Creating Short Form Video Content | Strategy + Demo

Sami Bedell-Mulhern 0:03
Well, people are starting to come in. Hello, hello. Welcome to the June, nonprofit boot camp guest expert training Patrick, how are you doing?

Patrick Kirby 0:13
Wonderful. I’m actually this is. I mean, I feel like I say this all the time. I’ve been looking forward to this one for a very long time is this. I think, when we’re talking about social media, we talk about like, I don’t understand what the posts are. I don’t know what to create. We’re gonna give the answers today we have the answers. So I am I’m stoked for it.

Sami Bedell-Mulhern 0:33
I love it. So I’m going to introduce, yeah, I’m gonna introduce our guests here in a second. But just a couple of housekeeping things before we kind of get started. Thank you all for being here today. If you’re watching the replay inside the bootcamp. Thank you so much for doing that as well. If you’re here live, please feel free to use the chat to engage to ask questions. This is going to be a very collaborative session. So we’re excited to have that here. The replay will be available in your dashboard within the next 48 hours. So you have that there for you. We are taking the month of July off, we’re on vacation, not on vacation. We’re just on bootcamp vacation for the week. But you know where to find us if you have any questions. But without further ado, I want to introduce our guest expert today. Ben Hendricks. Ben, why don’t you go ahead and introduce yourself and tell everybody a little bit a little bit about you and what you do?

Ben Hendricks 1:39
Sure, great. Thanks for having me. First off, my name is Ben Hendricks. And I’ve been a professional video editor for the last 12 or so years in a variety of different industries, most, most of which in the nonprofit space. But I’ve also done stuff in the music industry, the wedding industry, advertising, and a couple other different fields. But I do. I’ve done all kinds of different videos, from documentaries, to marketing to curriculum tutorials. And most most of my focus now is on short form social media. Which is because that’s the most there’s the most demand for it these days because of the popularity of social media platforms. So that’s what a lot of people want. And that’s how people consume content now. So I think that it’s really important to for every every every business to have some sort of social media video presence, because it is the best way to you know, reach reach your your audience and grow your business.

Sami Bedell-Mulhern 2:48
Yeah, so why don’t you start by really getting super specific about what short form content is, and like what different platforms it can be utilized on.

Ben Hendricks 3:00
short form video is, I mean, any any video that you see on social media, from Instagram, tik, Tok, YouTube, Facebook, and LinkedIn, those are the big five that I focus on, mainly, and it’s the 30 to 92nd clips that you see, a lot of it is talking head style, but it also, you know, can be any others video, you know, repurposing that is done. At the end of the day, it’s, it’s really about storytelling in a short, more compact manner. So I mean, YouTube, is known for its long form, but a lot of it, a lot of stuff is repurposed from, you know, longer videos into those 30 to 32nd. Clips. So really, it’s, it’s the quickest way to get your message across. And there’s different ways to get the message across faster, you know, I focused on things like, you know, getting the hooks, right, you know, getting some sort of, you know, quick narrative around what the video is going to be some of that is scripting, some of that is in pre production. And some of that is just figured out in editing later. But it doesn’t have to be that involved at all, what’s most important is just doing it and getting stuff out there on a consistent basis.

Sami Bedell-Mulhern 4:32
Well, and one of the things that I love about video is that trust factor, and nonprofits have a harder time building trust with potential donors than the average consumer product. So could you kind of talk a little bit about the value that that video brings to building better trust with your audience?

Ben Hendricks 4:52
Yeah, I mean, it’s about building authority. I mean, trust comes from, you know, feeling like you relate To whoever is speaking, and also that that person is expressing some sort of expertise. So and, and a lot of it is just consistency. The more you post, the more you strengthen that authority, and that trust. So it’s really important to have some sort of consistency, and also provide value. It’s about providing value to the people that are consuming the content. You know, I’ve always said the main tenants are, educate, inspire, entertain, especially in the nonprofit space education is really important. Because a lot of times you’re explaining what it is, what you what you do, and why it’s important. So yeah, that’s kind of the gist of that. Yep. Do you have a question?

Patrick Kirby 5:53
Yeah. So Ben, when you’re talking about value, because I think a lot of non profits look at this and say, Okay, I love the idea short form, I want to create content, I want to create value. They don’t know, what is valued to the audience. And I think maybe we is there a way that you would suggest an easy way, or at least like a doable way of figuring out what your what your audience values first, because I think we overcomplicated we’re like assume a lot. And I’m sure there’s an easier answer to how do we figure out what our audience wants?

Ben Hendricks 6:26
I think I think the first thing you need to look at is, what would I want to watch? If I’m scrolling through my feed? Is this something that I’m going to stop and pay attention to? And that, you know, I think that’s the first point. I mean, when you’re getting into like, specific into your know your specific business? Why should someone care about what you’re doing? So those are the those are the main points that I would ask first, when you’re making something? Is this something that I would want to watch? And why is it something that someone would care about? Yep.

Patrick Kirby 7:03
Love that.

Sami Bedell-Mulhern 7:04
Well, and I think that goes back also to having fun and showcasing your personality and engaging a little bit more with video, like the the video pieces that we’re creating for our Gallas or for our like, big fundraising appeals might be a little bit different than what we’re putting out on social media. So it’s important to kind of be raw real and not focus on the perfection and the, like, Polishness of it, right?

Ben Hendricks 7:32
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, it’s, it’s really, I mean, people don’t, aren’t really accepting of BS nowadays. I mean, everything needs to be real. They want to see people are real, and, you know, they just want to be a part, they want to be a part of something. And it’s really about growing that community, through your, through your, through your posts. And, you know, there’s there’s definitely a value in having a more polished side of things. But when you’re doing short form, it really needs to be. It’s all about just connection, you’re connecting with people. That’s really the main the main point of it, if you’re not connecting with it, you know, there’s really no point.

Patrick Kirby 8:23
Yeah, well, that that whole relatability piece is directly correlated to the alignment, whether you feel like you’re going to make a difference by either continuing to watch something, and then what do you do next? Right. So if you don’t feel if you feel disconnected, if you feel like you’re being talked down to or being like, Hey, listen to what I have to say, rather than, Hey, join us on this little particular journey to have a lot easier, it’s a heck of a lot harder to get them to do that second step, which is support, donate share, like, and, and sort of associate yourself with that as well. So I love that.

Ben Hendricks 8:57
Yeah, absolutely. And there’s, there’s, I mean, there’s different ways you can go about it. I mean, everyone needs to develop their own personal style. You know, and it might take a little while figuring out what that style is, you’re not going to you know, make a perfect video right off the bat, you’re gonna it’s gonna take some time to figure out the best way to, you know, reach people the best way to get your message across and find out what your you know, online. Personality is, I mean, everyone thinks they can just get on on a on screen and like, it’ll be perfect. But, you know, there’s little practice involved in that too. But you’re still you still want to identify what it like, what you are as a as a person and as a brand.

Sami Bedell-Mulhern 9:47
Well, and I think the testing part is the hardest part for patients within marketing for organizations, but it’s about I think, like what you’re saying testing different styles of creation, whether it’s direct to camera or graphic goal or, or whatever. But you kind of have to let go of that perfection and just have and have fun with it and just figure out how you want to let your personality shine, right? Do we need to worry so much about all of the trends? Or is it okay to just like, let’s just get started, and let’s just start pushing it out and start collecting kind of

Ben Hendricks 10:19
care about most important thing is just to do it. And then you’ll fall into those. I mean, you’ll get, you know, it’s kind of, it’s kind of nice, you get real time feedback, if something, something works, you know, lean into it, you know, keep doing that sort of thing, you know, and, and you’ll, you’ll try different things. I mean, you shouldn’t do the same thing over and over again, you should be mixing it up and, and trying different things, seeing what works. And, you know, you know, figure out what your strengths are, I mean, and because not everyone’s strengths are gonna be the same, you’re gonna have different things that, that work for you. So it’s about figuring out those things that work?

Sami Bedell-Mulhern 11:03
Well, so if we’re just getting started, how do we come up with content ideas to create these videos from? Like, where should we kind of start to brain dump and come up with with concepts?

Ben Hendricks 11:15
Well, I mean, figure out what, what it is you do. I mean, I would say tips, like giving tips and tricks are the easiest way to just get started, like, what do you know, that someone doesn’t know? Or would want to know, you know, educate your viewers about a particular subject that other people can find value in. So tips are a great way to, you know, lend your expertise, and build that trust. And, you know, it’s something you already know. So something you can already explain to an audience. And, you know, hopefully, hopefully, that I mean, that’s just a good way to get started, as, you know, giving people some sort of informative value about what you know.

Sami Bedell-Mulhern 12:02
Yeah. And like, should we like, who should we? And shouldn’t we feature like, in our business, because you’re gonna have people on your team? They’re like, I’m okay, being on camera, people that don’t want to be on camera? Like, does the person who’s there representing the company matter? Or is it just more about getting that right messaging across?

