Video is the current helm of trends and viral content. Even podcasters, whose content is focused mainly on audio, are now venturing into podcast video marketing as a strategy to gain more traction and increase listenership. Tom Hazzard and Tracy Hazzard sit down to chat with today’s guest Whitney Lauritsen on everything you need to get that content started for your show. Tracy hands over the baton to Whitney to discuss important tips and tricks on creating video content for your podcast. Whitney is a well-being coach, social media advisor, and co-host of the This Might Get Uncomfortable podcast. In this episode, she breaks down everything you need to know about podcast video marketing, from the equipment you need (or don’t need), how to caption your videos, which platforms to use, and even what editing tools to try out. There’s a lot more in store in this information-packed episode. Listen in and get the advice you need on how to feed your brand through video.

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 Podcast Video Marketing: How To Share Your Show On Instagram To Grow New Listeners With Whitney Lauritsen

I’m going solo because I have a special guest who’s going to come on and talk about social media. We have been undergoing a Social Media Month. We’re on the week of Instagram TV, and we’re talking about video and other things. We’re talking about how you might share your show on Instagram TV so you can grow new listeners but it might also include how you want to share your show on TikTok. Video strategies go in other places. There are video strategies for LinkedIn and YouTube shorts. There’s a whole bunch of places where you might want to use videos.

Lots of the things that we’re going to talk about are applicable in other places. You might have to know some of the rules of the different social media channels as you go. These are things that you might want to think about before you start recording. There are things you might want to know before you’re setting up your show like, “I’m going to use it on Instagram TV. I’m going to use this on TikTok.” There might be some things that you record differently, some features that you put in, and some special segments that you drop in because you know they’re going to be highly applicable to that social media push-out afterward, which is going to help grow your audience for the show.

I’ve invited Whitney Lauritsen. Whitney is working with us in the capacity of being our social media advisor. She has done some great things with our team to set up a different process flow, and get into the details and the weeds of how we post, when we post, and what we post. She is an absolute strategist and expert on all things social media.

She’s also a podcast host, which is why I chose her to advise us and why I chose her to come on and talk to you. She’s a wellbeing coach who shares lifestyle practices and product recommendations that improve the quality of body, mind and planet. She is the podcast host of This Might Get Uncomfortable, which is a great show and it is doing extremely well. You should go check that out. I will make sure that you can connect to Whitney. Go to her website and find all the places where you can connect up with her on social media because you’re going to want to do it.

Another place you’re going to want to check out with her and get on is Clubhouse. She’s doing amazing things on Clubhouse as well. She advises creative entrepreneurs and digital marketing that amplifies your passion. We are passionate about podcasting here. We are grateful to have Whitney as a part of our team. Whitney, thanks so much for coming on. I’m excited to talk about Instagram TV and all things video.

I’m excited about this too. I’m passionate about this. I love seeing podcasters who are using social in unique ways, new ways and understanding what’s going on on socials. I’m going to cover all the different ways that you can use video starting with Instagram and how to distribute it across the other platforms so you can reach more people and find exactly where your audience is.

I’m going to step back and let you go to it. I’ll jump back in when we’re ready to ask some questions.

 

I’m going to pull up my presentation. I made this in Canva, by the way. I’m a big fan of tools. What I didn’t include in this presentation is something relatively new. Canva released video editing. Canva is one of my favorite tools. We use it on Podetize graphics and a lot of the different platforms here. It’s extraordinary. Now, they’re starting to support video, which shows how many platforms are focused on video since that is one of the best places to get organic engagement right now.

Let’s start by talking briefly about how videos make an impact. Your videos can entertain people by making them smile, laugh or cry. You can educate your audience by helping them learn something new or solving a problem. You can inspire by motivating your viewers to take action and make decisions just like you would with your podcast.

We’re going to go over some basics because I never want to make an assumption about what you know and what you don’t. This is going to include some details on each different style of video. One thing that I’ve noticed is a lot of people get overwhelmed. My aim is to help you feel less overwhelmed and more informed.

Number one is display size. This is important because it starts with how you’re recording your video. This is one of the most important things to keep in mind when you’re recording, especially if you’re using something like a webcam that we’re going to talk about or you’re using your phone. There are several ways that you can set up a camera to record yourself. You can use a program. If your podcast recording program has video built-in like Zoom, for example, that’s typically going to be what they call full landscape.

There’s the square size, the vertical size, and the full portrait size. Each platform prioritizes these in different ways. I recommend doing full landscape because that gives you a little bit more variety. Making sure that you’re in the middle of the frame will help you if you decide to crop it down to a square, vertical or full portrait. Keep the display size in mind.

Let’s start with stories. Many of you are familiar with this because these have been around for a while. They tend to be 10 to 20 seconds depending on the platform. They tend to disappear. They’re typically around for 24 hours or so. They also tend to be vertical. Snapchat was the original platform for stories. Those are 10 seconds but they can go up to 60 seconds in different segments.

You may know this if you’ve been using Instagram Stories. You can record a bunch of back-to-back stories at fifteen seconds each and load them all up. You can even upload an existing video. They’ll let you do four different segments at once and then you can upload more after that. YouTube, Facebook and LinkedIn have stories. You can do up to 120 seconds continuously.

