Video for Personal Branding-Two Angles

Japan and India-Personal Branding from Two Angles

Peter Sterlacci-View from Japan

7 Tips to Capture Your Personal Brand on Video

We all know the saying that a picture says a thousand words. Video takes those words one step further and makes them real and memorable. In the world of Web 2.0 people want information in bite-sized chunks. Video is a perfect medium for establishing your visual identity on the web and delivering your personal brand in a clear and concise way. 

Only a couple years ago using video was going beyond what was expected in personal branding. Today it has become the norm. Consider this fact. In July 2011, ComScore, a leader in measuring the digital world, reported that 180 million Internet users in the US alone watched online video content. This averages almost 19 hours per viewer in a single month! For 2012, personal branding guru William Arruda says that video continues to be a major trend in branding through DIY (do it yourself) and professional platforms.

Here are 7 quick tips to use video to promote your personal brand:

1. Video bios

Michael Margolis, founder of Get Storied, talks about the need for a "new about me". As Michael says, "Your story is your brand. You have to get others to believe and identify with your story. When you can do that — the need to persuade, convince, or sell disappears."

I agree with Michael and will add that your story must also be captured on video. A video 'about me' stands out and differentiates you. Given the choice of reading a 3-4 paragraph bio or watching a video bio, most people are likely to choose the latter. A great resource is VideoBIO who are fast becoming the industry leader in video bios. With their distance record option you can even have a professionally scripted, recorded, and edited video bio produced while in the comfort of your own home. My own VideoBIO is here and I did this while sitting in my living room in Japan

2. Presentations 

Slideshare is a great tool but it is after all just, well, slides! Try uploading clips of a presentation you gave. Break it into parts for longer presentations.

A great way to present in less than 7 minutes is the 'PechaKucha' style of presenting - 20 slides that play automatically for 20 seconds for a grand total of 6minutes and 40 seconds! PechaKucha is a global phenomenon. Find one in a city near you, sign up, prepare your slides, present, have it recorded and the upload to YouTube, Vimeo, Blip.tv.  Here is a example of one I did recently.

3. Video sharing on social media

Many people frowned at using video in the past as it involved a camera, equipment, etc. Nowadays it is easy to simply use your smart phone. With a wide variety of apps to choose from you can easily record a quick video and upload I immediately to your Twitter feed or Facebook page.  Some useful services that have great video phone apps are Mobli, Tout, VideoBIO, 

These quick videos are an awesome way to express some though leadership in this "a-ha" moments! Remember, nobody expects these videos to be professional and edited. Express the real you but just make sure we can at last hear you and see you. Take a moment to record in the right lighting with not too much background noise.

4. Video email messages

I have recently been experimenting with this and love it! VideoBIO's DIY tool enables you to actually post a video message to a select list of email recipients. Record your video message, add the addresses you want to send it to, and your recipients get a personalized email from you telling them to watch a special video message just for them. For example, I recently wanted to privately thank 30 authors who contributed to my June Blogathon. I used videoBIO to record a 2-3 minute message and emailed it to this group. People loved it! Here is a sample of that message.

5. Vlogging 

Blogs of course are one of the best tools you can use to promote your brand and thought leadership. In our May post, Amit and I discussed the blogging cultures in India and Japan. A great way to add more power to your Blog is to start posting in video rather then only text. Or, add a video clip somewhere within your blog post to break up the text. Video is a much more complete form of communication than text-only. Perhaps start small and create 1 video post for every 4 text-only posts. You may find that the video posts start to take over! Just make sure your videos are still directed to your target audience. A great example of someone who effectively vlogs is Gabby Wallace, founder of Go Natural English. 90% of what she posts is in the form of video tips for English language learning and her videos are getting thousands of views! (Perhaps this blog post should have been a vlog!)

6. Video interviews

Bloggers frequently like to do interviews for their blogs and recently video has become a great way to add a personal touch. As a Mac user there is a great tool called Call Recorder where you can record your Skype interview. I have been using this application for my Personal Brand Mechanic Interviews and have found it to be very effective. For a comprehensive list of apps to record Skype calls for interview see this article.

7 Videos on LinkedIn Profile

Do you want your LinkedIn profile to stand out? LinkedIn is a great tool for personal branding but often people do not utilize it is such a way to differentiate themselves from everyone else. In your profile box, you have the option to have 3 customized web links. One of these can be a link to your videoBIO with customized anchor text that says, “Watch my video bio”.  Also, you can use the Google Presentation app on LinkedIn to upload a video so that it appear directly in your profile. Here is a great video explaining how to do this.

Finally, Kimberly Bordonaro offers 17 creative ways to promote your personal brand through video including how-tos, demos, testimonials, and more. Having a menu of video options to capture your personal brand is a great idea, but always remember the three C's of personal branding in your videos - clarity, consistency, and constancy - or your message will be off-brand. 

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Brief Profile

Peter Sterlacci has handled many senior roles including Director-International Outreach at San Jose State University and corporate training before venturing out into Personal Branding in Japan. He specialises in Intercultural Personal Branding and his philosophy is "Empowering you to Believe, Become and Be your Brand"

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Dr Amit Nagpal-View From India

Video-A Tool to Express Your Authenticity in a Fake world

This is a post on video but I will talk about something else.

How can a video be powerful if you are not? How can a video connect with the audience, if you are not connected with your inner self?

Everywhere you go, majority of people have fake smiles, fake characters and fake professions and they are forever trying to hide their true selves. They are doing something which they hate to do, they are working with colleagues they hate to meet and they are living a life, they hate to live.

In a fake world, authentic people are considered courageous and in a dramatically superficial world, spontaneity is an art which is loved.

Look at all the videos in the world which have gone viral. You will find one common factor-spontaneity. (Tweet This) Kolaveri song in India, Charlie bit my finger and Blendtec (series) are classic examples of spontaneity. Blendtec was intentionally shot with the CEO and not a professional to make it spontaneous. In some ways superficiality has completed its cycle and people are getting fed up with it. In some ways authenticity is a new fashion statement. Or it is possible; we have lost spontaneity in the mad, rat race (in our lives) and are eagerly looking for it elsewhere-in video.

Authentic people are like the innovators in a superficial society-you need to take some risk to break a social norm after all. High Definition video offers such natural colours and such refined picture; it is almost close to catching your vibrations on the camera. A Low Self-esteem persona covered with a High Self-esteem mask shows its contradiction more on HDTV. You need to become a high definition human being first-who defines himself/herself highly.

The biggest frustration we have in our life is with our own selves, with our bodies, with our weaknesses, with our failures, with our emotions and so on. The lack of self-love expresses itself in relationships through temper, cynicism, dual personalities and so on.

Fall in love with yourself first; accept your weaknesses and everything about yourself as a statue to work upon. Can a sculptor be unhappy with a statue which is a work-in-progress? You are a work-in-progress. So what is the hurry? Just be authentic and express your authenticity on video.

What looks most beautiful on a video?-a smile. Can you fake an authentic or attractive smile? I have my doubts. A smile is like a fountain of the soul.

Once you become authentic, I promise you, you will become a great personal brand almost overnight and go viral.

Image Courtesy
http://suewaters.wikispaces.com/

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Brief Profile

Dr Amit Nagpal is a Personal Branding Consultant & Social Media Trainer. He is based in New Delhi, India and specializes in personal branding with a holistic touch. His philosophy is, "Enlarge as a Human Being, Excel as a Social Media Being and Evolve into a Personal Brand(ed) Being."