Craig Fisher, Head of Recruiting Innovation at Allegis Global Solutions, shared great insight on the ways you can improve your presence on video. His digital branding methods have been adopted as best practices by companies like LinkedIn, Toyota, YUM! Brands, HootSuite, and many more. Craig runs the largest recruiting conference series in the Southwest and Texas, TalentNet Events. Click here to preview a documentary about the success of TalentNet.
HIGH PROFILE’S KEY TAKEAWAYS:
- Lighting Makes a Difference: There are many options for lighting. You can purchase soft box lights, light bars, or a ring light, but natural light can be effective as well. Placement is key; you want to make sure the lighting is head-on, as overhead lights will cast a shadow over you. Hint: the lights can get warm, so a small, quiet, USB adaptable desk fan comes in handy!
- A Good Microphone Will Help You Sound Professional: Choose a microphone with directional features, so you can decide where the microphone picks up sound. There are desk microphones, or clip-on mics that are easily portable. A Quality Webcam Will Enhance Your Image: While the lights make all the difference, it is also helpful to have a good quality webcam.
- There are multiple versions of quality webcams, mostly around the same price range. They all do relatively the same thing. They’re easily maneuverable to ensure you are level and they are very user-friendly!
- Use Social Media to Broadcast Your Video: Use social media platforms to broadcast your videos. On Twitter, videos are shared 6x more than pictures; 1 billion people use Instagram; on Facebook, 100 million hours of videos are being watched daily; and a video on LinkedIn will get 20x more shares than any other content.
- Be Human: Have a video plan. Start posting, and there is a wide variety of places to post your videos. Show some behind-the-scenes live videos, and measure engagement. This is a human experience, and we need that more than ever in our current situation!
Q&A with CRAIG FISHER:
Q. I do not use a desk PC. Can the webcam be paired to my iPad Pro?
- Yes. A webcam can be paired to pretty much anything bigger than an iPhone. If you have a surface, iPad or any other tablet bigger than an iPhone you can usually use a webcam with it.
Q. Where should you place the light if you have only one? Directly in front of you?
- If you only have one ring light, you would place it around your camera. You want the ring light to circle the camera. You’ll want to make sure there isn’t a glare on the screen and you can test that out on the camera app on your laptop or phone.
Q. What platforms do you find most effective to find companies that want to partner to find candidates? My guess would be LinkedIn but would love your insights.
- LinkedIn is by far the best. Facebook can be useful, but not all users are keen to connect with their business network on Facebook. YouTube is really a great storage platform, in case you need to embed the link somewhere. Invest in Yourself Webinar Series Best Practices for Your Video Presence April 2020
Q. Would you recommend setting up your video in a closed room (office, bedroom, etc.) vs a living room that is an open space?
- Yes, you’ll want as many soft materials surrounding you as possible to absorb echos. Items could be books, blankets, panels, and pictures. If you can face the window and use a clip-mic, a living room or open space could be just as useful.
Q. If I record a video in Vidyard and download it, where is a good place to get subtitles added?
- Rev.com. They will give you an entire file you can upload to LinkedIn when you post your video. Same with YouTube. They’ll automatically link that file with captions to your video. It’s called an SRT file and it’s usually done within an hour, if you choose the automated option. A human option is also available, but that takes 24 hours.
Q. When is the best time to post videos?
- There are many different theories on this topic. Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays between 11 AM and 1 PM work really well. The adage about posting first thing on Monday morning does work, but I found posting during the lunch hour in your time zone also works really well. The late afternoon, around 5 PM, is also a good time, especially with so many of us working from home.
Craig Fisher leads recruiting innovation at Allegis Global Solutions as the Employer Branding SME for AGS RPO customers. He has led talent acquisition teams at the Fortune 500 level. He’s the author of Inbound Recruiting, and a popular keynote speaker at tech, social media, HR/recruiting, and sales conferences worldwide. He consults with sales and recruiting teams through his company Fishdogs Media and runs the largest recruiting conference series in the Southwest and Texas, TalentNet Events. He’s been detailed in the Wall Street Journal, NPR, Mashable, NBC News, and The Huffington Post as a subject matter expert in multiple areas of talent acquisition; and he is listed among HR and recruiting’s top influencers and most engaging conference speakers. He also hosts the Podcast series Inside Talent. Please connect with him on LinkedIn or contact him at cfisher411@gmail.com!