Knowing how much you can put in a platform gives you an idea of how you’re going to create the video. Click To Tweet

One thing we’re going to talk about is picking the right platform for you. I know we’ve got a big focus on Instagram but I want you to consider these other platforms and how you can distribute to them. The next is we have shorts. This is the rage. Everyone is focused on the shorts because engagement is high. These tend to be about 30 seconds long. They can go up to three minutes, depending on the platform and they tend to be vertical in their size.

You may know about TikTok. Those can be up to three minutes now, which is something that not everybody knows. They expanded the length because people are spending so much time on TikTok. Instagram came up with Reels. They started them at 15 to 30 seconds and increased them up to 60 seconds, which is great because it gives you more time.

YouTube Shorts also exist. That can go up to 60 seconds. Pinterest Idea Pins are 60 seconds. I love all of these platforms. I encourage you to try all of them or pick one to start with. I will talk about that you can distribute them. Focusing at the beginning on a platform like Instagram and then putting it on all different platforms can be wonderful.

Next, we have in-feed videos. These have been around for quite some time. These tend to be around two minutes or more. They go in a variety of different display sizes. You can pick the size that maybe you record natively. You can edit it down to a different size if you’d like. On Instagram, maybe there’s a maximum of two minutes of an in-feed Instagram post. Twitter would be about 140 seconds. LinkedIn is up to ten minutes. Pinterest is up to fifteen minutes.

These numbers can change. It’s important for you to keep up-to-date. You can go on the platform and each of them will tell you what their maximum amount is. That’s helpful to keep in mind, especially if you’re editing your videos. Knowing how much you can put in a platform gives you an idea of how you’re going to create it.

We have long-form content, which tends to be about fifteen minutes or more. Also, the landscape, which is the original 16×9 recording size. Tracy mentioned IGTV, which is a wonderful platform right now. You can gain a lot of traction. It’s similar to YouTube which you can go up to twelve hours with a video in length. If you’ve got a long podcast, that’s great. There are some podcasters that record for hours.

On IGTV, you’re limited to an hour if you upload directly from their website. If you upload on the mobile app, as most people use Instagram, you can only do fifteen minutes. Another important thing to keep in mind if you want to do a longer video, you upload that on their website. You can also do this on YouTube, which is up to 240 minutes maximum.

 

We have live, similar to what we’re doing. You can create live videos and you can archive them for people to watch later. These can be vertical or landscape. You can do this on most platforms these days, including Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, YouTube and Twitch. Twitch is a platform that I have the least amount of experience in but I’m seeing growth a lot. If you haven’t started experimenting with Twitch, I highly recommend it. It’s a platform that I may be spending more time on and advising Podetize to spend more time on. That could be a great fit for podcasters.

I also see that the industry will be moving more and more towards live. I’m starting to see more people recommend live videos for podcasters, which is perhaps something Tracy can speak on in her experience. In the meantime, it’s worth paying attention to creating your accounts on these platforms and maybe experimenting to see if they work for you and your audience.

Speaking of your audience, one of the most important things you may already know with your podcast but important with a video is to determine who your audience is. That’s going to help you determine what platform or platforms you’re going to be on and your style. One thing that we do at Podetize is we experiment on all the platforms and then we measure the results. I encourage that because you may discover that certain platforms won’t work for you as well as others.

You can take notes. You can create an avatar. You can look at the feedback that you’re getting. All the data that you’ve been collecting on your podcast may apply to social as well. However, you could also find a completely different audience on social. That’s why experimenting is very important. Ideally, you will find a different audience to draw them into your podcast.

Let’s talk about some video myths here, some top five things that I hear from people about what they think about video and what might be getting in the way. Number one is that you have to have fancy equipment. Number two is that you have to be camera-ready. Number three, especially with short videos like TikTok, people associate that with dance moves. Number four is that it’s time-consuming. Number five is that it has to be professionally edited.

The truth is that A) You can use what you have, whether that’s your phone, your webcam, natural lighting. If you happen to have access to a professional team, great. Whatever you have, you can start there with a video. B) Authenticity is key and that goes for your appearance and your style. At this stage of my career, I rarely ever wear makeup or do my hair. It’s not important to me or my audience. I know that about my audience. Certain audiences may want you to look more polished. You have to determine that for yourself, which is why I started with the audience size. Ultimately, the industry says that as long as you’re authentic, it doesn’t matter how you look and how you’re presenting yourself.

C) Create what you love and what represents your personality. That also ties into the authenticity side. D) Time and effort are not required. You can post as quickly as fifteen seconds. If you’re going to be recording your podcast, that’s likely more than 50 seconds. Depending on the type of videos that you’re making, that might be in addition to your podcast and you can make quick fifteen-second videos. Once you get in the rhythm of them, it can take that amount, and then you’re done. E)No editing is required. I’m going to talk about some editing tools and tips for you if you want to use them. Simplicity works well. It’s similar to your podcast too when you’re making that decision about how you edit or whether you edit at all a podcast. The same mindset can go into the video.

Determine who your audience is. That’s going to help you determine what platform or platforms you’re going to be on. Click To Tweet

Let’s talk about some basic equipment in case you want to look at what you already have or invest in some more things. I do recommend a phone stand if you’re going to be recording on your phone. The phone is nice. It will be involved at some point because some of these platforms require you to upload from an app. If you want to make a video on your phone, you can get a phone stand, hold it with your hand or a tripod. There are lots of options there. It’s certainly not required. You can prop up your phone on lots of different platforms. A webcam works well too.

