Making a video – or videos – is, according to most 'experts' (I'm not labelling myself as such – just quoting every marketing and business development leader's recent e-mails or Blog posts) an absolute must. It's been headlines for at least the last year and stats abound saying that 60-70- even 80% of the content people really like and engage with on social media; it will be video by the end of this year.

 

Funders like a video as well.

 

Making a video can be a daunting task. Some really don't want to be on camera. Its expensive to contract a professional company but some (and this is in the 'commercial world' just as much as our sector) see professional production levels as a must so that there is no damage to brand credibility. Putting your name to something that every type of 'armchair critic' will have their input on is another piece of pressure that many want to avoid.

 

Our Sector has a HUGE advantage over the commercial world. We are who we are because we are part of stories, day in and day out, when we help people directly or we help people help other people.

 

What we tend to do is to be very conservative in our approach to video. We want to make sure that our charity or group is very much part of (to the fore) in the video story, and we like to tell a long story, both actions ensuring that we are credited with the results of how we have helped. This is really something natural – we need funding to be repeated or added to so our audience has to include present and possible finance givers.

 

We don't just like longer videos. We also like long scenes. One of the key bits of cinematography we don't consider is accumulating a stock of shorter visuals – eg

 

 

CEI of Charity walks into scene of their office and says to camera -

 

'Hello – I'm X, CEO (or other Officer) of Y. Explains everything Y does and its history then - When people want our help they call the number advertised on all our media and they come through to a volunteer who makes the arrangements for them to come and see us at one of our drop in days'

 

Walks across office, says 'hello' to volunteer, chats about numbers of people who have called that day, then finishes with further chat to camera

 

 

Hand scrolls down a Facebook Page to phone number (3 secs) – clicks on number (sound of phone ringing (3 secs) – cut to office and volunteer answering phone (3 secs)

 

'Hello, my name is Sue and you are through to Charity Y – how can I help you?

 

'Hi, I saw your Facebook Page and I'd really like some help with looking after my Mum. She's got terrible arthritis so she needs me to look after her several times a day'

 

'We can help you in lots of ways. Would you like to call in for coffee – say tomorrow – I can show you all the options? And we do use Facebook Messenger during Office hours …

 

Cuts to 5 second scenes (with titles) of all the support options …

 

Two Options. Which do you like? Which works best for … insert who you want to reach

 

If you want to make videos – if you HAVE to make a video (or three) – there is some very good free advice available.

 

I'll look at the most 'professional' approach possible first (for those of you who have some possibly substantial funding to spend on learning to make video – and cameras etc). This is a list of some 10 online courses you can go on.

 

Yes, this list is titled 'courses for B2B marketeers' but the core instruction applies to any video production. Yes, this is a 'commercial' web site making these recommendations but the principles (notably of planning for and then measuring the impact of a video) are just the same as our Sector needs. It's worth taking a look!

 

We all are pushed towards making sure our 'brand' is as good as it can be and that we protect it. I've written a couple of posts about how brand perception has changed (and is changing even more) but if you want to make a brand video, and you have little time to do so, then this feature will give you lots of ideas. It say you can do so in a couple of hours!

 

Many of the videos you see on Social Media are what is called UGC (User Generated Content). They can be short clips of something funny, or sad, be instant news or of someone telling a story that people haven't heard – but then get very interested in. The quality is ...

 

Putting a 'brand' onto social media needs a bit of care and perhaps not as much in the way of production values (so as to 'partner' with the instancy of UGC), and this guide is all about creating Social Media videos on a budget.

 

The biggest change that has happened to all of us is that the small black box we have in our pockets has changed beyond all recognition over the past couple of years. Recent mobile phones are now cameras (including for video) of a quality that you would have had to pay lots of money for just a handful of years ago (yes I appreciate that a smartphone does cost a significant amount of money, even if the cost is spread out over a couple of years, but this camera comes with everything else that a phone gives you – internet + calls + texts etc – and its far more portable than some cameras).

 

You can make fantastic quality videos (and edit them) on a mobile phone. This guide takes you through lots of the features (tricks and techniques) that your phone camera has, so that you end up with something that looks of professional quality.

 

The biggest problem though is that great quality without a storyline or a bit of clarity about what you want a video to do, and you end up with something that looks good but doesn't work. Everything we do, in all aspects of our lives, is a journey, and this applies to our sector just as much as in the 'commercial' world.

 

Make the right video for the right stage of a 'journey' and it will be incredibly effective at both helping people (who watch the video) make a decision or then move to the next stage of where you want them – or should I say they want – to go.

 

If you can ignore the 'buying' wording in this highly detailed feature, you'll get a very clear idea of how to plan for stages of engagement. You'll avoid the 'long video' that explains everything all at once. By doing so, you'll soon see where people lose engagement – so that you can then go back to them and try a different approach.

 

A lot of the examples in the above feature are individuals talking to camera. Here's one more guide to doing this sort of video on your own – without any help!

 

There's one thing more. The best advice I could give you is not to ever think you can just decide to make a video and then go and shoot scene by scene and expect it to be perfect – or even just good. When they make an Oscar winner, there are re-takes after retakes, bits of script taken out just days before a film is released. The short scenic scenes (the panoramas of a town or landscape etc) are taken months before (or months after) the production of the close-up work – the 'acting' – and the snippets of say a key starting up a car, a coffee pot boiling etc, they are often filmed completely out of sync with the rest of the work.

 

You need a 'stock' of clips (as mentioned earlier) and you need to keep on adding to that stock. You need any of the following and anything else you want to add:

 

 

I mentioned the possibility of being embarrassed by putting your creativity into the public domain.

 

Well I've made a few videos for the local group I help. Some have reached 000s of people, some just 20. There is some acting in a few (both people and swans!) and maybe a bit of humour (you tell me). If you'd like to be as critical as you want, please do so!

 

Whatever videos you have made, or are about to commit to, I hope they really work for you.