This is a guest post by Andy Havard, who is a Marketing Executive at Skeleton Productions, a UK based Internet video production company.
Video blogs are rapidly taking over the blogging world, but many Internet users are still apprehensive about making the transition from text blogging to video blogging. A lot of text bloggers struggle with the idea of getting confident on camera, especially when it’s outside of their traditional blogging comfort zone. The following article explores how you can create confident video blogs on the Internet and enjoy the popularity that ‘vlogging’ is receiving across the web.
1. Always Know What You Are Talking About
The simplest way to appear confident on camera is to know your topic. Make sure you’ve researched your subject area well and even take time to script what you want to say in your video. If you naturally get nervous speaking publicly, then having a solid subject knowledge on the tip of your tongue will minimise the chances of you stumbling on your words. When you know what you’re talking about, you’ll look like you know what you’re talking about too. This will make your video blogs appear very confident and extremely knowledgeable.
2. Make Sure You Know Your Target Audience
The chances of your vlog getting seen by every Internet user in the world is pretty slim. A lot of on-screen nerves actually comes from vloggers thinking there’s millions of people watching their video. Your real audience will be those interested in the topics and subjects you’re discussing on your video blog, or users familiar with your written blog. This means that you’ll easily be able to find out who the audiences in your niche are and the content they enjoy, which theoretically means you should be of the same disposition. Once you’ve understood the content your audience likes and what they engage with well, you can create your video blogs in the same vain. If you can engage with your audience you’ll make a stronger connection with them and that should in turn help you to get more and more confident on camera.
3. Get Comfortable With The ‘On-Screen’ You
One thing that makes video bloggers lose confidence in themselves is watching their videos back. The way you sound and the way you look to ‘you’ is actually a lot different to the ‘you’ that’s captured on camera. The ‘you’ that appears on camera is the real you and you need to embrace it. Learn the ways you phrase words, notice the intonation and pronunciation in your voice and make note of what you do with your face, hands and body when you talk. By understanding the habits you have when you present yourself on camera you can start to make changes to your performances and become more confident in how you’ll end up looking and sounding on video.
4. Analyze Your Takes & Videos
Once you’ve become fluent in how you look and sound on screen you can start to make real changes to the way you present your videos. Analyse your takes and final videos, be cut-throat in what works and what doesn’t work. Make note of ideas to try out for your next take or episode and always strive to better yourself. When you start to analyse and criticize your own performances you will be able to better your video blogs every at every turn and gain more confidence as a result.
5. Practice, Practice, Practice
There’s never a substitute for good, old fashioned practice. Try record one or two videos a day, just for your own benefit. Don’t upload them anywhere, just practice. If you practice one particular video a few times a day you’ll go from having a pretty poor video on Monday to having a fluent, confident and knowledgeable video come Sunday. This will help you to get comfortable with the whole recording process, get you to be more relaxed on camera and help you to make your video seem as confident as possible.
Summary
By following these five pointers you can start to become the confident, professional video blogger you hoped to be and make your video blogs just as popular as your established written blog.