Natural light. I’m sitting in front of a big window. When I’m recording my podcast, which is in a different space than I am right now, it’s in front of a big window. That’s not always ideal for your audio. I haven’t found it to be an issue for my audio quality. The window brings in all this natural lighting for my podcast recordings.

If you’re recording separately from your podcast, standing in front of a window, being outside without too much direct sun or shadow is great. You can also get a ring light. That’s popular. They now make these clip lights and phone cases. There are lots of options if you want to spend a little bit of money. Luckily, ring lights now are fairly affordable. I don’t know what they start at but last I looked, it was worth it. They’re popular for that reason.

Have a good microphone, which you likely already have as a podcaster. You can attach that to some of your equipment. If not, you can get adapters or you can use what’s part of other equipment. I’m talking to you through my Apple AirPods. These are great for a lot of videos. Whatever you have built into your camera, headphones, your microphone, you can use that.

Lastly, one quick tip for you is to always wipe off your lens. Everywhere I go, I have some cloth to wipe off my webcam or my phone before I record. If I don’t have a cloth, I use my shirt. I take my shirt and I wipe off the front and back-facing camera. This tip alone will make your videos look much better. I ask all of my podcast guests to do this before we record a video. They will wipe off the lens of their webcam and say, “I look so much better.” It’s one of those quick little things you can do to have higher-quality footage. We get a lot of smudges from our fingertips or holding up to our ear or moving around our webcam or computer. With that basic equipment, you can have nice-looking videos.

If you want to jazz it up, there are two simple tips for you. Number one, sound and music are very popular and huge components of video right now on social. Most of the platforms have music built right into them. They also can have sound libraries. YouTube has a phenomenal and royalty-free sound library that you can use. Sometimes you can even use that music outside of YouTube, depending on the details, which you can read right there on the platform. There are a number of platforms that offer royalty-free music.

If you want to add some ambiance to your videos, make them feel like they’re moving faster, or you want to go with the style that’s big right now on platforms like TikTok, I encourage you to add some elements of sound into it. Secondly, you can edit your videos and apply effects to them. This is also popular on social. You can experiment with filters, effects and all sorts of simple editing techniques but that is optional. It’s not necessary.

 

I have been studying video for most of my life and social media video for many years. Overall I found that simplicity can be as successful as a polished video. Don’t let that get in your way. That’s why the value that you offer beats the production quality. This is true as a podcaster. I would love to hear Tracy’s opinion on this too. She would agree. This is true with the video as we’re thinking about, “What are you doing with this video? What service is it providing? What is the point of this video?”

Consistency is equally important as the value that you’re giving. You can post videos as often as possible. Also, keep your style and your brand name consistent. Repeat that same style and brand name, which you can shift over time. Keep it consistent for a certain period of time. Experiment with it and see how you feel. See how people are reacting to it. That’s where you’re going to build your audience up. They’re going to know you, like you and trust you. They’ll keep coming back.

On the other side though, I will say that what works to your benefit is that the algorithm doesn’t necessarily need you to be posting all of the time. On platforms like Instagram, I haven’t been super active. Anytime I post an Instagram Reel, suddenly I get all these views and visitors. It was like I never took a break from Instagram. That’s because the Instagram Reels algorithm just wants to see the content. This is true with IGTV and stories too. This is why video is working well. You don’t have to be quite as consistent depending on what type of video you’re doing and what platform. However, the algorithms are always changing. If you keep consistency in mind, that’s going to be your best bet. If you can be consistent, be consistent.

If you want to increase your discoverability, here are some basic concepts that you may already know but these apply to video. Number one is hashtags. If you can use 2 to 15 relevant hashtags plus a few trending hashtags, that will work to your benefit. In the past, Instagram used to recommend up to 30 hashtags but they said that it works better when it’s 2 to 15. This is why it’s helpful to understand the platform that you’re posting on and keep up with the news.

Hashtags are not a make-or-break thing. They are popular on TikTok. On TikTok, you want to do less. You probably want to do 2 to 4 maximum hashtags. Sometimes those help your videos and sometimes they don’t. Experiment with the hashtags and see if they’re helping increase your audience but you don’t have to depend on them.

Number two is to share. Spread the word about your videos across your platforms just like you’re doing with your podcast. You’re going to link to that video wherever else you promote, different social media platforms that you’re on, newsletters. Talk about your videos on your podcast too. Let people know that you’re posting regularly on a platform like TikTok, YouTube or wherever you’re putting this content out.

The other thing that you may know is that each platform prioritizes content that’s native to it. If you want to share a video, you probably won’t get a lot of traction if you post on LinkedIn a link to YouTube. LinkedIn is going to say, “No. I don’t want people to leave to go to a different platform.” They want you to stay there. If you distribute your videos within each platform, that’ll work well. You can also experiment with putting links up in addition to that. You have to find the flow there. There’s no make-or-break answer or one-size-fits-all type of thing. Experimenting is the biggest key.

