Use the handy guide below to remember how to frame your Linkedin and other social media videos.

It was all going along just fine. You picked up a camera and it was designed to sit comfortably on your hand and that fitted beautifully with TV screens and cinemas, then somebody stuck a camera in a phone … and phones are designed to be held in one hand....VERTICALLY.

It’s not a stretch to understand how a species that is addicted to convenience evolved to wanting to shoot vertical video.

So which should you shoot? Vertical, Horizontal or Square

RIGHT-CLICK on the image above and save to desktop or device

The horizontal crusaders proclaim that horizontal mimics the human field of vision. If you have two eyes, you are seeing the world in 16x9, widescreen, horizontally. Problem with that is we don’t look at the world much anymore, we seem to vicariously live life through our phones which are vertical.

Vertical is the future! So say the vertical crusaders...

Framing Matters. Why do I frame myself off to the side like this instead of in the centre of the frame?

Well of course there's the traditional rule of thirds. Divide your screen horizontally and vertically and where these imaginary lines intersect, place points of interest. It's pleasing to the eye. 

But I have another reason...

If my videos, where I'm speaking to the camera like this, if they are repurposed and ends up on a video hosting site like Youtube, then this happens, and you don't get a second chance to make a first impression.

So framing matters. Think about where your video will be published. It influences so many of initial decisions.

When I walk into a room to set up for an interview I'll tell you what I'm thinking.

I'm thinking
Where are the power outlets?
How many circuits are there?
Is furniture moveable?
Is there an air conditioning vent? Is it noisy?
Where are the windows?
Is it sunny, cloudy or sun/shade/sun/shade?
How long is the interview?
How long do I have to set up?
Will it get hot with the lights in here?
Is there a stylistic look I have to match?
Has the interviewee got small eyes, bulging eyes, deep-set eyes?
Do they seem agreeable? How will they react to light right in their eyes?

All these questions and more take me generally about ten seconds to assess. Only then do I even think about what lights I will use. The choice of video lighting is the last decision I make.

So many ’Getting Started With Video' Blogs hand out the advice, 'when starting with lighting you need to get the essentials: a key light, fill light and backlight and arrange them so you get a result that's pleasing to the eye. That's like...

What do you do when you are given the chance to try something that makes you a little uncomfortable? Jump at it is the only answer I have ever known. That's simply the way I ended up delivering a Get Video Smart education session to the Commonwealth of Independent States Speakers Association (CISSA).

I was in Brisbane Australia speaking via a translator to a room of professional speakers in Moscow about the universal issue of adopting video as a communication tool for our businesses.

Was I little apprehensive how this would go? Would a fifty-minute staccato presentation - thirty seconds of me speaking then twenty seconds of translation - work? Was I worried my content would bore them? Was I worried that I would speak too slowly and appear patronising? Yes, yes and yes. Were these fears founded in anything but my imagination? No.

The irony was the opposite was the case. The room expressed gratitude that I had shown respect by speaking slowly and clearly and enthusiastically. Some...

How can you use the humble binder clip to make better videos for your business? 

Sometimes the little things can make a big difference. The humble binder clip that's in your office draw can solve some video production problems you may have.

1. The whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Link the arms of the largest size binder clips and you have created a great tripod substitute for your smartphone. Depending on the model of your phone, you may need to use a pen of a spoon or fork to prise the gap a little wider to accommodate your phone's thickness.
   
   
2. Save valuable time. Improve your editing workflow by organising your cables.
   
   
3. Make it easier to read your video script. Fold a sheet of A4 paper in half to give it a bit of stiffness, write your dot points to speak about in your, clip the folded paper into the binder clip, flick the arms upwards and use the flat base of the binder clip as a stand to hold your paper in a vertical position.  Place on a stack of books to...

If you feel stuck starting using video then today could be the day that all changes. I will guide you through how to script, shoot, edit and caption your first LinkedIn business video in one hour and without you spending a cent.

Really? Yes. It's a case of make hay while the sun shines. A few things have fallen into play at the same time that makes this possible and I argue essential.

1. Understand LinkedIn is handing you an opportunity

LinkedIn wants you to use video. Their algorithms are preferencing video content 3x more than text content. Those who start making video now will get the jump on those that don't.

An essential video we will all need and right now and very few have is a video profile. LinkedIn lets you add video to the top of your profile. 

So jump at this. In the next hour, you can make a one-minute profile video. It's the perfect way for you to break the ice and jump into creating more regular video content that we all need.

2. Pickmee Video...

Quick tip to make business videos on the go... with a double shot of simplicity.

Are you still dragging your feet deciding whether or not you should be using video for your business? This clip from The Speaker Lab Podcast outlines the power of video to build relationships with your potential customers and clients.

Speaker 1: 00:00 I had like six workshop leads that were way stagnant and I would email an email, an email, and I was close to closing the book on some of them. And then someone suggested to me to do video follow-ups, which I have the natural equipment and everything to do. And all of them responded grant, that's awesome. And some of them had been stagnant for six months, but they all said, wow, thank you for taking the time to make such a cute video. We have you in mind for the spring. We were just discussing internally, but it got them to actually give me an update,

Speaker 2: 00:36 any of us to get an email, you can kind of read it and you're like, this is to me. Or is this to everybody? Or is this just copy pasted, you know? But like...

If you think you're camera shy, then you might want to watch this video. I've guided a lot of people into the video age and so many people come up to me and say, I'm camera shy. You don't understand I'm camera shy. and I say, no you're not. I know what camera shy is because I've worked with people who are clinically camera shy.

There's a woman I've worked with, she has no photos of herself. She has no photos of her mother. She has no photos of her grandmother.

There was something in that side of the family that they refuse to have any images of themselves and that's a clinical condition. I can't help you with that, but 99 out of a hundred people who I work with, you are not camera shy. What you are is visually constipated. You've got everything you need to be on video, but you're so in your head and you take it all so seriously that when you get on camera, it just won't come out.

Here's my prescription

Eat a bran muffin and let it go.

Seriously, a little bit of levity. That's...

Do you need a microphone to start making videos? Most likely yes. Which one should you get? When we work out your needs that will become clear. Does more expensive mean better? To start making videos the answer is no.

This video (from a podcasting course I once offered) shows how you can take the cheapest of microphones ($50) and using free Audacity sound software turn it into a quality sounding microphone.

I am not suggesting you need to use the microphones described here. I am advocating that you choose carefully whom you take advice from. There is so much noise and misinformation when it comes to all things technical for making your business videos.

This is why I am creating the Get Video Smart community. It's a place for business to go to get fast, clear, knowledgable answers to their business video problems. It's for people making videos for leads, not likes. It's a place for people who need tools, not toys.