on camera

Today’s blog I want to talk about how to overcome your fear of appearing on camera. Even though you’re an introvert and have concerns about being judged and you think you have a face for radio.

Now I get this. I think it’s tough to talk to a camera as it’s a static object and it feels very unnatural. And, as an introvert, I do find this hard to do. Often I think Will the audience want to hear what I got to say? “Do I have anything important to say? “What if they don’t like it?” There are loads of excuses not to do this. And actually, I think as you’re talking to a camera, you get used to it if you practice a lot. I think it’s easier than actually doing public speaking.

Video marketing is essential, especially if you have an important message and story to tell. And I also understand when you put yourself out there, you may think, “What will people think?” You have a fear of being judged. We live in a world if you’re going to put yourself out there online, you’re going to be judged. People are going to leave negative comments. They might not like the message that you have. And I think you just got to accept that. And realize that most of this are not personal. It’s about them and their issues. What you need to do is really just focus on your audience, the people who do resonate with your message, who do follow and like you. Concentrate on them and serve them and do not let the distractors, the haters get to you. Now I know it’s hard to do that sometimes. I like to be liked. But I think you got to realize that you won’t be liked by everybody. Your content will not resonate with everybody. So create content which is going to be valuable to your audience and build an audience who are going to like you, follow you, and leave positive comments.

The third thing is, I just see this a lot, is that people think that they are ugly. They have a face or a good voice for radio. I’ve done thousands of videos and most people do not like the way they look and sound on camera. It’s so common that is when you film with a camera, you’re used to seeing yourself in a mirror, so you look different and in your head, you probably also think you sound different. Yes, we all have an accent. Yes, we all do look different. And that’s what makes us uniquely human. In my experience, that people don’t comment, or very rarely comment, on the way you look and sound.

If your message is good and valuable, people will concentrate on that, not on the way you look and sound. And yes, there are tricks you can do. Location’s important. Lighting’s important. Sound is also important. So there are things you can do to help to make you look good. Editing your videos can help. You can put footage over what you’re saying. If you’re that concerned about the way you look. But I think part of it is you just got to do it, and you get used to it. The more you do this, the more comfortable you get on camera the easier it becomes. So I think the big tip is to practice. If I can do it, so can you.

 

How long should my video be?

How long should my video be?

What’s the optimal duration for a video? I do get asked this a lot, and unfortunately, there is no simple answer. The video needs to be as long as it needs to be for your audience. Day 4 of my video challenge and today I am in Richmond Park in South West London, enjoying the sunset and watching out for the deer who live in the Park. While the backdrop is beautiful, I think I do sound a little out of breath for the first part of the video as I was walking uphill (or maybe I am just unfit!). And as I went ‘cross country’, walking and talking became tricky as I was trying to avoid the rabbit holes, you can see me stumble a couple of times in the video.