Without video you will disappear

A few years ago if you didn't have a website you'd get forgotten, nobody would be able to find you or know what you did.

The same cane be said these days if you don't have video.

No video means:

• less traffic to your website
• people will bounce off your site quicker
• less engagement
• no engagement on mobile devices
• people won't share your content
• you won't be able to build know, like and trust

If you don't have video as part of your marketing strategy, eventually you are going to disappear.

Video is sooooooo important.

Do you need to hire a professional video production company to get your videos made?

No, not at all... All you need to do is to go into your pocket and pull out your smartphone, or go into your bag and pull out your tablet and use that to make your videos.

I'm going to be straight with you, it won't be possible for me to teach you how to make great videos in a single blog, or a two or three minutes video using your smartphone, but I can give you enough to get started.

The most important thing to remember when filming with your phone

And you're not going to believe this. The most  important thing about shooting video with your smartphone is not the picture but the sound. You have to get your sound right because if people can't hear what you are saying the will stop watching your video, even if the picture is great.

So many people film using the on-board microphone, but that could cause you problems like handling noise, picking up background noise and echo.

Worry not though, you do not need to spend a fortune buying professional mics. Your phone probably came with an amazing microphone... The earbuds that came with the phone.

As well as listening to music, you can make calls and to do that there is a little microphone to capture your voice and it's a pretty good mic. Some smartphones (like the iPhone) have noise cancelling headphones too which help improve the sound when listening to music, they also help to reduce the background noise when recording your voice

You can hook the earbud / mic end in your t-shirt or if you are filming somebody hook it there's.

Getting great quality picture

So you've got your sound sorted. The next thing is the picture. Most high definition, top of the range smart phones and tablets have a camera at the front and a camera at the back. Film yourself with the camera at the back, the quality is so much better. But how can you film yourself on the back camera when you can't see the screen to see what you are doing? Do not worry, check out this video blog where I show you how to set up the shot when you're not in the shot to set it up!

Keep your shots steady

Now you're filming yourself using the back lens, which is great, it will also help you an enormous amount if you stick your phone on a tripod to keep your shot steady. To do that you'll need a phone to tripod adapter. Just search for smartphone tripod adapter on Amazon and get one to screw your phone to any tripod, which makes the phone really firm and your shots so much better.

The most important thing when filming on your phone

When you clip you phone on the tripod make sure the phone is in landscape, not portrait. Videos are landscape, YouTube is landscape, TVs are widescreen, our eyes go left and right they don't go up and down, so if you shoot a
video in portrait it looks unprofessional.

This is just a start, giving you a few ideas a few tips on how to film with your phone or tablet. You can find so many more hints and tips on my video blog neilben.tv, or check out my YouTube channel.