BY TJ Walker
- 1. You can have greater message control because it is harder, more difficult and more time consuming for people to edit down your answers. Do if you keep you video to 90 seconds or less, chances are other media outlets, bloggers etc, will just run you r whole video rather than taking the time to edit you down to one sound bite.
- 2. You can make your backdrop look like whatever you want. This means you can put in your company or book name and also put in your web address. Again, it is too difficult and time consuming for someone else to edit this out or cover it up, so you get extra branding and PR mileage out of your video.
- 3. Even if you don’t get bigger media outlets to interview you on the subject your video is on, at least you will have original, quality video content to share with your customers, prospects and colleagues.
- 4. Because it’s your video, you can simply delete it and start over if you don’t like how it looks or sounds after you make it—you retain control.
- 5. If for some reason you don’t want people to see the video anymore, you can remove it from YouTube, your site and any other place you’ve uploaded it (keep in mind someone could have downloaded your video and then uploaded again as a different file—especially if you say something embarrassing!)
- 6. You can add graphics, identifiers, logos, and even hyperlinked urls to your video. Again, most people won’t bother to go to the trouble of stripping these off, so all of these items will stay with you and your video no matter where the video ends up, be it on news sites, other file sharing sites, blogs or demo reels.
- 7. As the producer of a video, even a simple talking head video with little or no editing, you gain a certain element of respect and credibility with people, including the media. You are no longer just a supplicant begging for coverage. You are, in effect, a peer to some degree, with other media producers. (I don’t mean to overstate this. The executive producer of NBC Nightly news isn’t going to call you up for lunch just because you both produce video!)
- 8. You are seen as a multimedia communicator the second you do video. Anyone and everyone can write text or blog, even a dog (as the old New Yorker cartoon reminds us). Even computer algorithms can spit out text. But only actual human beings can do talking head videos (sure, if you want to spend enough time and money you can make cartoons or create icons, but how many people are really doing that on a regular basis?)
- 9. You will literally become more articulate and a better communicator by speaking in a video format on a regular basis. Great writers write every day. Sometimes they write well because they are great writers. But they often go form good to great writers for the simple fact that they write every day. Oprah is a better host today than she was when she started her career because she host TV shows every day. You will get better speaking and articulating your ideas once you start articulating them on video on a regular basis.
10.You may be recognized! I don’t mean people are going to be swarming you, asking for your autograph or that you will have to wear dark glasses just to go out to a restaurant with family and friends. Btu gradually, over time, if you are putting out talking head videos as well as communicating in the normal channels, people at conferences, meetings, workshops and conventions who are a part of your world will start to recognize you from your videos. They will likely give you more respect, pay closer attention to what you say and go out of their way to introduce you to others and recommend you as a speaker—all a part of a virtuous cycle promoting you and your ideas!