Create what you love and what represents your personality. Click To Tweet

The third is as you would with a podcast, you want to collaborate. Incorporate your podcast guests into your content. You’ll see us doing this with platforms like The Binge Factor. Tracy is having these short clips with her guests, then we tag the guest. We’re telling the guests that the videos are there. They’re sharing it in their stories. They’re getting more engagement as a result. Everybody is winning so collaboration is key. If you’re already doing that with your podcast, great. You could also collaborate on a live video together. You could collaborate with a fun TikTok video if you want. If you’re both on the platform, you can get creative and that will help both of your audiences find your content.

How do you capture attention? Keep in mind all of the basics that you know about a podcast and then add a few of those into your video. Most of this is going to apply if you’re doing a video separate from your podcast, meaning, if you’re recording your podcast through Zoom or another recording platform and posting that video, it’s going to be a little bit different.

If you’re creating a video specifically for social, here are three things to keep in mind. Number one, get to the point fast in the first two seconds. Draw your audience in with the first few words so that they know what you’re speaking about and why it’s beneficial or interesting to them. I can’t stress this enough. People will leave your video quickly, especially on platforms like TikTok. I know that feels like pressure. If you practice it, you’ll get good at drawing people in.

Another tactic is adding some flair and that could be some movement. This is why dancing is popular. When people see your arms and your legs moving. They’re going to pay more attention because they’re curious versus if you’re standing straight and not moving around a lot. They might not feel as drawn into it. You can use quick editing cuts. If you use some editing. You can have bright colors. My headphones, for example, are a big talking point. It draws people in. You can wear different color outfits. A nice background if that’s bright.

Putting text on screen is one of the best ways to keep people’s attention because they have to stay to read what’s on the screen. It works well. You’ll see people doing this a lot on Instagram Reels. In TikTok, you can edit that text easily. I mentioned music. Facial expressions and being expressive versus being a little too straight will make people feel like you’re a real person. Lastly, hashtags are great plus your captions.

If you can convey what the video is about in the first few words and sentences as well as the hashtags, people will stay to read to learn more about it, and then decide whether or not they want to watch the rest of your video. The first few words of your caption are the most important because each platform displays your caption in a little bit of a different way. Try a mix of these things. No pressure. It’s all an experiment but keep these in mind when you’re creating your content.

Make your content searchable. Number one is for you to search and understand how search works on the platform. Go search keywords within each platform or whatever platform that you’re going to utilize. Go search for things that you intend to post. Number one, you can search for podcasts and see what type of videos other podcasters are making. Use different hashtags. Use the hashtags that you intend to use and see what other people are posting.

 

You can save videos on all of the platforms. You can make collections, playlists or bookmarks for you to have a whole folder of inspiration. I do this every single day. Whenever I see a video that I thought was very well done and it was a great idea in terms of the style or the content, I save it. Now I have a library of inspiration whenever I’m feeling a little creatively stuck. If I’m working on a video and I’m like, “What should I do, this or that?” I can go back to the library and see what inspired me.

You can also take screenshots. I do this too, especially if somebody puts something on the screen that I thought was smart. I encourage you to comment on other people’s videos to increase engagement. This is a tactic that Tracy uses well, especially on LinkedIn. She engages with people not only on her content but on other people’s content. That can draw them back to you. It works incredibly well. It’s just like you would leave a review on someone’s podcast. It’s a way to give back to them, but it also might pique their interest. It works well on social. When you do this, you are understanding how the whole platform is working, which makes you more confident about doing it yourself. If you haven’t started creating videos, this is a great place to start.

Let’s make a simple plan and then I’m going to break it down into some more steps. Number one is to make a content calendar. Plan out your video concepts and when you’re going to post them. Make time in your schedule to record them to do some tests. Especially if you’re recording your podcast, it might feel a little awkward in the beginning and technology can be frustrating. The more you can practice something before you do it, the better especially if it’s being recorded live. Figure out when you’re going to publish it.

You’re going to record and upload. Once it’s on your schedule, you’re going to show up and do that recording. You’re going to delegate if you need to and upload your content to the platform. Distribute your content. Spread out your videos across your platforms and adjust your format as needed. Here’s your roadmap. We’ve got five steps. Number one is to set the aim. Number two is to pick the platform or platforms. Number three is to record. Number four is to edit. Number five is to upload and analyze. Let’s go through each one.

Number one, set your aim. Ask yourself and be clear, “What is the goal of the video?” Are you trying to get someone to come and subscribe to your podcast, leave a review for your podcast, listen to a specific episode, have you on their podcast, follow you on social media? Those are five different goals. Pick one of them and be very clear. You’ll have a call to action in your video ideally or you’re going to have an aim in mind that other people might pick up on through your content.

What do you want your viewer to do after they finish watching you? A lot of people just want to be followed. Our aim is to grow your downloads and your listenership. You want to create a funnel as you would with any business. Where are you beginning and where are they ending? What steps is it going to take for them to get there? This is going to depend on a lot of factors for you.

Number two is to pick your platform. We went over all the different platforms. You can go back to the early part of this and check out all the options. Don’t get overwhelmed by them. Maybe start with one. Once you pick the platform, pick the type. Are you going to try Instagram Reels or perhaps IGTV? Do you want to do the in-feed on Instagram? Do you want to do the Stories? Do you want to do Live? Try picking one platform and one type of content to begin with so that you don’t get overwhelmed, then you can grow from there.

