Effective video takes various skills, Brian Malone of Malone Media told me a couple months ago. He called video a technical process "but you also need a creative person... Recognize what other companies are doing online [with video]. It might be training, webinars, webcasts..."
Malone will present a must-see SIPA webinar for anyone with a video interest on Wednesday, Nov. 1 titled Modern Video Workflow. He'll deliver a detailed look at the video storytelling process, production and distribution, and working with platforms like Facebook Live and YouTube. He'll also show cameras and lighting and audio options that best fit your budget. Register here.
As he said, it's always good to look at what other organizations are doing with video. Here's a sampling:
Capitalize on a conference. In 2015 the American College of Chest Physicians (CHEST) started "packaging video recordings of conference presentations under the 'Best of CHEST' banner and marketed them to international practitioners," wrote Associations Now. "The packages have become a solid source of revenue for CHEST," says COO Robert A. Musacchio, especially from corporate partners who want to sponsor presentations outside the U.S.
Use video for Instagram. Popular Science's Instagram feed is nearly 100% video. "We focus on sharing short videos around specific content buckets, so our community knows what to expect when they come to our feed—for example, most Fridays they can expect to see cool videos about flora and fauna," Mallory Johns, engagement editor, Popular Science, told Folio: recently. "We also have a robust archive—featuring well over 144 years of stories and scientific curiosities—and without fail, these posts are top performers for us on Instagram. Additionally, our community loves to see anything about space or mind-blowing creatures."
Do more with your conference speakers. Lydia Kamicar, education and learning senior manager at SmithBucklin, recommends recording short videos of event speakers onsite, which can be edited and posted to YouTube quickly. In 2016, SIPA and Connectiv filmed short speaker videos for our BIMS conference that brought in many views and still get traction for us. They were about 4-minutes long—a good length—and on point.
Use Facebook Live. Facebook Live sessions take place where people often visit anyway. Alicia C. Aebersold from the National Council for Behavioral Health told Associations Now that their Facebook Live "sessions with keynote speakers such as outgoing U.S. Surgeon General Vivek H. Murthy were remarkably sticky. 'A couple of thousand people were watching each session, even more than our [website] livestream,' she says. Remarkably, most viewers stayed on to watch the entire session. Aebersold says the National Council may opt for Facebook Live over other livestream options at its next conference." Read about the successful event Donna Jefferson had last year here.
Inject some humor. Last week, the Connecticut Convention Center posted on Facebook a "More Than Meetings," minute-long video aiming to highlight what Hartford has to offer. In the well-done video, a local actor plays a marketing professional manning the roles of bell boy, bus driver, waiter, bartender and hot dog hawker, but never quite long enough to do his job properly. Finally he stands in the science center's gale-force hurricane simulator: "We don't take ourselves too seriously!" It has received more than 16,000 views and been shared about 130 times.
Two last tips:
"The biggest mistake I see is not enough pre-production or planning goes into video," Malone said. "Nobody has read a script, rehearsed anything; it's just an on-the-fly table read. You can't just start rolling." Strong editing is also needed. "You have to go through footage and make sense of it sometimes. People may think they're saving time by skipping pre-production," but then you're really wasting time if you don't do that.
There is "no excuse for bad audio," Malone said. Nothing else matters much if you can't hear things clearly. Invest in a good mic, he recommended. "Audio should be considered paramount," agreed Nelson Cuellar, ASAE's learning specialist for educational video and multimedia.
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Nevena Jovanovic.
Ronn Levine began his career as a reporter for The Washington Post and has won numerous writing and publications awards since. Most recently, he spent 12 years at the Newspaper Association of America covering a variety of topics before joining SIPA in 2009 and SIIA in 2013 as editorial director…