Ben Hendricks 12:24
Um, I think that I think people want to feel some sort of connection with someone, it doesn’t necessarily have to be the business owner per se. But you want sort of a face of your business? You know, just just have that personal, that personal touch. And not everyone is comfortable on camera, get that. So yeah, I mean, there are different ways to do it. And I would, if someone is not comfortable being on camera, I would, you know, look into other things like voiceovers or you might need some sort of other elements that make it more interesting. So I mean, at the end of the day, it’s about keeping people’s interests to. So

Sami Bedell-Mulhern 13:20
my favorite thing to do when you’ve got like a CEO, or somebody who isn’t comfortable being on camera is like setting up the camera and turning it on without them knowing it, and just asking, like, Hey, this is what we’re going to talk about in this and then just having them talk, they don’t even know that they’ve been recorded. Like, Yep, we got it, we’re done.

Ben Hendricks 13:37
Yeah, I mean, if someone is not comfortable, you know, doing that, find ways to get them on camera, either set up some sort of like, just like set up a zoom, call someone and then just ask them questions. Like, it’s just a one on one, you know, you know, tell them that we’re going to do something a little later on, but make it so it’s, you know, less formal. I would say one thing that you shouldn’t do is read off a script, um, because people see right through that. So I mean, it helps to have a script. But don’t just read it and not give. Don’t read it. Like you’re not talking directly to someone, the most important thing is to treat it like you’re talking directly to someone.

Patrick Kirby 14:29
Well, there’s an authenticity to that if you admit that you’re not really good on camera. There are so many more, so many more, right? So there’s a ton of people who don’t feel comfortable on stage or in front of people that that’s a lot more relatable than somebody who is overly comfortable on camera too. And so you have this wonderful relationship with your audience going God I get that or I would I would never be able to do you know, this kind of thing and admitting it right out that you’ve got an immediate connection to a large majority of your audience, who then understands out of the gate any thumbs, ors, or like verbal errors that you kind of try to make? Because that’s how they speak. And that’s kind of how they hear things as well.

Ben Hendricks 15:08
Yeah, exactly. I think a lot of people are afraid of, you know, the comments that they’ll get. But if you’re, if you’re authentic, you know, you’ll be surprised the positive comments that you’ll get from left to right, a lot of that, that a lot of them can be encouraging. So, you know, it’s kind of just realizing, like, we’re all in the same boat, we’re all just trying to figure this out together. So, you know, just dive in and do it.

Patrick Kirby 15:34
Yeah. And it’s mostly, it’s mostly to a favorable audience to you’re not going out into the great UX. So you’re not creating these kinds of things, specifically to sort of the masses globally, there’s a certain amount of supporters and individuals who just really love this kind of thing. So you’re just speaking to the people who love you the best?

Ben Hendricks 15:56
It’s great. Right, exactly. I mean, there should be some sort of support group, you know, built in with that. So

Sami Bedell-Mulhern 16:06
we have a couple questions in the chat. And then we’ll get to Ben, I know you came with a checklist of how to actually create a short form a piece of short form video, but let’s answer these couple of questions that have come in. So Josh is asking about any recommendations that you have for AI videos? Well, he’s got three questions in one AI videos, tools that you might recommend are animated videos better, and like what products can you not live without?

Ben Hendricks 16:37
Um, so AI Yeah, I mean, AI is a big thing right now. And there’s lots of tools that you can use. There’s one I like called runway. It it’s, you can do a lot of green screen and motion tracking with it. You know, there’s, there’s sort of the, you know, like you said, if you’re not, there are a lot of like, AI face generators and deep fake things you can do to create that sort of talking about things I use the slash ID, and Cynthia, for those kind of talking head videos where you don’t really need to be a person you know, a real person. There’s, there’s so many that I use, I like I like runway the best. If you want to cut down like shorts from a from a longer clip, there’s one called Video B ID, why oh, that will, you know, kind of sort of take like a long form clip and cut them into shorts. That’s a useful thing. are animated videos, better I wouldn’t say they’re better but that just depends, I mean, animate and first of all animated videos take a lot longer to create. And I think that you know, they might give you some more interesting options later down down down the road. I wouldn’t use that as a place to start though. You know, in building your your voice and trying to grow a brand I think animated videos are great for like explainers or you know, more more artistic style of videos. In terms of products. I use it I couldn’t live without I use Adobe Premiere, which is a professional editing software. That’s one thing I could not live without. Because as deep as AI is getting like I Adobe can still do everything that it needs that I need to do. So that’s the tool I use to edit but that’s more advanced editing software. There are more consumer level products like cap cut, which is an app on your phone. That is good for editing. I think there’s a couple other ones. There’s good apps for captions. I think you can do capture captions in cap cut. But yeah, those that’s kind of just that awesome.

Sami Bedell-Mulhern 19:31
And then less Liana, I might have said your name wrong and I apologize. Wants to know that they’re prepping for a headshot video and could use some advice. Am I naive? The term headshot video is not something I’ve heard before.

Ben Hendricks 19:49
Um, I it’s not the term I would use I assume. You mean just like an interview.

Sami Bedell-Mulhern 19:58
Almost like a real You vote are you going to vote? Could you give us a little bit of context to what exactly

Patrick Kirby 20:07
Oh, taking? You’re talking about? Yeah.

Ben Hendricks 20:10
Yeah, talking video? Um, yeah. So yeah, just talking head videos are pretty straightforward. Just you’re talking into the camera, and you’re talking, like, like you’re talking to someone. And you know, I would say don’t don’t just be as natural as and talk like you’re talking to a person. And hopefully. Hopefully, you have a good editor.

Sami Bedell-Mulhern 20:44
Well, and I think what you said earlier, too, about, have your bullets kind of understand what you’re trying to get across, but don’t have a full on script. Because I know a lot of times, like when I’m doing talking head stuff, where I get frustrated is that I get done. And then I’m like, Oh, I wish I would have said, XYZ. And I didn’t say that. So having that bulleted list for you to pull from, so that you can make sure you hit everything. But do you have any, like, mindset tips for because sometimes when I’m recording a talking head, and I know, it’s only 30 or 60 seconds, I like all of a sudden go into super Rush mode, like I have to say all the things really, really, really fast.

Ben Hendricks 21:22
One, one thing I would say is, and this is best this is best practice is don’t, if you can, if you’re planning on doing a lot, do a batch record. So don’t just do one video at a time, take like an hour. And just go through, try to make as many videos as you can from that from that one recording session. And really focus on on the bytes for for each individual video. So if you’re recording for an hour, you might be able to get, you know, 10 to 20 videos, just from that session. So, you know, don’t feel like you need to get everything into one video. The the more focused a video is the better so because it’s really about your viewer understanding the message. And understanding, you know, what bite you’re trying to get across the individual. Because, because there are more videos like you, you shouldn’t get everything into one video, you should be able to you shouldn’t be preparing this if you’re going to be consistent with this and have more videos coming down the road. So you know, I was and I’d also say that it’s it might not be a bad idea just to like sort of set up other videos. So they’ll want to keep watching other videos. So

Sami Bedell-Mulhern 22:55
yeah, well, and you’ve talked when you were on my podcast, you talked a lot about context, and how that’s like a really important thing that we need to pay attention with short form video because it is short, like getting them hooked and understanding the context of what it is is critically important.

Ben Hendricks 23:11
Yeah, they want I mean, you you want to know what it is they’re talking about without, you know, without any other context around it. So you like your people don’t have the context of other things you’re talking about. It’s all focused on one video. So you really want to, you know, make it as focused as possible to, you know, get that, get that story across.

Sami Bedell-Mulhern 23:40
So you have a checklist or a list of things that you do when you’re creating short form video. So could you walk us through what that kind of looks like for you?

