If a living, breathing talking human being is thought to be the most appropriate method to deliver your video content there’s a great case for pushing a professional presenter out in front of the camera. When I say ‘professional presenter’ I don’t mean that you have to get a ring in from the world of theatre or stage.
There are great courses available in every country of the world that will take your Director of Sales and Marketing and polish him or her up to look and sound comfortable on camera. (For NZ’ers check out the very experienced Paulus Romijn at Presenters Platform).
It may be that the ‘voice’ of the company is all that you need and even an executive who’s uncomfortable appearing on camera is perfectly fine with reading a prepared voice over script. Pictures can be sorted in other ways – even still photographs can be successfully brought to life in video form – the spoken voice is a powerful communication tool, and if it’s the voice of a genuine employee or owner of your business, it can add huge credibility to your video.
But if you believe that there’s no one in your company appropriate to use then it might just be time to consider a paid outsider. (Your organisation executives will all heave a collective sigh of relief knowing that their every idiosyncratic twitch won’t be endlessly laughed over at the company Christmas party).
The main criteria to evaluate your decision on – is your business going to look, sound, and therefore, pitch itself as professional?
So if you choose to go with a pro what do you need to consider? There are hundreds of experienced presenters available either through talent agencies or directly through their own web profiles and the best you can do in your selection process is try and get testimonials of how they performed for other organisations. Better still, check out some actual videos they’ve fronted. Not only will this show you how convincing they can be on behalf of another organisation but also it will give you an insight into what conflicts may exist in their pre-existing repertoire. This is an important aspect to research well – it would be very embarrassing for you to find that your Presenter had delivered on behalf of one of your competitors a couple of years earlier.
As with all things human, any Presenter – be it a full professional or one of your own staff appropriately skilled-up – exposes you to that individuals foibles. Naturally, with a member of your own team, if they leave your company, you’ll be put through the whole task of producing a new video with updated presenter. But even when it’s an outsider that’s fronting your video things can still turn ugly. An inappropriate Tweet here, or a domestic incident there can sink even those of acclaimed celebrity. And if they go down in the public’s eyes, so do you as a business they’re connected with.
Bottom line is do you homework – select an appropriate spokesperson both in terms of credibility and performance, and then monitor your audiences reaction to the resultant video.
Next time I want to look at the length you choose to make your video. Again, thanks for reading.
Blu Steven.