As long as you’re authentic, it doesn’t matter how you look or how you present yourself. Click To Tweet

Number three, click record or find footage. In your case, if you’re going to be recording a podcast, you might as well record a video. This is something that you see Tracy do all the time with her work. I do this on my podcast. I’ve been doing it for a while now. I’ve worked through all of the challenges of it. Now it’s part of my process as a podcaster.

Number four, if you’re going to edit, this will be an optional thing. Most videos are going to require some type of editing and that could simply be picking a clip. This is also something that we do with Podetize in the shows on the platform. We choose short clips from the episode and that’s technically editing but it doesn’t require very much work.

I want to share with you a few apps. You can do a lot of editing right within the platform, especially with Instagram Reels and TikTok. Pick the platform you want to use and use their editor and maybe try both of them. You can also use iMovie if you are on iOS with an iPhone or Apple device. There’s a great app called InShot, one called Quik, another called Adobe Premiere Rush, and lastly Splice which is iOS Apple only. I encourage you to download all of these apps. They’re all free or freemium. iMovie, you’ll already have it on your phone if you have an iPhone.

Download them all and use them all. That will help you determine which one you like best, which feels easiest, and which you’re most comfortable with. It helps you achieve the type of editing that you want to do, and/or go into Instagram Reels or TikTok and check out their editor. As I mentioned, you can now edit in Canva. If you’re already familiar with a platform like Canva that offers video editing, use that. Canva’s editor, I’ve only done a little bit on thus far but it seemed easy for me, especially given my experience with that platform.

There are a few things that you can add to your video. Number one is audio. On TikTok, they have this thing called Trending Sounds. That’s also becoming a thing on Instagram Reels. You can take a look at what’s trending and use that sound or that music in your editing as well. If you’re going to do that, I recommend editing your video on Instagram, or Tiktok or taking a previously edited video if you want to get a little bit more advanced with it and then uploading that into Reels or TikTok to add in that audio. It’ll make more sense to you as you do it. If you’ve never done it before, it might feel overwhelming. It’s simple on both Instagram and Tiktok. You just need to try it out.

You can download royalty-free music too if you’d like but it’s not necessary. Adding on text, titles, captions, animated text, your outros, all of that can be done either in an editor or TikTok and Instagram. Also, transitions and effects are the same things. You can make a transition between two clips. You can zoom in and out. You can flip things around. You’d be amazed at how simple it is using those editing platforms that I mentioned. None of this is necessary but I encourage you to try it out because it’s fun and a skill that’s worth having.

There are a few things to subtract as you would with your podcast. Number one, subtract the unnecessary. If you have awkward pauses, edit them out. If you’re saying um a lot, repeating a lot of words or certain moments, anything redundant, take that out if you can as you would with your podcast. You want to keep people engaged and move fast. With video, people have short attention spans. If you can remove anything that slows down the pace or anything boring, that’s ideal.

 

If you’re moving slow, if you’re doing something, you can speed it up. You don’t have to cut it out. Some of these platforms allow you to do double time and move quickly. Any mistakes, bad lighting, anything that you don’t feel represents you and what you’re trying to accomplish well, edit it out, redo it or see if you can replace it with something else. You’ll find your flow with all of this. Ultimately, it’s important for you to start with a video. You don’t have to worry about this so much at the beginning of your process. You will learn through feedback, watching others, and the more that you try this all out.

Lastly, post and analyze your content. You’re uploading it into whatever platform you choose and then you’re analyzing it to see how well it’s working. How many likes did it get? How many comments? How many shares? You can see all of these details right within each platform. As with your podcast, you don’t want to obsess over this too much. You want to use it as an indication of what might work. Certain platforms, TikTok especially, are a big guessing game. You never know what’s going to do well on there, truly. Everybody says this. You can try hard to make a video do well and it will feel like a flop, as they call it.

Other times, you put barely any effort into your content and it will do extremely well. That’s why consistency is important. You may find the same thing with your podcast. The big key is to keep going and analyze it based on whatever metrics are important for you. As I’ve emphasized many times, distribute. Once you created one piece of content, put it on as many platforms as you’re prepared to put it on at that time.

At Podetize, one of our strategies is to post on each platform but on different days. We don’t put a video on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, etc. all on the same day at the same time. We spread it out at different times. That way, if we have the same followers on multiple platforms, they’re not bombarded with the same content and feeling super redundant. It might help them because they may not have seen it on the other platform because of the algorithm, the timing or something. It also allows you to experiment with what times work well, what days of the week. It gives you a break too so you don’t feel like you have to do everything all at once.

You can use some scheduling apps. A number of them support videos but they don’t support all videos. That’s a little bit of a challenge. Manual video posting is pretty much ideal. If you can set aside time and a plan of when you’re going to post and where you’re going to distribute it, it shouldn’t take you long because you’ll get in the rhythm of it. Analyze, experiment and figure out what’s working.

Over the course of several months is a big key here. Like your podcast, it’s hard to see the results quickly when you first start doing something. If something doesn’t seem like it’s performing well right away, give it time. A lot of people have noticed that in TikTok and YouTube, your videos may take days, weeks, or months for anyone to even see them in the first place. A great example is I had a video go viral on TikTok. It was January or February 2021. In August of 2021, it is still getting views and I have not promoted it at all. That’s how TikTok works. That’s why you need to pay attention over the long run. It’s very evergreen and similar to a podcast. Take your podcast mentality in terms of analytics into your video creation. If you’re feeling overwhelmed, there are two things to do. Go back to the content calendar. Planning will help with overwhelm. Reschedule things if you need to, figure out when is best for you to record and publish.

