How to Video like a LinkedIn Ninja – and did video really kill the LinkedIn star?

When I first started videoing, I was dreadful.

Not just a little bit awful; I was truly catastrophic.
So much so that –

• I’d do 10–20 takes to get one short clip

• I’d be umming, ahhing and stumbling over words that normally came easily plus

• I’d often forget my place right at the killer point and have to start again.

Most of those initial clips never saw the light of day! And here’s hoping they never will

So, how did so many other people look so good, so fast? I couldn’t work it out and this kept me second guessing myself.

When LinkedIn launched video, it seemed like everyone jumped on the band wagon, and with recent technology advancements, video is far easier and quicker to produce than writing a blog.

According to research, on average, users spend around 5–6 hours consuming video content daily (yes, you read that right). Plus this figure is only set to increase, rapidly, as we become more time poor, consuming content between the cracks of our professional and personal lives.

So what happened? What did I learn that made it easier and helped me get better?

Learning #1 – Stop trying to prove myself. I was trying to be too intellectual. This came from that deep seated worry that I’m not really good enough. I’m not unusual. Research and anecdotal evidence says that when women start their self-promotion game, we often try and over prove ourselves. Unfortunately, this came through on camera with me packing too much information in and using language that was far too academic. But once I pulled on my big girl pants, and dosed myself with a shot of confidence, I naturally did better … and it shows.

Learning #2 – Stop trying to be perfect yet expect progress. I learned to give myself permission to be bad at the start and to respect the journey. Some things fall into place much easier with less of a learning curve but maybe not video. Just like learning to do a headstand, you wouldn’t expect to do one in your first yoga class.

If you want to try using video to self-promote on LinkedIn, Facebook or Instagram, but are feeling a bit anxious. Or maybe you want to add video into your mix for addressing remote staff or creating content for the intranet at work, but worry you’ll shoot yourself in the foot, here are five practical tips that might help you tackle your video self-promotion strategy more confidently.

1. Don’t over complicate it. Pick one idea and speak to that. Just one simple idea. It could be answering one common question from your audience or one common problem that you know how to solve from which your audience may benefit. Consider a piece of a project that your audience might be interested in or an idea from a book that changed your life. Whatever the topic, pick one and save the rest for another day.

2. Have a conversation. Use language as though you were chatting with a professional friend. I call it BBQ language—it’s as though you had friends over for a BBQ and you’re talking about your work. You wouldn’t use jargon or a bunch of annual report rhetoric, unless you want their eyes to glaze over. You’d personalize it; use real language, real context with real stories.

3. Brief is best. People are time poor. Most people won’t even watch more than 1 minute. Attention spans are short (and getting shorter). Make it easy for yourself – and your audience.

4. Smile. I was so nervous about the video that I was forgetting to smile. Yet when you smile, it comes through in your voice; you connect better and find everyone enjoys the video more.

5. Look at the lens. Look at the actual camera lens. Hard to find on the phone sometimes. This small thing was an absolute game changer. Put a dot, a piece of blue tack, anything, near the lens and look directly at that.

   So the question remains – did video really kill the LinkedIn star?

   Only if she dies of embarrassment!

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