Ben Hendricks 23:49
Yeah, um, so I mean, the first thing I would do is defining your objectives you know, what, what is what is the goal of the video? Are you trying to increase brand awareness or generate leads or you know, get website traffic or educate your audience. So just kind of figuring out what what it is you’re trying to go for with video. From there, it’s about, you know, crafting the story. And some of that is is scripting or storyboarding or shot list, if it’s getting more involved. So figuring out sort of the, you know, it’s, it is sort of storytelling. So figuring out, you know, what is the conflict, what is the resolution, what is the introduction and then from there kind of figuring out what the hook is going to be, because that’s gonna be the first part of the video. That’s going to make people want to watch the rest of the video. But you have to keep their attention the whole way through. So that That’s where those those sort of narrative elements come into plays, you know, keeping people watching through the whole video. So, and then once you have all that established, you, you know, there’s the technical aspects of creating a video, which a lot of people can just do on their phones these days, you know, whatever sort of camera you have available, that’s, that’s what you should use. Then there are the other elements involved in shooting, they’re important to be aware of, like, the lighting, and the sound, you know, you don’t want to, you don’t want to be in a super dark room where you can’t be seen things get really grainy, when you’re, you’re dark, you know, you know, I know we’re shooting on our phones and phones are high quality these days, but the lighting and other elements do affect the quality and you want it to be as high quality as you can get. Even with a phone recording, which is more authentic, but just keep in mind those things and sound sounds important to sound is actually underrated. Because people will watch you know, crappy quality video, but they will not sit through a video without without decent sound. So making sure your audio is clear, I would recommend if you get like a you know, there’s like wireless lapel mics you can get what a go Bluetooth, or like for like 2030 bucks. Or, you know, you can do the, you know, the podcast mic or whatever, whatever your budget allows for, yeah, yeah, you got the blue right there. Those are, those are great microphones for this purpose. So making sure you have high quality audio as possible. There are definitely some AI tools that are good for audio editing, that are coming out now that I’ve been using a lot and they’re game changers. So just whatever you need to do to get good audio, make sure you get good audio, good audio. And then for shooting, I think most people understand what we’re doing, you know, talking head for vertical, which do you see, you know, you know, the way you want to shoot depends on where it’s gonna go. So, you know, Instagram Tiktok, you have the vertical, vertical style video, like, only a phone like this. But if you’re shooting, you know, for you to, you might want to shoot like this, which is, you know, we can talk called landscape. And this is vertical. So it’s more of the no difference. Just so you know, what your final output is going to be. Um, and then once you have your video recorded, you know, if there’s the post production element, which is how you’re going to enhance it, you know, you can do the basic, just record on your phone and upload it right away. And that’s all you need to do. But they’re more editing tricks that you can do to make your video more polished, more engaging. I know, captions are a big thing right now, I think it’s important to have captions on your video, or social media, because not everyone has the sound on on their phone all the time, you might, you know, be scrolling and you don’t have your audio on, you still want to, you know, read what they’re saying. But also, if they don’t, I mean, music is another thing that, you know, helps drive a story. So music is important to them. And I focus a lot on that and my edits, you know, the, the mixing of the sound, you know, making sure that the music doesn’t overpower the voice. So that’s, um, you know, that’s those are the kind of basic things you can do. There’s other things you can do in editing such as, you know, adding transitions, graphics, pop ups, things that will hand enhance the overall overall piece. And I would say I mean, if you can cut out all the pauses in your video that would go a long way to and keep up keeping people’s attention and engagement. Just so there’s no blank spaces in between. Like this, like my arms right now, do you want you want to take those things out? So it’s a clear message that gets all the way across. So that’s kind of the gist of creating, creating a video and getting it online and then There’s you know, optimizing, optimizing, optimizing videos for each platform. You know, you want to get into things like hash tags and getting into your target audience and that sort of thing. But that’s kind of the gist of how to just go about creating a video right off the bat.

Patrick Kirby 30:23
So what length of time are we thinking about? Right? So like, is there? Is there a better use of a 32nd? versus a 92nd? And then let me what’s the when? When do you say this isn’t for short form? This is for long form? Is there like a rationale that you usually use? Or is it based purely on the project? Or, like, how do we go about thinking length?

Ben Hendricks 30:46
If so, I mean, it’s gonna sound basic, but do I get bored watching us? You know, I think there’s, there’s any point where I would I would watch a video and get bored, then then, you know, that’s, where do you stand? You know? I think that the length, I don’t think you really need to think about length too much. It’s really just about one, what is going to be the most interesting, possible, you know, long form, I mean, if you want a longer form video, that is going to be, you know, more of a different style. So, you know, I don’t, you know, the talking head might work for that. But that. Yeah, it depends. It’s been, I would just say it depends.

Sami Bedell-Mulhern 31:47
I think it goes back to your initial statement of what’s the purpose of the video you’re trying to create? Like, people ask me all the time, how long should my blog post be in? My answer is as long as it takes you to get the point across. And I would say, I mean, he so it’s, I think, to your point, it’s like, what, what is the purpose of the video, if it works in a short form piece, then do it short form if you need to do long form, because that’s what it takes to a long form.

Ben Hendricks 32:10
I mean, you can look at it is if long form is a focus. The short form is the trailer for the longer piece, you know, movies where you have, you know, a movie, but you have a two minute, three minute trailer that promotes the longer form piece so they can work together, you know, people want to watch a short form video and, or people are watching short form video that might want lead them to want to get more information. So they’ll want to see a longer form video. And then, you know, longer form videos, those are the ones you can just repurpose those into shorts. So they kind of can work together, they don’t have to be one or the other, necessarily, if, if long form as part of your strategy. You know, there’s a great way to get more information out there, that you might not be able to fit into a short form. But I mean, I think that the short form video, you just want to focus on one thing at a time.

Sami Bedell-Mulhern 33:15
Josh was asking, or saying that taking the arms out and trimming videos, is something an issue he has, how do you deal with cuts so that it’s not so noticeable? Like, he tries to stay still and not move as much but like, you know, you can sometimes see where the cuts are happening. So do you have any editing tips for that?

Ben Hendricks 33:34
Yeah, I mean, that’s what I do. infirmier I, they have, that’s the editing software I use to cut those out. You know, I was another thing you can do. Yeah, I mean, when you’re recording, I would recommend some sort of tripod sort of thing, some sort of stabilizer. I mean, there’s probably things on Amazon, you can get for like 20 bucks, that will just clip your mic to and you can hold it to that. So yeah, you will get more have a harder time cutting if you’re just holding your phone with your hands. So that sort of good to have some sort of tool that will keep your camera’s stable. But sorry, what was the question just

Sami Bedell-Mulhern 34:21
about making just making it less noticeable to see even if it’s not just um, or whatever, but how can we make it easier to not see those cuts? Or doesn’t even really matter?

Ben Hendricks 34:33
For what for basic for basic videos like this, I don’t think it necessarily matters, you know, for for in my editing world, like that is a big no no, you like, you need to make sure it always, you know, blows. So there’s other things you can do like, if you have a cut, you would put some sort of B roll over it so no one was cut they’ll they won’t see Though just Utah, there’ll be other visuals that come in on top of the person talking. There’s also a infirmier. There’s a transition called morph cut, which it kind of kind of morphs those two cuts together. So you don’t really notice there’s a different person or different movement. And I get those are more advanced tools. But for basic people, people, most people don’t really notice. As long as the message is good, as long as it as long as you know, the story is coherent.

Sami Bedell-Mulhern 35:42
Well, and Patrick mentioned to you in a comment to Leslie Jana, you know, taking your videos from multiple angles can also help that too. So it’s still you showing in the video, but you can cut back and forth to a different angle to kind of help eliminate that.

Ben Hendricks 35:57
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, yeah, when you record on different different cameras, you have definitely more options. So that’s a good that’s a good way to to go between different shots as

Patrick Kirby 36:08
well, that it just looks like you’re a great like filmmaker mind to there’s not You’re not editing, you’re just you’re just keeping your audience engaged with the delivery of the whole little Oh, the here’s the thing. So

Ben Hendricks 36:19
yeah, I mean, you could use your phone and then have your computer recording at the same time. And then you have two cameras.

Patrick Kirby 36:26
But I guess I think my my response to Josh too, and then you, I noticed because I think about it, I do it all the time, which is I’ve got arms and ors in my speaking pattern anyway, I do it when I’m thinking I do it when I’m sort of maybe drawing out a little more thought process. That’s the way I authentically speak. And so if somebody meets you in real life, and they go, Wait a second, you’re not this, it sounds like you. And then you’re not trying to be somebody else. I think Leslie Anna too, is like I want to script this and I want to get a teleprompter and I want to do this. Your authentic person is more relatable than you think it is on camera. And I think what you said then to a lot of people can pick up on the Bs and the over productive overproduced editing. And when really people are trying to find relatability in a very digital world, people still want the authentic authenticity, they still want relatability they still want that personal connection. And your arms and your Earth, which don’t matter to anyone else’s ear, except for your own is a thing. And I think you don’t need to necessarily overly edit that out. If that’s how you speak in general.

Ben Hendricks 37:36
Yeah, I mean, every every, every person is going to be different. I mean, so I mean, whatever it is, whatever is the most natural, I mean, for arms and pauses, I mean, it’s just gonna be take some feel. I mean, it’s, it’s, it’s just trying to keep keep the story flowing. And that’s really what it comes down to.

Sami Bedell-Mulhern 38:02
Well, I think your three things right, educate, inspire, and entertain, like, you know, having that focus can really help you come up with that content. One of my favorite things to tell some of my clients when they’re trying to come up with short form video content is like, if you’re going out consistently and talking to the community, and they always ask you the same questions. That’s great. 32nd short form video content, like answer those questions, answer those objectives, turn it into a series or objections that objectives, like coming up with those categories. Like, do you kind of when you’re planning out content, like do you kind of come up with like, these are the buckets of things that we know we want to talk about. So we want to have like some that are a little bit more silly in behind the scenes, and we have some that are going to be like really very much like, this is what we’re doing. We have some that are impact stories, like does that help you with your creativity and coming up with ideas for what you’re going to push out?

