3 Tips for Improving In-house YouTube Videos

Many organizations are jumping on the You Tube scene and creating their own videos. To improve the believability of your on-camera spokesperson, focus in three areas: comfortable, real dialogue in a relaxed atmosphere.

1. Comfortable video spokesperson

Find someone comfortable with the camera. This may not be your CEO, executive team member or your typical spokesperson. It could be anyone from your organization who can appear friendly, sincere and professional. Viewers want to watch someone that they can relate to.

2. Real dialogue

It’s very painful to watch someone in a video who is clearly reciting copy. And it’s worse when the copy sounds like a brochure full of corporate speak. This week, I watched two videos that sounded something like this: “At X company, we care about you and your needs. From our state of the art technologies to our excellent customer service you’ll receive the best service possible. Visit X company and tour our offices at…” To avoid this, include your video spokesperson in script development. He or she may have excellent suggestions for making it sound conversational. Practice it together until it flows smoothly and naturally.

3. Relaxed and professional atmosphere

These attributes can be accomplished at the same time. People who are stiff and formal on camera can appear fearful, cold or aloof. Conversely, people who are physically comfortable and relaxed appear confident and inviting. Ask your spokesperson to wear clothing that is professional but not restrictive. Make sure that your shooting area is as inviting as possible. Is the room attractive and are the props appropriate? Is the chair the right height for your spokesperson? Check other items like room temperature, lighting and background noise to eliminate as many detractors as possible. A comfortable and undistracted spokesperson will give you a better delivery.

Are you doing anything else to improve the videos you create in-house? I’d love to hear your successes and lessons learned!

Delivering Tough News? Communicate in Circles

When the going gets tough, the tough communicate in circles. By that, I mean following a bull’s-eye approach to communications.

Start communicating first with your inner circle of stakeholders and then move progressively outward until you’ve reached all of your audiences. This tried-and-true approach minimizes the rumor mill and saves you from the embarrassment of having a trusted colleague hear your message from someone else.

Here are the basics to this approach:

1. Bull’s-Eye Circle

These individuals are closest to your organization and may span all stakeholder groups: board of directors, senior management, major donors, A-list clients, business partners. These individuals deserve to hear your news in a one-on-one personal meeting or phone call. Consider it time well-spent gaining insights and building trust.

2. Inner Circles
 
These are individuals, like managers, mid-level donors, and B-list clients who also have a high stake in your organization and should hear your message in person. Group meetings will allow you to deliver your message efficiently while providing for questions and concerns to be answered. If the message you are delivering is complicated, follow-up with more meetings, e-mails, letters or handouts to keep communication lines open and to dispel rumors.

3. Outer Circles

As long as you provide a genuine feedback loop, you can start including written communications, where appropriate. For example, general staff could receive an e-mail from the CEO, followed by meetings with managers to answer questions. Additional feedback loops could include questions answered through social media sites, anonymous suggestion boxes or emails directly to the CEO. A similar approach can be used for volunteers and clients.

4. Outside the Bull’s-Eye

This is the public phase of your announcement. It should begin after you have successfully communicated with everyone in your bull’s-eye circles. Press releases, public announcements, and public meetings may be part of your communications strategy at this stage.


Depending on the type of news being delivered, these steps can be completed in a few hours or over the course of a year or more. For example, a nonprofit planning for succession of their Executive Director may spend months meeting each major donor several times before moving to the next tier of communications.

The key to communicating in circles is to honor your stakeholders by ensuring that they hear your news from you first.

If you have tough messages to communicate, we can help you do it successfully. Take your communications to the next level and contact Liz LaRose today at 603.924.4400 or contact us via e-mail.

Do you walk in your customers’ shoes?

It’s so easy to forget about your customer when launching a marketing program. Seriously. Sometimes, we become so wrapped up in internal processes that we forget how an outsider might experience that great program we’ve developed.

Consider this example:

Taking away the benefit when a program is too successful

An organization launches a direct mail campaign with a super incentive to book an appointment. The plan anticipates a high rate of return and the phones start ringing immediately. After the first day, the organization realizes that they will actually book appointments out for several weeks (which was the goal), but then gets scared that it’s “too much.” A decision is nearly made to tell all callers from day two forward that the program has filled and the incentive is over.

Imagine how you’d feel as a customer who opened the newspaper, saw a great opportunity and called to find out that the program was over two days after it started! I’d wonder if this was a bait and switch. I’d feel taken. And I’d be pretty angry.

Honoring your promise

The “right decision” probably seems like a no-brainer. Keep the program going. Honor your offer. Learn from the process. Enjoy the success. But this is not always obvious to the people on the ground who are dealing with the realities of success. Even the best planned program can create short-term strains on staff and daily operations. And those strains can feel quite painful when you’re in the middle of them.

Become the customer

As communications professionals, it’s our job to step back from the situation and advocate for the customer. Look at all aspects of the program through their eyes during planning and implementation:

• Is it easy to participate?
• Do I have to jump through too many hoops?
• Will I have to work too hard?
• Is the incentive a real value?
• Am I treated well?
• Does the organization follow through on their promises?
• Are promises delivered in a timely manner?
• Do I feel taken care of or just “taken”?

Be your customer. Think like your customer. Walk in their shoes. And help your team members to do the same. Your programs will be stronger and your organization will benefit from satisfied, happy clients.