When you are making a video for your website or creating a YouTube channel for your company, always aim for a conversational and personable tone. Many of my clients are sorry to hear that even just being yourself on camera requires rehearsing. That’s because just being you probably isn’t enough to reach through the lens and grab the audience. As Oprah says, you need to be your “best self.” I would argue you need to be yourself but BIGGER. My very unscientific work shows that 95 percent of people who first go on camera are too mellow. In person they are engaging members of society, but on video they come across as boring, dull, and oops, I just turned them off. The other 5 percent are such energetic nutcases that they come across great on camera, or maybe slightly manic and need to turn down the volume. Watch Gary Vaynerchuk Wine Library TV or CNN’s Richard Quest to see what I mean.
You probably know whether you tend to be more reserved or extroverted but surprises always happen when the camera turns on. One mild-mannered student of mine morphed into the Muppet, Guy Smiley. He had watched so much bad local television news that he automatically assumed a plastic persona on camera. With some practice, we turned him into a camera-friendly version of himself.
Watch this video to find out who the Camera Ready experts think are awesome on camera in the fields of broadcast journalism, entrepreneurship, e-retail, and non-profits. Who do you think comes across really well on camera?