Ben Hendricks 38:59
Yeah, and sometimes, you know, you might have a good idea, and then you execute it, and it’s like, God just doesn’t work as much, but sometimes, you have might have an idea that you don’t think is gonna be good, but then you try it and it’s, it’s great. So, yeah, I mean, just trying stuff out and, and getting your ideas from from anywhere. I mean, whatever, whatever sparks, you know, something of interest, just go with it. I mean, if you need ideas for videos, I mean, chat. TPT is a great resource to use, you know, with AI stuff, you know, if there’s a lot of it is, you know, kind of surface level but it’s a good place to start. Just getting ideas going and it’s a good place to just get the wheels turning. And go from there.

Sami Bedell-Mulhern 39:54
What kind of prompt would you use to generate better quality? Like tie and older, like, are you looking for video ideas when you’re going to chat? GPT? Are you looking for? Like, do you use it to write out like your bullets? Or to help you create like that storyboard? Or what kind of ways? Might we use something like chat GPT to help us with those content ideas?

Ben Hendricks 40:16
Yeah, I mean, that can help with any sort of idea organizing. It’s really just about getting started. I mean, and that’s, that’s just a good place to get started. First off, I mean, they can give you ideas, and then you might look at it and say, I don’t like that, but made me think of something else. So just go with whatever, whatever feels good. You know, there’s not going to be something on Jet TPT, where it’s like a tell all, be all, it’s it’s going to be trial and error. So yeah, I mean, it’s just about getting started.

Sami Bedell-Mulhern 40:59
So I have a legal question for you. And I know you’re not a lawyer. So this is just your best thoughts. So don’t don’t, you know, take Ben to court if this doesn’t match up with what happens to in your real life. But so much of like, short form content is like in a real space. So like, I might be out in a public space shooting something or I might be at my location, and there’s random people that are walking around or, you know, what do I need to think about with regards to people that might not give me permission to be in my marketing materials? And or, like music rights? If there’s somewhere where music is playing? Like, what things do I need to think about in some of that just in time type content I might be taking in the moment.

Ben Hendricks 41:46
So I don’t think that for anything that’s not going to be able to be monetized. That was where you need permission for these sorts of things. But I don’t think that, for me, I mean, for me, I on social media, video, I mean,

Unknown Speaker 42:06
I, they’re there. They’re

Ben Hendricks 42:11
basically anything is usable with it’s like, I’m, I’ve done some research. And what I’ve come across is, you have rights to use things, if you’re modifying them in your own way, basically. So if I take like a, like a sports clip, like NFL highlight, clip, and try to cut that into a video on on, on Instagram, I’m allowed to do that, because I’m not making money off the product. And I’m repurposing it in a way that is different than than the originally intended piece. You know, music is sort of the same way, because you’re not It’s not being something that’s going to be monetized for permissions from, from people in videos. I mean, that’s not something I’ve I’ve looked into, but I can’t imagine there’s really a whole lot that can be done legally. Because I don’t know how they would enforce that. Right?

Sami Bedell-Mulhern 43:26
Yeah. And well, I think with the music thing, too, it’s like more length of use, like if it’s just a quicks two or three seconds, and you’re usually okay, if you’re playing like a 90, like the whole song and a 92nd video that you don’t have rights to I think that’s where it can get a little hairy.

Ben Hendricks 43:45
Right. I mean, I mostly use, like stock music services, just to avoid all that when possible, but you’re allowed to repurpose other artists songs, and in fact, do them in. It’s encouraged in a lot of cases. That’s how, you know things. That’s how music goes viral.

Sami Bedell-Mulhern 44:07
Right? So Josh is asking, like, how do you get around meta blocking videos with music like that? You can’t. And it doesn’t matter if you’ve given credit, but I think that’s the beauty of using the apps songs that they have as part of their platform, because you know, you’re not going to get in to an issue there.

Ben Hendricks 44:27
Yeah, and Tiktok and Instagram have music libraries. So you can you can put the music that is incorporated into the apps.

Sami Bedell-Mulhern 44:37
Yeah. Um, did I just call you Josh instead of Joshua? I think I did. And that might be rude. I apologize. I don’t know what you did. I just like totally derailed me there for a second. I was like, I’m so sorry. Okay. Um, so just a couple other tactical things. And if anybody has any other questions, pop that in and I know I’m not, you know, you’re not an expert in every single social media platform. But any tips as far as like, I’ve heard things like, well, you should edit reels and Instagram and you should edit tic TOCs and tick tock because the platforms favor their own, kind of they can tell like, you know, when you see a reel on Instagram, and it says, it has a tick tock logo, like, you know, do you have any best practices there that you would like to share as far as how we can create this, these videos and repurpose them on multiple platforms without hurting our organic reach?

Ben Hendricks 45:33
Yeah, don’t don’t edit in the apps in the social media apps themselves and in their outside app. Like, like a app cut or Premiere? That’s just the best way to avoid those kinds of issues. Because they they do. It’s all about the algorithm. That’s just the world we live in. So it’s about getting around the algorithm. And don’t do those things that will negatively impact the algorithm, which is those sort of branded videos that come straight from the app. So just yeah, just once you have a video, you can upload it to multiple places, you know, it’s, it’s, you don’t you don’t need to edit in the apps themselves. Even if you have to edit it. If you don’t know how to do it in a third party app, you know, you can do it multiple times with different apps. I don’t know, I think that’s probably the best way around it, but just yet don’t export from one app and put it into another.

Sami Bedell-Mulhern 46:43
Okay, and then my final question that I’m sure Patrick has a final question. But we talk a lot with our clients about Gen Z and millennials and kind of the shift in fundraising and community, a community building within that generation for how that’s going to help us build a new donor base with younger donors. And, and I know how you feel about this, because we’ve talked about this already, but like, how important and crucial is video in our marketing going to be to continue to connect and retain those younger generations in our mission and community?

Ben Hendricks 47:18
I mean, video is so important. I think I saw like, I mean, I have some stats in front of me, I mean, videos receive 48% more views and generate wealth 100% more shares than images or texts combined. social media posts with video have 50% More views, and those without 80% of consumers believe that video helped them understand a brand better. I mean, it’s really just, it’s more engaging. And it’s more easily shareable. I mean, when someone there people, especially younger generation are more likely to share a video than anything else. So that’s what they connect with. And, and that’s just the world that they live in. I mean, you think back like 15 years ago, I mean, online video wasn’t nearly as important as it is now. But now a lot of that was due to, you know, technology and things like that. But, you know, kids growing up growing up with video, and that’s just how they relate to the world.

Sami Bedell-Mulhern 48:39
Yeah, the quickest way that I can annoy my daughter when I want to is send her tic TOCs of panda bears, because for whatever reason, they show up on my algorithm all the time. And I think they’re super cute, and she finds them to be annoying. So if I want to be a bratty mom, she gets a panda video. And I swear like half of my conversations with my kids via text, or like literally sending videos back and forth to each other. And so yeah, I agree with you there. Patrick, any other final questions that you have for Ben?

Patrick Kirby 49:08
I have about 30 questions that involve panda bear videos. So that’s going to spot an entirely different thing that I need to address later on. So that’s a phone call later. More so though. I think maybe Ben, this is where I think a lot of nonprofits go okay, that just the fact that I have to create short versions or short films or short clips, this is now overwhelming to me. Is it okay? I think I know the answer to this to go back into the well of probably a lot of long form stuff that we have created that there’s a lot of great content in there. Is it okay to use the stuff we’ve already done as part of our plan to reuse a lot of the great information, the great long form pieces and just edit out of that, because I feel like we’ve got a library of things that we’ve done in previous years or previous months, that’s really good, that we don’t have to create something new. If we’ve already got a list of awesome things, we’re just formatting it in a way that people have the attention span of nats will finally pay attention to

Ben Hendricks 50:14
100%. Yes, yes, it ever is available to you, it’s most likely going to be new to most people. Most people don’t pay attention as much as you would think. Even even videos that that you already have that are already repurposed. Post them again, there’s timing involved in this different people see things at different times. So you might have a video that you post the same video, you post multiple times in the same year. And I’ve I’ve, I’ve been in your position to work in a nonprofit that has, like a wealth of long form content that needed to be repurposed, because there’s lots of great, lots of great content that can be made just from what’s already available, use whatever is available, and find new ways to create it. That’s really what it’s all about, and that it’s great for keeping consistency. And it’s already there, it’s sort of doing a disservice to the stuff that you’ve already made. If you don’t find ways to keep repurposing it. We’re doing this

Sami Bedell-Mulhern 51:35
podcast that I host that that podcast is taking two months off for the summer. And, but worse, we have all of these short form pieces that we’ve created, and some of them will reuse. But we’re just going to continue to share the same frequency that we’ve been sharing, but it’s old podcast episodes, because they can still be relevant. Some of them might be stuff we’ve already shared before. But yeah, yeah, I love that you said that, because I think that’s 100% True. People, Patrick, and I say this all the time, people don’t care about us as much as we think they do.

