As seen in Forbes

Doing a prerecorded video is not as easy as you would think. I once sent a short “happy birthday” video to a preferred client. Quick and easy task, right? Wrong. It took more than half an hour. I had to find a good background, spruce up my personal appearance, prepare my thoughts, practice, polish, and send. That video was just 30 seconds long. Imagine what it takes to do a half-hour (or longer) presentation?

As a 10-year-veteran of the keynote speaking industry, I advise top keynote speakers on how to create great virtual presentations. It doesn’t matter if you’re a virtual keynote speaker or an executive presenting to your team; to get a great prerecorded session, you need to do these five things.

1. Find a good location. 

Find a well-lit (i.e., evenly lit) and quiet room. Home offices usually work well unless they are dark or framed next to a large, sunny window (direct sunlight can create some horrible looks for a video). If you have your own video studio with controlled lighting, all the better.

Make your background as neutral as possible. You want people to focus on you, not what’s behind you. Avoid cluttered backgrounds, such as messy desks, cluttered couches, or overstuffed bookshelves. The background should be less interesting than you. (Pro tip: You could have a background of a street with cars or people walking by, as long as it’s pretty steady and people aren’t lingering in front of the camera view).

2. Choose a good wardrobe and throw on a little powder.

Dress in clean clothes appropriate for your intended audience. For business, your wardrobe might be a suit or blazer. For a blogger, it could be anything that is associated with your public personality. If you are known for sweatpants, then wear them. Known for dresses? Pick your best.

Pro tips: Avoid distracting patterns (or colors) in your clothes, which can sometimes look strange on screen. This includes anything with lots of lines or intricate designs. Everyone — even us guys with big foreheads (or any visible forehead) — should use a bit of foundation/powder to remove glare from the lighting.

3. Practice, practice, practice.

Write down what you intend to say. You don’t want to look like you’re searching for words or ideas. Notes with key ideas or phrases usually work best for presenting. Unless you can memorize a speech or read from a monitor, try to avoid writing out full sentences or paragraphs. You want something you can glance at for a second to keep you on topic.

Perform your talk several times and record it. Watch to see where you can improve. Even better, have someone else watch it to show where there are areas you can fix.

Speak in a normal voice. If you have an external microphone (instead of an internal computer microphone), speak directly into it. Check the volume on your practice recordings to see if you are coming across too soft or too loud.

Watch your body language. Sit straight up. Look directly at the camera lens of your recording device. Avoid fidgeting (you’ll make your audience nervous).

4. Polish the video for the professional look.

Make it look professional. Cut out the beginning and the end. Rookie videographers keep in the parts where they are turning on the video, getting in place, or turning off the video. No one wants to see that. Cut out parts that don’t work. No need to redo the entire presentation. Just cut the bad and leave in the good.

Want to make it even more professional-looking? Add in titles and graphics. If you have a serious talk (longer than a birthday video), consider adding in titles for topic areas and graphics from your prepared remarks.

5. Share it widely with your audience.

Share your video on a commonly used video platform. YouTube and Vimeo are great for sharing with audiences. Both services have free tiers and are easily accessible to people worldwide. You can adjust your privacy settings from public to needing a password if need be.

Use these five tips for virtual presentations and your prerecorded presentations will look truly professional and get more attention. It’s not just virtual keynote speakers who need to do these things. Anyone who wants their message taken seriously should take the time to seriously prepare.

 

About the Author Ken Sterling