Lastly, delegate. Delegation is key. Tracy can speak to this. That’s why she has a team. I work with people on our teams. There are things that Tracy will delegate and I’ll delegate. It is amazing to have a team on board. A team could be you and one other person. Virtual assistants can be affordable, helpful and make a world of difference for you. If you have family members, they may be willing to help you with things too. I know several people that have their children support them with these things. Find someone in your life that you can delegate to.

Simplicity can be just as successful as a very polished video. Click To Tweet

Here are some things that you can easily delegate. Number one, they can help you brainstorm content, do some research, and compile those concepts into a document for you. They can do some great keyword research and see what’s trending, and give you lots of ideas so you don’t have to worry about it. They can help prepare and upload your content. They can edit it for you, write captions, and schedule it across the platforms for release. It’s amazing. Lastly, they can help you engage with comments, monitor your performance, and help give you suggestions for improvement. It’s amazing how much the support of one other person can be. That’s it for now. Speaking of support, I’m here if anyone has questions, as well as Tracy and Tom, if there’s anything you’d like to see me touch upon that I haven’t yet, let’s hear it.

That was great, Whitney. Thank you.

Here’s what I discovered. I learned some great things. I talk with my hands, which is now awesome because it’s like dancing.

Of course, you would try to turn that into an asset now. Good spin, Tracy.

Now I have to get a camera that stops going out of focus. Thank you for that, Whitney. You gave me a full range to do what I like to do. I also wanted to highlight and mention something that you said to people. My space is set up so that I’m in the middle third. When we’re editing your video for you or if we’re creating clips, we can cut wherever. If you take up about 1/3 of the screen, whether you’re on the right, the left or in the middle, that’s okay. They’ll be able to create that vertical size version without a problem. Be thinking about that as you set your space or you set where you want to sit.

We do have some clients who are over on the right and then they have the display of their book and some other things to the left, which gets cut off in the vertical. Keep that in mind too. You may want to have it right behind your head. You might want to have it closer to you so it doesn’t get cut off. Be thinking about how you set your space matters when you’re recording. Whitney brought that up well. The other thing that I want to mention is that if you’re doing speaker view, which is how I record it. However, if you’re in Zoom, you’re looking at it your way. We should be looking at it and it should be recording and viewing. It should be how it looks on Facebook.

When she’s sharing her screen, Whitney’s screen is the dominant part. Because you and I are muted when she was speaking tight, it’s a tiny little window of Whitney in the corner. Because I’m the one that has started the webinar and shared this on Facebook, it’s how I’m viewing it that’s driving what is seen as we are here. I have us in gallery view. Had I had it in speaker view, it would be switching between the three of us.

 

If you want to use shorts or you want to use them in clips, I highly recommend you record in speaker view and not the gallery view because it makes it even tinier if I have to turn that into vertical. You’d have to have a good editor who would make three videos stacked on top of each other to make it work out. It doesn’t work out in gallery view. Everything gets much smaller if you need to use a vertical format. Use the speaker view format when you’re going to record for a vertical format. Think about that. That’s your output.

Tracy, to offer a different perspective, my purpose in having this in gallery view is because this is being broadcast in our Brandcasters group, which is for clients only. The clients are used to seeing you and me every week beyond this background, usually side by side. That’s the whole thing. Oftentimes, it’s hard to tell what are they talking about now. Which one is this? You got to read the title. Whitney being here is unique and different. I thought using the gallery view, people say, “There’s a third person there. There’s Whitney. Tom and Tracy aren’t even in the same frame anymore.” That might pique curiosity and get people to turn on their sound and hear what we’re talking about if they see that.

That’s a different purpose. My point is if you’re recording and you know you’re going to want a vertical view, then you need to record in the speaker view to get a better result. Live video is something different. It’s not the end purpose. For the portions, I would never take a clip of this Q&A or this after-talk kind of thing. It probably wouldn’t happen. If we were taking a clip, we’d probably take it from something Whitney said in the middle. That was recorded in speaker view because you and I made our video closed so that we didn’t appear at all during that process. Because we have it set for our recording, when there’s a non-video participant, they aren’t being recorded. Their voice is being recorded but their video is not being shown.

There’s a workaround that we’ve been playing around on the Podetize team but I’ve seen a lot of people do. If they have to record in a view that isn’t quite as conducive for cropping, people will put color above or below it. They can have the full-size video in the middle of the screen. That doesn’t look quite as good as if you fill up the entire vertical video with your content but it works if you have to edit that way.

Another consideration is if you plan to have two people like you do here and you want to use that in the vertical format, maybe Tom and I shouldn’t be sitting side-by-side. We shouldn’t be recording in that kind of thing. You might have extra cameras that are picking up the other angles that you’re going to use. You can always record straight vertical from your phone so you might want to have one of those that you’re capturing that you’re going to use for your clips.

Be thinking about that end-use when you’re pre-recording and save all those views and/or do that from the get-go. That’s what I wanted to bring up here because it’s a great point that if you set that up right, to begin with, you’re going to have a more impactful video later. You’re going to be able to see the screen and see more of what’s going on there.