Ben Hendricks 52:13
And it’s sad. It’s it’s that a spotlight spotlight effect that people you know, people assume that people pay more attention to you than you think. Yep. So, um,

Sami Bedell-Mulhern 52:24
if you guys have any final questions, please pop them in the chat. Otherwise, Ben, if people want to connect with you more, or check out more of your tips and resources, how can they do that?

Ben Hendricks 52:38
So here’s my contact for my site. If anyone wants to set up, you know, everyone wants to have a chat sometime. I’m available. They can get ahold of me there. And, yeah, I mean, I’m happy to answer any other questions or talk to any more people that that want any more permission.

Sami Bedell-Mulhern 53:04
Yeah, the other app that I was going to bring up to, I think in is descript. Have you used a script? Much? Yeah, that’s really cool. Video Editing AI tool on that one. Just hit me, Joshua, that might be helpful for you also. And I think I heard a rumor. I think I heard a rumor that loom will also pull out automatically your arms ahhs and pauses.

Ben Hendricks 53:29
I wouldn’t be surprised.

Sami Bedell-Mulhern 53:30
So there might be some free tools out there that can help you do that a little bit more, a little bit more naturally. Well, then this was amazing. Thank you so much for being here and sharing all of your wisdom. I hope this has inspired you to get out and create short form content, make sure you tag us in it so we can engage with it and help you get more visibility for it. Patrick, any last words?

Patrick Kirby 53:58
Now this is so good. And again, I just love the sort of the the bookends of this of like, listen, just figure out why on earth. You’re doing this in the first place. You’ve got a boatload of content already. You’ve got a great starting place where you don’t need to create something brand new, use what you’ve got, start practicing on this stuff, get it out there. And again, what Ben said early on, and should be repeated every single time that you don’t think you’re gaining traction. Consistency will win every single time. All the time. It’s brilliant. You’re awesome.

Ben Hendricks 54:34
Yeah, thanks so much for having me. This has been a lot of fun.

Sami Bedell-Mulhern 54:37
Yeah, Ben, thank you so much. This will be in your student dashboard within the next couple of days. We’ll also make sure all of these links are included in all of the tools. I tried to get them in the chat as fast as Ben was sharing them. So I don’t know if I got them all but I got the majority of them but we’ll make sure all those links are in there for you as well. Especially those of you that are watching the replay. Ben, thank you so much. This has been awesome. and we’ll see you all again in August bye everybody

Creating Short Form Video Content | Strategy + Demo

Sami Bedell-Mulhern 0:03
Well, people are starting to come in. Hello, hello. Welcome to the June, nonprofit boot camp guest expert training Patrick, how are you doing?

Patrick Kirby 0:13
Wonderful. I'm actually this is. I mean, I feel like I say this all the time. I've been looking forward to this one for a very long time is this. I think, when we're talking about social media, we talk about like, I don't understand what the posts are. I don't know what to create. We're gonna give the answers today we have the answers. So I am I'm stoked for it.

Sami Bedell-Mulhern 0:33
I love it. So I'm going to introduce, yeah, I'm gonna introduce our guests here in a second. But just a couple of housekeeping things before we kind of get started. Thank you all for being here today. If you're watching the replay inside the bootcamp. Thank you so much for doing that as well. If you're here live, please feel free to use the chat to engage to ask questions. This is going to be a very collaborative session. So we're excited to have that here. The replay will be available in your dashboard within the next 48 hours. So you have that there for you. We are taking the month of July off, we're on vacation, not on vacation. We're just on bootcamp vacation for the week. But you know where to find us if you have any questions. But without further ado, I want to introduce our guest expert today. Ben Hendricks. Ben, why don't you go ahead and introduce yourself and tell everybody a little bit a little bit about you and what you do?

Ben Hendricks 1:39
Sure, great. Thanks for having me. First off, my name is Ben Hendricks. And I've been a professional video editor for the last 12 or so years in a variety of different industries, most, most of which in the nonprofit space. But I've also done stuff in the music industry, the wedding industry, advertising, and a couple other different fields. But I do. I've done all kinds of different videos, from documentaries, to marketing to curriculum tutorials. And most most of my focus now is on short form social media. Which is because that's the most there's the most demand for it these days because of the popularity of social media platforms. So that's what a lot of people want. And that's how people consume content now. So I think that it's really important to for every every every business to have some sort of social media video presence, because it is the best way to you know, reach reach your your audience and grow your business.

Sami Bedell-Mulhern 2:48
Yeah, so why don't you start by really getting super specific about what short form content is, and like what different platforms it can be utilized on.

Ben Hendricks 3:00
short form video is, I mean, any any video that you see on social media, from Instagram, tik, Tok, YouTube, Facebook, and LinkedIn, those are the big five that I focus on, mainly, and it's the 30 to 92nd clips that you see, a lot of it is talking head style, but it also, you know, can be any others video, you know, repurposing that is done. At the end of the day, it's, it's really about storytelling in a short, more compact manner. So I mean, YouTube, is known for its long form, but a lot of it, a lot of stuff is repurposed from, you know, longer videos into those 30 to 32nd. Clips. So really, it's, it's the quickest way to get your message across. And there's different ways to get the message across faster, you know, I focused on things like, you know, getting the hooks, right, you know, getting some sort of, you know, quick narrative around what the video is going to be some of that is scripting, some of that is in pre production. And some of that is just figured out in editing later. But it doesn't have to be that involved at all, what's most important is just doing it and getting stuff out there on a consistent basis.

Ben Hendricks 4:52
Yeah, I mean, it's about building authority. I mean, trust comes from, you know, feeling like you relate To whoever is speaking, and also that that person is expressing some sort of expertise. So and, and a lot of it is just consistency. The more you post, the more you strengthen that authority, and that trust. So it's really important to have some sort of consistency, and also provide value. It's about providing value to the people that are consuming the content. You know, I've always said the main tenants are, educate, inspire, entertain, especially in the nonprofit space education is really important. Because a lot of times you're explaining what it is, what you what you do, and why it's important. So yeah, that's kind of the gist of that. Yep. Do you have a question?

Patrick Kirby 5:53
Yeah. So Ben, when you're talking about value, because I think a lot of non profits look at this and say, Okay, I love the idea short form, I want to create content, I want to create value. They don't know, what is valued to the audience. And I think maybe we is there a way that you would suggest an easy way, or at least like a doable way of figuring out what your what your audience values first, because I think we overcomplicated we're like assume a lot. And I'm sure there's an easier answer to how do we figure out what our audience wants?

Ben Hendricks 6:26
I think I think the first thing you need to look at is, what would I want to watch? If I'm scrolling through my feed? Is this something that I'm going to stop and pay attention to? And that, you know, I think that's the first point. I mean, when you're getting into like, specific into your know your specific business? Why should someone care about what you're doing? So those are the those are the main points that I would ask first, when you're making something? Is this something that I would want to watch? And why is it something that someone would care about? Yep.

Patrick Kirby 7:03
Love that.

Sami Bedell-Mulhern 7:04
Well, and I think that goes back also to having fun and showcasing your personality and engaging a little bit more with video, like the the video pieces that we're creating for our Gallas or for our like, big fundraising appeals might be a little bit different than what we're putting out on social media. So it's important to kind of be raw real and not focus on the perfection and the, like, Polishness of it, right?

Ben Hendricks 7:32
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, it's, it's really, I mean, people don't, aren't really accepting of BS nowadays. I mean, everything needs to be real. They want to see people are real, and, you know, they just want to be a part, they want to be a part of something. And it's really about growing that community, through your, through your, through your posts. And, you know, there's there's definitely a value in having a more polished side of things. But when you're doing short form, it really needs to be. It's all about just connection, you're connecting with people. That's really the main the main point of it, if you're not connecting with it, you know, there's really no point.

Patrick Kirby 8:23
Yeah, well, that that whole relatability piece is directly correlated to the alignment, whether you feel like you're going to make a difference by either continuing to watch something, and then what do you do next? Right. So if you don't feel if you feel disconnected, if you feel like you're being talked down to or being like, Hey, listen to what I have to say, rather than, Hey, join us on this little particular journey to have a lot easier, it's a heck of a lot harder to get them to do that second step, which is support, donate share, like, and, and sort of associate yourself with that as well. So I love that.

Ben Hendricks 8:57
Yeah, absolutely. And there's, there's, I mean, there's different ways you can go about it. I mean, everyone needs to develop their own personal style. You know, and it might take a little while figuring out what that style is, you're not going to you know, make a perfect video right off the bat, you're gonna it's gonna take some time to figure out the best way to, you know, reach people the best way to get your message across and find out what your you know, online. Personality is, I mean, everyone thinks they can just get on on a on screen and like, it'll be perfect. But, you know, there's little practice involved in that too. But you're still you still want to identify what it like, what you are as a as a person and as a brand.

