New Tips And Triks For You

Producing a Video Bio

Video is a powerful tool for expressing your brand. It allows you to deliver a complete communication and 'be there' when you can't be. Once a nice-to-have, today a video bio is an essential personal branding tool.

Here are 7 tips for ensuring the video you produce builds your brand with those who are making decisions about you:

Know your message and take a stand. A video bio is not a video resume listing your experience and credentials. It's an opportunity to demonstrate your thought-leadership, your point-of-view, and to communicate what you believe and how you deliver value. Keep it to a maximum of 2-3 minutes. In the world of 140-character Tweets and 6-second Vine videos, attention spans are short and shrinking. Say what you want to say and don't waste a second. It's OK to leave them wanting more. Think quality not quantity. Invest in one high-quality video bio with great content, perfect lighting and crisp sound over of series of less than stellar video postings. Your video says a lot about your brand - make it scream quality. Reflect your personal brand while being relevant to those whom you want to watch your video. Don't select clothes with stripes, prints or busy patterns as they often don't look right in video. Remember to use make-up to ensure you're not shiny. Catharine Fennell, CEO of Dress for the occasion. videoBIO, recommends Makeup Forever Professional HD Translucent Powder, which is available at Sephora. These small details will all contribute to a polished product. Choose what surrounds you. What you have behind you speaks about your brand. Make sure your setting reinforces your brand message and doesn't distract the viewer. You want people to focus on you and what you're saying not the books that are teetering on the shelf behind you. Be aware of what is in frame while you're filming. Make an investment in yourself and your career by investing in one high quality video bio. Use a comprehensive service like Hire the professionals. videoBIO or bring together the right experts, including a coach to help you with your script, a camera person, professional video editor, etc. Post your video to multiple video sites including your own web site and sites like Maximize distribution. YouTube and Vimeo. Make your video part of your LinkedIn profile or your blog. Now that you've expended time and effort in producing your video bio, maximize the return on that investment by making sure it gets seen by those who need to know you. Include it in your email signature and put the link at the top of your resume. Be sure that the sites to which you choose to post your video are targeting a relevant audience.

Bonus tip: Be yourself. Exude your personality. Do come off as stiff or rehearsed. Your video bio provides an opportunity for you to build emotional connections with your viewers. You do that by letting people get to know the real you.

Eventually everyone will have a video bio. Now's your chance to use video to stand out. What are you waiting for?

Follow me on Twitter and check out my latest book, Ditch. Dare. Do! 3D Branding for Executives.

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