The other thing that I wanted to mention is that in editing, picking the clip is difficult. It’s hard for our teams to do that for you when we don’t know what your social media messaging is. What I do is I look at the timestamp and I go, “It’s about fifteen minutes in. It’s about 40 minutes in.” I make a note to myself and then I quickly go to the video afterward to confirm the time spot and say, “That was the clip. I want it to start somewhere around here.”

The value that you offer beats the production quality. Click To Tweet

I’m not that specific about it but I was like, “Pick a clip from this section,” or I’m saying, “Pick a clip from when we talk about this.” That’s okay too. It’s an easy direction to give the team so that they can edit that clip out for you so you get what we call video memes, which are like these clips that you’re going to use on social media. We get that section right for you.

You should have and should set with us your format and your length. Am I doing vertical? Am I doing a full landscape? What is my choice here? What do I want? Do I want more than one? It’s fine. You’re saying, “From that point, I also want to have it with this type of clip.” I’m going to specify what that is. You’re being clear about what it is. You can give general directions like, “Whenever I talk about Instagram, I want you to take a clip for me because I’m doing Instagram tips.” Whatever that might be, you can also set a standard operating procedure with our team for what to look for.

This is a good time to mention something that will be helpful to most clients who are reading this. You work with Podetize to have us do as much of this for you as possible. That is true. I’m sure some of you are thinking, “I don’t know how to decide what the best clip is. You guys are the experts. You should figure out what the best clip is.” I understand that perspective. If you provide some guidelines of, “I want clips of this type of content. Whenever I talk about this or that, that’s a good thing to make a clip of.” Certainly, we can follow those guidelines.

The clips that you get are only going to be as good as you’re willing to participate a little bit because we can’t read your mind. As much as we try to understand you and what’s important to you, you’ve got to participate a little bit. No matter how good we get to know you, we would never make the same decision you would make. I can pretty much guarantee that.

Remember, if you’re not doing this live, you’re going to record it, you’re going to save it and you’re going to have it edited, you can also give us verbal cues. You say something and you can pause at the end of it because you need a point to cut it off anyway. You can pause and say, “Editors, that piece was a perfect clip. I would like that for my video meme.” You can say that and then go on. Your video will have a jump cut or a transition cut, but that’s okay to have breaks like that as long as you pause after what you said before you give the editorial directions.

I would also recommend making a note in the edit notes when you submit your episode in Podetize, “I made a verbal reference to the clip I want and paused in my recording to let your editors know that. Make sure you note that and remove where I told you I wanted you to take the clip out.” It’s always good to mention that.

I want to address one more thing. I want to say that we want to be efficient as we type notes in our edit notes. Being clear about what you’re looking for in those edit notes is important. We’ve talked about video sizing multiple times. Whitney talked about it at the beginning and then we talked about it in post-discussion here. We need to be clear of we want it when it was the first occurrence of that. Being clear in your edit notes cannot hurt at all.

 

I want to reinforce what Tom was saying there. It cannot hurt to reinforce that. You shouldn’t have to tell our team to take out the reference unless you flow into it in such a way that it might not be clear that you were talking to the editor. That’s why pausing before and after you make an editorial direction is always good.

I’ve had people in the past keep talking in stride and never stopping. It seemed like they were still talking with their guests where they said, “I’ll have my editors take this part out because it shouldn’t be on the air,” and it was missed. As much as I would wish we would get that, you can understand in the context and the flow of the conversation how something like that could get missed. I have a couple of things I wanted to mention or offer some comments or discussion about.

I have a question for you that Whitney posed in there about audio quality. Let’s talk about video and audio quality. I might propose that you could go ahead with a less highly-produced video, but you asked us and said, “What about the audio side of that?” I find the same thing as Whitney. I want to reinforce that. On video, I see some of the simplest videos. My daughter does them out in the backyard and sometimes they’re amazing. I think to myself, “What she did there with a little effect, graphic, and a little lighting change.” It’s amazing. There is not a lot of over-editing that needs to happen at the front end of the video if you don’t want to. What do you think about the audio, Tom?

I agree with what Whitney said that the content being conveyed is more important than the quality of the audio. However, there definitely can get to a point where the audio quality is a distraction and is not helping deliver the message. While I wouldn’t obsess about it on the one hand, on the other hand, you should be keenly aware of your audio quality. Listen to your own audio and watch your own videos. I can’t tell you how many people we work with never listen to their own podcasts ever. They don’t realize how they sound. They don’t realize if there is something that they’re being presented in a way that they’d rather not be presented. It helps to listen to your own stuff at least periodically and make sure you’re happy with it.

Remember, if someone is listening to the video, you’re in their ear. If the sound is annoying, they’re going to tune out fast. The other part of it is if the words you’re saying are not intelligible enough because of the garbles coming through the sound or clicking or other things, the auto-captioning that we usually put on that most people utilize is useful. You can have us put the custom captioning on but for the most part, the auto-captioning that comes with the programs when you post up the video is useful. If you do that, it will miss words and it will not detect it properly. If they’re not listening to you and they’re watching the captions, they won’t get the message that you’re saying. Your sound can affect that as well.