Sami Bedell-Mulhern 9:47
Well, and I think the testing part is the hardest part for patients within marketing for organizations, but it's about I think, like what you're saying testing different styles of creation, whether it's direct to camera or graphic goal or, or whatever. But you kind of have to let go of that perfection and just have and have fun with it and just figure out how you want to let your personality shine, right? Do we need to worry so much about all of the trends? Or is it okay to just like, let's just get started, and let's just start pushing it out and start collecting kind of

Ben Hendricks 10:19
care about most important thing is just to do it. And then you'll fall into those. I mean, you'll get, you know, it's kind of, it's kind of nice, you get real time feedback, if something, something works, you know, lean into it, you know, keep doing that sort of thing, you know, and, and you'll, you'll try different things. I mean, you shouldn't do the same thing over and over again, you should be mixing it up and, and trying different things, seeing what works. And, you know, you know, figure out what your strengths are, I mean, and because not everyone's strengths are gonna be the same, you're gonna have different things that, that work for you. So it's about figuring out those things that work?

Sami Bedell-Mulhern 11:03
Well, so if we're just getting started, how do we come up with content ideas to create these videos from? Like, where should we kind of start to brain dump and come up with with concepts?

Ben Hendricks 11:15
Well, I mean, figure out what, what it is you do. I mean, I would say tips, like giving tips and tricks are the easiest way to just get started, like, what do you know, that someone doesn't know? Or would want to know, you know, educate your viewers about a particular subject that other people can find value in. So tips are a great way to, you know, lend your expertise, and build that trust. And, you know, it's something you already know. So something you can already explain to an audience. And, you know, hopefully, hopefully, that I mean, that's just a good way to get started, as, you know, giving people some sort of informative value about what you know.

Sami Bedell-Mulhern 12:02
Yeah. And like, should we like, who should we? And shouldn't we feature like, in our business, because you're gonna have people on your team? They're like, I'm okay, being on camera, people that don't want to be on camera? Like, does the person who's there representing the company matter? Or is it just more about getting that right messaging across?

Ben Hendricks 12:24
Um, I think that I think people want to feel some sort of connection with someone, it doesn't necessarily have to be the business owner per se. But you want sort of a face of your business? You know, just just have that personal, that personal touch. And not everyone is comfortable on camera, get that. So yeah, I mean, there are different ways to do it. And I would, if someone is not comfortable being on camera, I would, you know, look into other things like voiceovers or you might need some sort of other elements that make it more interesting. So I mean, at the end of the day, it's about keeping people's interests to. So

Sami Bedell-Mulhern 13:20
my favorite thing to do when you've got like a CEO, or somebody who isn't comfortable being on camera is like setting up the camera and turning it on without them knowing it, and just asking, like, Hey, this is what we're going to talk about in this and then just having them talk, they don't even know that they've been recorded. Like, Yep, we got it, we're done.

Ben Hendricks 13:37
Yeah, I mean, if someone is not comfortable, you know, doing that, find ways to get them on camera, either set up some sort of like, just like set up a zoom, call someone and then just ask them questions. Like, it's just a one on one, you know, you know, tell them that we're going to do something a little later on, but make it so it's, you know, less formal. I would say one thing that you shouldn't do is read off a script, um, because people see right through that. So I mean, it helps to have a script. But don't just read it and not give. Don't read it. Like you're not talking directly to someone, the most important thing is to treat it like you're talking directly to someone.

Patrick Kirby 14:29
Well, there's an authenticity to that if you admit that you're not really good on camera. There are so many more, so many more, right? So there's a ton of people who don't feel comfortable on stage or in front of people that that's a lot more relatable than somebody who is overly comfortable on camera too. And so you have this wonderful relationship with your audience going God I get that or I would I would never be able to do you know, this kind of thing and admitting it right out that you've got an immediate connection to a large majority of your audience, who then understands out of the gate any thumbs, ors, or like verbal errors that you kind of try to make? Because that's how they speak. And that's kind of how they hear things as well.

Ben Hendricks 15:08
Yeah, exactly. I think a lot of people are afraid of, you know, the comments that they'll get. But if you're, if you're authentic, you know, you'll be surprised the positive comments that you'll get from left to right, a lot of that, that a lot of them can be encouraging. So, you know, it's kind of just realizing, like, we're all in the same boat, we're all just trying to figure this out together. So, you know, just dive in and do it.

Patrick Kirby 15:34
Yeah. And it's mostly, it's mostly to a favorable audience to you're not going out into the great UX. So you're not creating these kinds of things, specifically to sort of the masses globally, there's a certain amount of supporters and individuals who just really love this kind of thing. So you're just speaking to the people who love you the best?

Ben Hendricks 15:56
It's great. Right, exactly. I mean, there should be some sort of support group, you know, built in with that. So

Sami Bedell-Mulhern 16:06
we have a couple questions in the chat. And then we'll get to Ben, I know you came with a checklist of how to actually create a short form a piece of short form video, but let's answer these couple of questions that have come in. So Josh is asking about any recommendations that you have for AI videos? Well, he's got three questions in one AI videos, tools that you might recommend are animated videos better, and like what products can you not live without?

Ben Hendricks 16:37
Um, so AI Yeah, I mean, AI is a big thing right now. And there's lots of tools that you can use. There's one I like called runway. It it's, you can do a lot of green screen and motion tracking with it. You know, there's, there's sort of the, you know, like you said, if you're not, there are a lot of like, AI face generators and deep fake things you can do to create that sort of talking about things I use the slash ID, and Cynthia, for those kind of talking head videos where you don't really need to be a person you know, a real person. There's, there's so many that I use, I like I like runway the best. If you want to cut down like shorts from a from a longer clip, there's one called Video B ID, why oh, that will, you know, kind of sort of take like a long form clip and cut them into shorts. That's a useful thing. are animated videos, better I wouldn't say they're better but that just depends, I mean, animate and first of all animated videos take a lot longer to create. And I think that you know, they might give you some more interesting options later down down down the road. I wouldn't use that as a place to start though. You know, in building your your voice and trying to grow a brand I think animated videos are great for like explainers or you know, more more artistic style of videos. In terms of products. I use it I couldn't live without I use Adobe Premiere, which is a professional editing software. That's one thing I could not live without. Because as deep as AI is getting like I Adobe can still do everything that it needs that I need to do. So that's the tool I use to edit but that's more advanced editing software. There are more consumer level products like cap cut, which is an app on your phone. That is good for editing. I think there's a couple other ones. There's good apps for captions. I think you can do capture captions in cap cut. But yeah, those that's kind of just that awesome.

Sami Bedell-Mulhern 19:31
And then less Liana, I might have said your name wrong and I apologize. Wants to know that they're prepping for a headshot video and could use some advice. Am I naive? The term headshot video is not something I've heard before.

Ben Hendricks 19:49
Um, I it's not the term I would use I assume. You mean just like an interview.

Sami Bedell-Mulhern 19:58
Almost like a real You vote are you going to vote? Could you give us a little bit of context to what exactly

Patrick Kirby 20:07
Oh, taking? You're talking about? Yeah.

Ben Hendricks 20:10
Yeah, talking video? Um, yeah. So yeah, just talking head videos are pretty straightforward. Just you're talking into the camera, and you're talking, like, like you're talking to someone. And you know, I would say don't don't just be as natural as and talk like you're talking to a person. And hopefully. Hopefully, you have a good editor.

Sami Bedell-Mulhern 20:44
Well, and I think what you said earlier, too, about, have your bullets kind of understand what you're trying to get across, but don't have a full on script. Because I know a lot of times, like when I'm doing talking head stuff, where I get frustrated is that I get done. And then I'm like, Oh, I wish I would have said, XYZ. And I didn't say that. So having that bulleted list for you to pull from, so that you can make sure you hit everything. But do you have any, like, mindset tips for because sometimes when I'm recording a talking head, and I know, it's only 30 or 60 seconds, I like all of a sudden go into super Rush mode, like I have to say all the things really, really, really fast.

Ben Hendricks 21:22
One, one thing I would say is, and this is best this is best practice is don't, if you can, if you're planning on doing a lot, do a batch record. So don't just do one video at a time, take like an hour. And just go through, try to make as many videos as you can from that from that one recording session. And really focus on on the bytes for for each individual video. So if you're recording for an hour, you might be able to get, you know, 10 to 20 videos, just from that session. So, you know, don't feel like you need to get everything into one video. The the more focused a video is the better so because it's really about your viewer understanding the message. And understanding, you know, what bite you're trying to get across the individual. Because, because there are more videos like you, you shouldn't get everything into one video, you should be able to you shouldn't be preparing this if you're going to be consistent with this and have more videos coming down the road. So you know, I was and I'd also say that it's it might not be a bad idea just to like sort of set up other videos. So they'll want to keep watching other videos. So

Sami Bedell-Mulhern 22:55
yeah, well, and you've talked when you were on my podcast, you talked a lot about context, and how that's like a really important thing that we need to pay attention with short form video because it is short, like getting them hooked and understanding the context of what it is is critically important.

