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How to Be a Video Interview Pro: 25 Strategies to Get ATTENTION and Make Your YouTube, Livestream, Google Hangouts, Skype Interviews and Videos Look or Sound Like a Professional TV or Radio Show, by Mike Koenigs
THREE hundred hours of video are being uploaded to YouTube every minute. Eighty-nine percent of teens watch YouTube, 72% of Millennials, 58% of Gen-X, and 48% of Boomers. Nine percent of Americans listened to podcasts in 2008, 15% by 2014 and 17% by January of 2015.
The Pew Research Center data show that the medium has been steadily growing its audience over the past two years. The rapid growth in the use of smartphones and mobile devices, as well as the greater ease of in-car listening, have contributed to this interest spike in podcasts.
The subtitle of this book is “25 strategies to get attention and make your YouTube, Livestream, Google Hangouts, Skype interviews and videos look or sound like a professional TV or radio show”.
Given this growth in podcasting, I believe a few ideas about how to do this better would be useful, even if you don’t do anything more than talk with staff and colleagues on Skype.
One of the first pieces of advice Koenigs offers is to centre yourself in the middle of your screen and avoid having only a part of you visible to the viewers.
I was not going to mention this piece of advice as there are so many others of importance, except that I have just completed a meeting with a colleague in the US whose camera cut off everything above her mouth. She was quite unaware of this until I mentioned it. So, position yourself in the middle of your screen, with plenty of space around you.
Additionally, it matters what is around you during the recording. “I’ve seen interviews with people who are supposed to be successful and wealthy, and… there’s disarray… behind them,” says Koenigs.
The interview or podcast is an opportunity for you to promote yourself as a brand, and everything about you will be seen as representing you. If your surroundings look chaotic, it will be difficult for your audience to believe you can provide value to them, since your own surroundings do not show order.
Dress for the income you want - and smile
You get only one chance to make a good first impression, so be sure that everything around you looks as you wish it to, says Koenigs.
“Dress for success. Dress for results. Dress for the income you want, not the income you have. People will judge you based on how you present yourself,” Koenigs points out.
The audience of the interview or podcast might never have seen you before, and have nothing to judge you by other than what they see.
An easy way to improve the effectiveness of your videos is to smile. It is a well-known fact that smiling not only creates the release of chemicals in your brain that make you feel happier, but it also helps people connect with you and relate to you.
As the author asserts: “No one wants to buy from Eeyore (the sad donkey in Winnie the Pooh), and no one wants to listen to Eeyore either.”
Those who spend time on stage or in front of a camera know that they need to strike the correct pose all the time. When you are podcasting, it is no different.
What you want from the presentation is people’s attention. Your challenge is both to get and keep your audience’s attention by being unique and interesting. That your content is brilliant, is not valuable if people cannot stay awake long enough to watch it.
Koenigs suggests a number of things you can do to keep your audience engaged. One way is by giving your viewers directives and commands. "Don't miss out on this…. You're going to want to write this down.”
If they are not engaged with you, they are most likely interacting with someone else by texting or Facebooking, rather than paying attention to you.
The power of props
Visually interesting props not only attract attention, but could also be excellent metaphors for complex ideas. Props also increase the likelihood of being able to communicate your ideas more effectively.
Earlier this year, I reviewed a book in this column called “Lead with a Story.” Koenigs echoes this idea in his call to open your talk with a story. The opening words, “Let me tell you a story…” alerts the brain because stories are how we have always learned.
Additionally, talk to your audience as though you are talking to one person, not a group. The connection value is far higher.
Your biography and how you are introduced to the audience is far too important to leave to chance. You need to make sure that your audience is introduced to you correctly. You will need to supply your interviewer with various CVs – short, medium, and long. Whichever way they are going to introduce you to the audience, you need to enable them to do it most effectively.
Finally, 15 minutes before your interview, get prepared and rehearse your points. Remind yourself of what you wish to accomplish from the interview or podcast.
This is hardly the last word on the subject, but it is a light and cheerful way to begin to make your video presentations far better.
Readability: Light +---- Serious
Insights: High ---+- Low
Practical: High -+--- Low
* Ian Mann of Gateways consults internationally on leadership and strategy and is the author of Strategy that Works. Views expressed are his own.