There’s always a situation, especially if you are on the road, not in your normal recording environment, and you want to capture something. It’s different, it might be visually engaging, and you don’t have a good microphone with you, but you have the microphone built into your phone. There might be some background noise if you’re outside. You still want to record that video content even if the audio is going to be used in a podcast later. It’s not that pure audio in a prepared environment.

If that audio quality is borderline and if people listened to an entire episode with that, it might not be so easy on the ears. They might not want to listen to the whole thing. It might be worth you taking two minutes when you’re back in your environment that’s controlled. This is in the context of a podcast and audio. Record a little two-minute intro to it and put a little context and say, “Everybody, I was at this conference at this event and I recorded this live. I want to let you know the audio quality is not up to my normal standard.”

You will learn through feedback. You will learn through watching others, and the more you try this all out. Click To Tweet

If you address the elephant in the room and acknowledge to your podcast audience that this isn’t the normal quality that you want to deliver them, but you let them know, “The content is really good and I thought you’d all appreciate hearing it regardless.” They’re going to be totally in to listen to the whole thing and will set aside that audio quality.

If we’re taking a clip from what you did live that is in that language and it’s not going to include the part where you said, “This audio is not up to my standard quality,” you can drop that in the comments. If someone is going to comment there, they’ll see that you said that. You can wipe that away immediately by putting in this comment that says, “I wish the sound quality was good but I didn’t want you to miss the message.” Keep it simple like that.

The last thing I wanted to say is, Whitney, I appreciate your advice about the first two seconds of a video clip being critical to capture people’s attention and get your point across or at least enough that’s going to hook them, get them to stay, watch the rest and not move on. It occurs to me that a lot of us record on Zoom for our podcast where we are talking heads that look the same.

You got me thinking. I’m going to start getting creative about what we do at the beginning of a video. There’s got to be lots of things we can do that are visual. I’ve already got some gears turning. Challenge accepted is what I’m thinking. There’s a way we can do that and any of you can do that. I’m going to think more about that. That may be a future subject we come back with and make some suggestions specifically on that type of topic.

We’ll add that one in.

Let’s do that. I’ve got some ideas and it’s something I want to demonstrate and not just talk about.

Whitney, thank you for coming on and sharing all of this. What’s the last piece of advice or last thoughts that you want to share with everyone?

Don’t let all these questions get in the way. Video creation is so much like podcasting. The progress I’ve made as a podcaster from the day I did my first recording until now, almost over 300 episodes later, is vast. I’ve made probably 2,000-plus videos in my career and I’m always learning every time. The times where I have regrets are when I don’t create because I’m too busy second-guessing everything. It’s easier said than done. I do it too. It’s not like I am perfectly consistent.

 

My encouragement to all of you is if you can right now, try making a video on one of those mediums. Pick up your phone, turn on your webcam, open up Zoom, and schedule something as a test for someone. Take an action step now to hold yourself accountable and see it as a learning process. Most people are afraid to do video because they’re fearful of what others will think. The truth is most people will be fine with whatever you do. If they’re not fine with it, they’re not your audience. There are going to be so many people that are grateful for it because you’re showing up more in their algorithm because you’re doing video. It’s going to grow your podcast and that’s ultimately why you’re doing it. Try not to overthink is my last piece of advice.

It’s such good advice. That’s what I tell people all the time with podcasting too and it applies to video. Get started, don’t worry about being perfect, and you’re going to get better at it. Everybody does but get started, even if you start a little ugly, as they say. I’m sure it won’t even be that bad. The worst thing is if you end up with this inertia of trying to make it perfect then you never put any content out there. That’s is not going to help anybody.

The same thing is true with equipment. As you’re sharing that, Tom, I started off with my Yeti mic that I had sitting around as a podcaster. I happen to already have the microphone so I used that to start recording. I joined Podetize and got my Audio-Technica mic and then I bought my stand for it, the pop filter, and the headphones. All of that built over time but I started with what I had and the equipment on my computer. I learned and elevated it as I went along.

That’s good advice. Thank you. I want to remind everybody that you can find Whitney and connect with her at Podetize.com under the Feed Your Brand podcast section. It’s also going to be in the Resources area, which is in our knowledge base section. You’ll be able to find her. Make sure you check that out.

Stay tuned because next episode, we’re going to address something that Whitney mentioned, which is hashtags and captioning. That’s an important subject, especially if you want to post up these videos. What are you going to choose to write about? What are you going to choose to hashtag to get the attention so that these videos get found? If you make great videos but no one finds them, that’s not any good. We need to make sure that that happens. We’ll talk about that next episode.

I’m grateful that Whitney is on our team. We want to make sure you all know how to reach out to her. I put her in our Facebook group and other things. I put a direct connection to our website and you’ll be able to go there as well. Whitney, thank you for being on our team. Thank you for all the strategies you give us. We appreciate you tremendously. Everyone else here, thank you for joining Feed Your Brand and the Brandcasters community. We appreciate you as well. We’ll be back with some more social media next episode.

Important Links:

• Whitney Lauritsen
• This Might Get Uncomfortable – Whitney Lauritsen’s podcast
• Clubhouse – Whitney Lauritsen
• Canva
• The Binge Factor
• iMovie
• InShot
• Quik
• Adobe Premiere Rush
• Facebook – Brandcaster

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