Ben Hendricks 23:11
Yeah, they want I mean, you you want to know what it is they're talking about without, you know, without any other context around it. So you like your people don't have the context of other things you're talking about. It's all focused on one video. So you really want to, you know, make it as focused as possible to, you know, get that, get that story across.

Sami Bedell-Mulhern 23:40
So you have a checklist or a list of things that you do when you're creating short form video. So could you walk us through what that kind of looks like for you?

Ben Hendricks 23:49
Yeah, um, so I mean, the first thing I would do is defining your objectives you know, what, what is what is the goal of the video? Are you trying to increase brand awareness or generate leads or you know, get website traffic or educate your audience. So just kind of figuring out what what it is you're trying to go for with video. From there, it's about, you know, crafting the story. And some of that is is scripting or storyboarding or shot list, if it's getting more involved. So figuring out sort of the, you know, it's, it is sort of storytelling. So figuring out, you know, what is the conflict, what is the resolution, what is the introduction and then from there kind of figuring out what the hook is going to be, because that's gonna be the first part of the video. That's going to make people want to watch the rest of the video. But you have to keep their attention the whole way through. So that That's where those those sort of narrative elements come into plays, you know, keeping people watching through the whole video. So, and then once you have all that established, you, you know, there's the technical aspects of creating a video, which a lot of people can just do on their phones these days, you know, whatever sort of camera you have available, that's, that's what you should use. Then there are the other elements involved in shooting, they're important to be aware of, like, the lighting, and the sound, you know, you don't want to, you don't want to be in a super dark room where you can't be seen things get really grainy, when you're, you're dark, you know, you know, I know we're shooting on our phones and phones are high quality these days, but the lighting and other elements do affect the quality and you want it to be as high quality as you can get. Even with a phone recording, which is more authentic, but just keep in mind those things and sound sounds important to sound is actually underrated. Because people will watch you know, crappy quality video, but they will not sit through a video without without decent sound. So making sure your audio is clear, I would recommend if you get like a you know, there's like wireless lapel mics you can get what a go Bluetooth, or like for like 2030 bucks. Or, you know, you can do the, you know, the podcast mic or whatever, whatever your budget allows for, yeah, yeah, you got the blue right there. Those are, those are great microphones for this purpose. So making sure you have high quality audio as possible. There are definitely some AI tools that are good for audio editing, that are coming out now that I've been using a lot and they're game changers. So just whatever you need to do to get good audio, make sure you get good audio, good audio. And then for shooting, I think most people understand what we're doing, you know, talking head for vertical, which do you see, you know, you know, the way you want to shoot depends on where it's gonna go. So, you know, Instagram Tiktok, you have the vertical, vertical style video, like, only a phone like this. But if you're shooting, you know, for you to, you might want to shoot like this, which is, you know, we can talk called landscape. And this is vertical. So it's more of the no difference. Just so you know, what your final output is going to be. Um, and then once you have your video recorded, you know, if there's the post production element, which is how you're going to enhance it, you know, you can do the basic, just record on your phone and upload it right away. And that's all you need to do. But they're more editing tricks that you can do to make your video more polished, more engaging. I know, captions are a big thing right now, I think it's important to have captions on your video, or social media, because not everyone has the sound on on their phone all the time, you might, you know, be scrolling and you don't have your audio on, you still want to, you know, read what they're saying. But also, if they don't, I mean, music is another thing that, you know, helps drive a story. So music is important to them. And I focus a lot on that and my edits, you know, the, the mixing of the sound, you know, making sure that the music doesn't overpower the voice. So that's, um, you know, that's those are the kind of basic things you can do. There's other things you can do in editing such as, you know, adding transitions, graphics, pop ups, things that will hand enhance the overall overall piece. And I would say I mean, if you can cut out all the pauses in your video that would go a long way to and keep up keeping people's attention and engagement. Just so there's no blank spaces in between. Like this, like my arms right now, do you want you want to take those things out? So it's a clear message that gets all the way across. So that's kind of the gist of creating, creating a video and getting it online and then There's you know, optimizing, optimizing, optimizing videos for each platform. You know, you want to get into things like hash tags and getting into your target audience and that sort of thing. But that's kind of the gist of how to just go about creating a video right off the bat.

Patrick Kirby 30:23
So what length of time are we thinking about? Right? So like, is there? Is there a better use of a 32nd? versus a 92nd? And then let me what's the when? When do you say this isn't for short form? This is for long form? Is there like a rationale that you usually use? Or is it based purely on the project? Or, like, how do we go about thinking length?

Ben Hendricks 30:46
If so, I mean, it's gonna sound basic, but do I get bored watching us? You know, I think there's, there's any point where I would I would watch a video and get bored, then then, you know, that's, where do you stand? You know? I think that the length, I don't think you really need to think about length too much. It's really just about one, what is going to be the most interesting, possible, you know, long form, I mean, if you want a longer form video, that is going to be, you know, more of a different style. So, you know, I don't, you know, the talking head might work for that. But that. Yeah, it depends. It's been, I would just say it depends.

Sami Bedell-Mulhern 31:47
I think it goes back to your initial statement of what's the purpose of the video you're trying to create? Like, people ask me all the time, how long should my blog post be in? My answer is as long as it takes you to get the point across. And I would say, I mean, he so it's, I think, to your point, it's like, what, what is the purpose of the video, if it works in a short form piece, then do it short form if you need to do long form, because that's what it takes to a long form.

Ben Hendricks 32:10
I mean, you can look at it is if long form is a focus. The short form is the trailer for the longer piece, you know, movies where you have, you know, a movie, but you have a two minute, three minute trailer that promotes the longer form piece so they can work together, you know, people want to watch a short form video and, or people are watching short form video that might want lead them to want to get more information. So they'll want to see a longer form video. And then, you know, longer form videos, those are the ones you can just repurpose those into shorts. So they kind of can work together, they don't have to be one or the other, necessarily, if, if long form as part of your strategy. You know, there's a great way to get more information out there, that you might not be able to fit into a short form. But I mean, I think that the short form video, you just want to focus on one thing at a time.

Sami Bedell-Mulhern 33:15
Josh was asking, or saying that taking the arms out and trimming videos, is something an issue he has, how do you deal with cuts so that it's not so noticeable? Like, he tries to stay still and not move as much but like, you know, you can sometimes see where the cuts are happening. So do you have any editing tips for that?

Ben Hendricks 33:34
Yeah, I mean, that's what I do. infirmier I, they have, that's the editing software I use to cut those out. You know, I was another thing you can do. Yeah, I mean, when you're recording, I would recommend some sort of tripod sort of thing, some sort of stabilizer. I mean, there's probably things on Amazon, you can get for like 20 bucks, that will just clip your mic to and you can hold it to that. So yeah, you will get more have a harder time cutting if you're just holding your phone with your hands. So that sort of good to have some sort of tool that will keep your camera's stable. But sorry, what was the question just

Sami Bedell-Mulhern 34:21
about making just making it less noticeable to see even if it's not just um, or whatever, but how can we make it easier to not see those cuts? Or doesn't even really matter?

Ben Hendricks 34:33
For what for basic for basic videos like this, I don't think it necessarily matters, you know, for for in my editing world, like that is a big no no, you like, you need to make sure it always, you know, blows. So there's other things you can do like, if you have a cut, you would put some sort of B roll over it so no one was cut they'll they won't see Though just Utah, there'll be other visuals that come in on top of the person talking. There's also a infirmier. There's a transition called morph cut, which it kind of kind of morphs those two cuts together. So you don't really notice there's a different person or different movement. And I get those are more advanced tools. But for basic people, people, most people don't really notice. As long as the message is good, as long as it as long as you know, the story is coherent.

Sami Bedell-Mulhern 35:42
Well, and Patrick mentioned to you in a comment to Leslie Jana, you know, taking your videos from multiple angles can also help that too. So it's still you showing in the video, but you can cut back and forth to a different angle to kind of help eliminate that.

Ben Hendricks 35:57
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, yeah, when you record on different different cameras, you have definitely more options. So that's a good that's a good way to to go between different shots as

Patrick Kirby 36:08
well, that it just looks like you're a great like filmmaker mind to there's not You're not editing, you're just you're just keeping your audience engaged with the delivery of the whole little Oh, the here's the thing. So

Ben Hendricks 36:19
yeah, I mean, you could use your phone and then have your computer recording at the same time. And then you have two cameras.

Patrick Kirby 36:26
But I guess I think my my response to Josh too, and then you, I noticed because I think about it, I do it all the time, which is I've got arms and ors in my speaking pattern anyway, I do it when I'm thinking I do it when I'm sort of maybe drawing out a little more thought process. That's the way I authentically speak. And so if somebody meets you in real life, and they go, Wait a second, you're not this, it sounds like you. And then you're not trying to be somebody else. I think Leslie Anna too, is like I want to script this and I want to get a teleprompter and I want to do this. Your authentic person is more relatable than you think it is on camera. And I think what you said then to a lot of people can pick up on the Bs and the over productive overproduced editing. And when really people are trying to find relatability in a very digital world, people still want the authentic authenticity, they still want relatability they still want that personal connection. And your arms and your Earth, which don't matter to anyone else's ear, except for your own is a thing. And I think you don't need to necessarily overly edit that out. If that's how you speak in general.

