all you need to know to get started in video and youtube

checklist: the essential tools – made simple.

by sandi leyva
the complete guide to marketing for tax & accounting firms

how you shoot your videos depends on what tools you need.

more small firm growth strategies: why cpas need video | how to schedule social media content | the 5 c’s of successful websites | speaking: how, where and getting leads from it
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the most important thing in all of this is there are two sets of skills:

1. shooting the video – this is closer to presentation skills than anything else
2. editing the video – this requires some creative experience and the right tech tools

big tip:

you don’t need video-editing skills if you are doing screen capture or even talking heads. it’s much easier to keep shooting takes until you get it right than it is to do complex video editing.

we’ll break this down into two types of tools, those for screen capture and those for studio shooting.
1. screen capture tools

when you create a video using screen capture, you don’t need a camera. instead you need video screen capture tools.

we all know that if you want to print your screen or capture the screen image onto your clipboard, you click the prtscrn key on your pc keyboard and paste it into a file – powerpoint, word or a graphics app. that activity captures a still shot.

when you want moving video, you need software for that. here are some options:

1. techsmith has been a leader in video production for over a decade now. i used their products a decade ago and haven’t used them much since. they have several products of note. jing – https://www.techsmith.com/jing.html – is free screen-recording software but it saves your file in swf format. you will need additional software to convert it from flash (swf) to mp4 or another format that youtube and browsers recognize. the pro version of jing does this.
2. camtasia is screen-capture and video-editing software and is very popular but does have a learning curve. i recommend it for the serious videographer who is making at least a dozen videos a year. as of this writing, the camtasia software is $299 with a free trial.
3. movavi.com – haven’t tried this but looks like a great option for screen capture, video conversion and video editing for only $49.95. if i were starting over today, i would look into this one.
4. screencast-o-matic: this will record your screen. for $15 per year, this is the most economical option so far. does not provide video editing, at https://screencast-o-matic.com/.
5. adobe also has captivate. i stay away from adobe products if i can; however, my video-trained staff uses adobe creative cloud suite.
6. quicktime. if you have a mac, an easy way to do a screen capture videos is using quicktime. see this article for more: http://tech.journalism.cuny.edu/documentation/capture-video-with-quicktime-screen-recording/

alternately, these next few apps will allow you to see clients’ screens as well as your own and provide recording capabilities. so if you need remote screen viewing or do webinars, you might as well use this software instead of buying something special.

1. gotowebinar.com: this is the one i use to record screen capture video, only because i also give hundreds of webinars each year, and i don’t see the point in buying a different software if i already have one that does what i need it to. it records in .g2m format and is convertible to .wmv and .mp4. i believe gotomeeting will do the same thing and is $39 per month.
2. fuze.com: $40 per user per month for recordings.
3. join.me offers screen sharing and you can record with the pro version, which is $20 or less per month.

once you’ve made your recording, it needs to be in mp4 or wmv format for youtube to accept it. we’ll talk about uploading it later.

if you don’t record your screen but want to make a video in another way, you might need studio tools.

2. video studio tools

you have a couple of options when shooting video of yourself. you can use your webcam that’s mounted right in your pc. or you can purchase a standalone video camera with tripod.

let’s talk about your webcam first.

webcams

most webcams today are included with the purchase of a pc. if you’ve never checked out your webcam, click the start button and choose all programs. look for webcam software. on my dell computer, it’s listed under dell webcam central.

once you’ve found it, familiarize yourself with the software. there should be a few settings you can adjust. there should also be a record button. press it, say a sentence, press the stop recording button and you’ve just recorded your first video!

how does your background look? you may need to move your pc to a different location when you are shooting. some people who shoot a lot of video will rearrange their office to make it easy to shoot a quick video.

how is the sound? sound is very important with video. you need a high-quality microphone. we recommend the yeti from blue microphones; it’s about $100, at http://www.bluemic.com/yeti/. the settings are a little confusing. set the gain to full, and set the pattern to the circle, which is omnidirectional. the yeti plugs into your usb port and is ready to go.

camcorders

if you don’t want to record from your pc or webcam, then you can get a standalone video camera. here are some of the choices:

• we’ve been shooting with a now-discontinued kodak zi8 flipcam for several years now. it’s a nice portable and we can do our conference shots, b-roll and interviews with it. it’s very affordable too compared to the other options. i think it was about $200-$300 when we got it a few years ago.
• all my pro friends recommend canon camcorders. a couple of the models they love include the 5d mark iii for high-quality professional video and the eos 70d for quality on-the-run interviews and short clips. in both cases, you’re looking at a serious investment.
• whatever you do, don’t get a gopro for office marketing purposes. those are designed for fast, high-motion, outdoors shots and are not what you need for office video.

and yes, you can also shoot from your iphone or most any another smartphone.

for standalone cameras, you’ll need a microphone that plugs into the camera. big tip: do not buy a camcorder without an audio plugin. i don’t even know why they make high-quality camcorders without a microphone input.

the microphone we use with the flipcam is an audio-technica brand with a long cord and lavaliere-type microphone clip-on.

tripods

and last, with your standalone camera, you’ll need a tripod. i have a heavy-duty bogen tripod left over from my photography studio days. (manfrotto now owns the bogen line.) it’s unlikely you’ll need anything like that. your best bet is to go to your local camera store and ask what they recommend or shop on amazon. if you’re going to shoot outside and it’s windy, get something that won’t blow over. otherwise, get something lightweight in case you want to travel with it. the downside of the bogen is that it’s so heavy.

periscope

one more option with shooting video is using periscope with your cell phone. periscope allows you to livestream your video while the public watches and comments. you can save the recording (which is normally only displayed for 24 hours) and upload it to other media.

when using periscope, use a tripod and make sure the lighting, sound and background are good. the same rules apply here too.

3. technical stuff

i briefly want to cover video file types, just to get everyone on the same page.

• mov: files ending in mov can be played with the apple quicktime movie software, whether on a pc or mac.
• wmv (windows media video): can be played with windows media player
• mp4: a common and good-quality format for videos viewed over the web
• avi (audio visual interlaced): if you see a file in this format, it needs to be converted into another format. some software creates files in this format and can convert them to other formats.
• flv (flash): used by adobe. flash was very popular years ago but not so much now. most flv files cannot play without an swf wrapper. it’s best to convert flv to another format, but you can upload them to youtube.

if you use camtasia or gotowebinar to create your videos, you’ll need to convert them before you can upload them to youtube. both apps have conversion software built in.

4. youtube

youtube is by far the best place to post your videos. if you have a gmail or google account already, you can set up a youtube account.

youtube allows you to set up one or more channels. you can control access to your channels, but in most cases, for marketing purposes, you will want the public to see them. if you teach and just want paid students to view your videos, you can set up a private channel.

go to the home page in youtube and click on my channel in the left menu. that will get you started creating your channel. you will upload your videos to this channel.

enter a channel description, upload your channel art, complete your about page and upload your picture if it isn’t already there. these things will initialize your channel.

uploading your video to youtube

there are several important fields to complete at the same time you upload your video, so i want to go over them in detail.

first, what types of videos can you upload? all of the ones we mentioned above, plus a few more. you can go here to find out all of the video types: https://support.google.com/youtube/troubleshooter/2888402?hl=en

in general the youtube video length limit has been 15 minutes, but you can get around it by following these instructions: https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/71673?hl=en

when uploading a video, you have several other fields to fill out, so you might want to think about what you want in them before you start your upload:

• title: make this short and snappy, and include keywords if you can.
• description: describe what listeners will get out the video. if you have learning bullets written, include them. include keywords in your english sentences when you can.
• tags: these are phrases that describe the content of the video. they should definitely include all the keywords you can think of.
• thumbnails: the thumbnail is a graphic that displays over your video. it’s actually not the starting slide of your video. youtube autogenerates three graphics from your video that you can choose from. if you have a verified account, you can upload a custom graphic.

if you’re interested in increasing your search engine results, then do complete all of these fields thoroughly. it will give you more video views and search views.

enhancements

once you upload a video in youtube, you can make some minor corrections to enhance your video, including auto-fix lighting, stabilize shaky camera, trim out parts, apply filters and more. https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/1388383?hl=en

privacy settings

in most cases, you’ll want to make your marketing videos public so that as many people as possible will see them. in other cases, you might have some videos you want to upload but not share with anyone yet. use the private setting for that.

we often develop videos as part of a paid product. we put these on a specific playlist and mark them unlisted. we provide the link, and that’s how the paid subscribers get access.

here are the full options on allowing access to your videos:

• public – anyone can see the video and it will appear in your channel.
• unlisted – anyone who has the link to the video can view; it will not appear in your channel.
• private – can only be seen by you and the users you select; it will not appear in your channel.

https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/1388383?hl=en

annotations

an optional thing you can do in youtube is edit your video using annotations. you can use a speech bubble or note to add text to your video. you can use a title annotation to create a title overlay. you use a label to name a specific part of your video. and a spotlight is for text to pop up when a viewer moves their mouse over a part of the video.

you can add a link via your annotations. youtube allows you to link to another video, a playlist, your channel or subscribe call to action. do this while creating the annotation.

embedding the video on your site

you’ll definitely want to include the video on your website. the best way to do this is to load it to youtube first, then grab the embed code from youtube that you can put on your site.

do this by accessing the video in youtube, then look for the share link under the video. once you click share, you’ll see three more commands. click embed to get access to the code, which will look something like this:

<iframe width=”560″ height=”315″ src=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/ryl7r6witkm” frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen=””></iframe>

put this piece of code on your website wherever you want your video to go. if you give it to your webmaster, he or she will know what to do.

there’s one very important trick that your webmaster might not know about. when your video finishes playing, youtube automatically suggests more videos to watch. delete this distraction by adding a parameter

rel=0

to your code as shown below. the xxxxxx will be replaced by your video’s own file name.

<iframe width=”560″ height=”315″ src=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/xxxxxxx?rel=0” frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen=””></iframe>

this will stop youtube from suggesting more videos.

be sure to optimize the webpage that you add the video to.

playlists

once you have more than 5 or 10 videos, you can start to create playlists to keep them organized by topic or audience.

subscribers

once you have some videos posted, you’ll want to encourage people to subscribe to your youtube channel. you can do this using social media posts, adding a line to your email signature file, posting the icon on your website, adding a blurb to your newsletter or blog, and similar actions.

youtube alternatives

if you’d like to cover all your bases, there are two more youtube alternatives i suggest posting your video to.

1. vimeo.com
2. dailymotion.com

posted on december 16, 2017