Ben Hendricks 37:36
Yeah, I mean, every every, every person is going to be different. I mean, so I mean, whatever it is, whatever is the most natural, I mean, for arms and pauses, I mean, it's just gonna be take some feel. I mean, it's, it's, it's just trying to keep keep the story flowing. And that's really what it comes down to.

Sami Bedell-Mulhern 38:02
Well, I think your three things right, educate, inspire, and entertain, like, you know, having that focus can really help you come up with that content. One of my favorite things to tell some of my clients when they're trying to come up with short form video content is like, if you're going out consistently and talking to the community, and they always ask you the same questions. That's great. 32nd short form video content, like answer those questions, answer those objectives, turn it into a series or objections that objectives, like coming up with those categories. Like, do you kind of when you're planning out content, like do you kind of come up with like, these are the buckets of things that we know we want to talk about. So we want to have like some that are a little bit more silly in behind the scenes, and we have some that are going to be like really very much like, this is what we're doing. We have some that are impact stories, like does that help you with your creativity and coming up with ideas for what you're going to push out?

Ben Hendricks 38:59
Yeah, and sometimes, you know, you might have a good idea, and then you execute it, and it's like, God just doesn't work as much, but sometimes, you have might have an idea that you don't think is gonna be good, but then you try it and it's, it's great. So, yeah, I mean, just trying stuff out and, and getting your ideas from from anywhere. I mean, whatever, whatever sparks, you know, something of interest, just go with it. I mean, if you need ideas for videos, I mean, chat. TPT is a great resource to use, you know, with AI stuff, you know, if there's a lot of it is, you know, kind of surface level but it's a good place to start. Just getting ideas going and it's a good place to just get the wheels turning. And go from there.

Sami Bedell-Mulhern 39:54
What kind of prompt would you use to generate better quality? Like tie and older, like, are you looking for video ideas when you're going to chat? GPT? Are you looking for? Like, do you use it to write out like your bullets? Or to help you create like that storyboard? Or what kind of ways? Might we use something like chat GPT to help us with those content ideas?

Ben Hendricks 40:16
Yeah, I mean, that can help with any sort of idea organizing. It's really just about getting started. I mean, and that's, that's just a good place to get started. First off, I mean, they can give you ideas, and then you might look at it and say, I don't like that, but made me think of something else. So just go with whatever, whatever feels good. You know, there's not going to be something on Jet TPT, where it's like a tell all, be all, it's it's going to be trial and error. So yeah, I mean, it's just about getting started.

Sami Bedell-Mulhern 40:59
So I have a legal question for you. And I know you're not a lawyer. So this is just your best thoughts. So don't don't, you know, take Ben to court if this doesn't match up with what happens to in your real life. But so much of like, short form content is like in a real space. So like, I might be out in a public space shooting something or I might be at my location, and there's random people that are walking around or, you know, what do I need to think about with regards to people that might not give me permission to be in my marketing materials? And or, like music rights? If there's somewhere where music is playing? Like, what things do I need to think about in some of that just in time type content I might be taking in the moment.

Ben Hendricks 41:46
So I don't think that for anything that's not going to be able to be monetized. That was where you need permission for these sorts of things. But I don't think that, for me, I mean, for me, I on social media, video, I mean,

Unknown Speaker 42:06
I, they're there. They're

Ben Hendricks 42:11
basically anything is usable with it's like, I'm, I've done some research. And what I've come across is, you have rights to use things, if you're modifying them in your own way, basically. So if I take like a, like a sports clip, like NFL highlight, clip, and try to cut that into a video on on, on Instagram, I'm allowed to do that, because I'm not making money off the product. And I'm repurposing it in a way that is different than than the originally intended piece. You know, music is sort of the same way, because you're not It's not being something that's going to be monetized for permissions from, from people in videos. I mean, that's not something I've I've looked into, but I can't imagine there's really a whole lot that can be done legally. Because I don't know how they would enforce that. Right?

Sami Bedell-Mulhern 43:26
Yeah. And well, I think with the music thing, too, it's like more length of use, like if it's just a quicks two or three seconds, and you're usually okay, if you're playing like a 90, like the whole song and a 92nd video that you don't have rights to I think that's where it can get a little hairy.

Ben Hendricks 43:45
Right. I mean, I mostly use, like stock music services, just to avoid all that when possible, but you're allowed to repurpose other artists songs, and in fact, do them in. It's encouraged in a lot of cases. That's how, you know things. That's how music goes viral.

Sami Bedell-Mulhern 44:07
Right? So Josh is asking, like, how do you get around meta blocking videos with music like that? You can't. And it doesn't matter if you've given credit, but I think that's the beauty of using the apps songs that they have as part of their platform, because you know, you're not going to get in to an issue there.

Ben Hendricks 44:27
Yeah, and Tiktok and Instagram have music libraries. So you can you can put the music that is incorporated into the apps.

Sami Bedell-Mulhern 44:37
Yeah. Um, did I just call you Josh instead of Joshua? I think I did. And that might be rude. I apologize. I don't know what you did. I just like totally derailed me there for a second. I was like, I'm so sorry. Okay. Um, so just a couple other tactical things. And if anybody has any other questions, pop that in and I know I'm not, you know, you're not an expert in every single social media platform. But any tips as far as like, I've heard things like, well, you should edit reels and Instagram and you should edit tic TOCs and tick tock because the platforms favor their own, kind of they can tell like, you know, when you see a reel on Instagram, and it says, it has a tick tock logo, like, you know, do you have any best practices there that you would like to share as far as how we can create this, these videos and repurpose them on multiple platforms without hurting our organic reach?

Ben Hendricks 45:33
Yeah, don't don't edit in the apps in the social media apps themselves and in their outside app. Like, like a app cut or Premiere? That's just the best way to avoid those kinds of issues. Because they they do. It's all about the algorithm. That's just the world we live in. So it's about getting around the algorithm. And don't do those things that will negatively impact the algorithm, which is those sort of branded videos that come straight from the app. So just yeah, just once you have a video, you can upload it to multiple places, you know, it's, it's, you don't you don't need to edit in the apps themselves. Even if you have to edit it. If you don't know how to do it in a third party app, you know, you can do it multiple times with different apps. I don't know, I think that's probably the best way around it, but just yet don't export from one app and put it into another.

Sami Bedell-Mulhern 46:43
Okay, and then my final question that I'm sure Patrick has a final question. But we talk a lot with our clients about Gen Z and millennials and kind of the shift in fundraising and community, a community building within that generation for how that's going to help us build a new donor base with younger donors. And, and I know how you feel about this, because we've talked about this already, but like, how important and crucial is video in our marketing going to be to continue to connect and retain those younger generations in our mission and community?

Ben Hendricks 47:18
I mean, video is so important. I think I saw like, I mean, I have some stats in front of me, I mean, videos receive 48% more views and generate wealth 100% more shares than images or texts combined. social media posts with video have 50% More views, and those without 80% of consumers believe that video helped them understand a brand better. I mean, it's really just, it's more engaging. And it's more easily shareable. I mean, when someone there people, especially younger generation are more likely to share a video than anything else. So that's what they connect with. And, and that's just the world that they live in. I mean, you think back like 15 years ago, I mean, online video wasn't nearly as important as it is now. But now a lot of that was due to, you know, technology and things like that. But, you know, kids growing up growing up with video, and that's just how they relate to the world.

Sami Bedell-Mulhern 48:39
Yeah, the quickest way that I can annoy my daughter when I want to is send her tic TOCs of panda bears, because for whatever reason, they show up on my algorithm all the time. And I think they're super cute, and she finds them to be annoying. So if I want to be a bratty mom, she gets a panda video. And I swear like half of my conversations with my kids via text, or like literally sending videos back and forth to each other. And so yeah, I agree with you there. Patrick, any other final questions that you have for Ben?

Patrick Kirby 49:08
I have about 30 questions that involve panda bear videos. So that's going to spot an entirely different thing that I need to address later on. So that's a phone call later. More so though. I think maybe Ben, this is where I think a lot of nonprofits go okay, that just the fact that I have to create short versions or short films or short clips, this is now overwhelming to me. Is it okay? I think I know the answer to this to go back into the well of probably a lot of long form stuff that we have created that there's a lot of great content in there. Is it okay to use the stuff we've already done as part of our plan to reuse a lot of the great information, the great long form pieces and just edit out of that, because I feel like we've got a library of things that we've done in previous years or previous months, that's really good, that we don't have to create something new. If we've already got a list of awesome things, we're just formatting it in a way that people have the attention span of nats will finally pay attention to

Ben Hendricks 50:14
100%. Yes, yes, it ever is available to you, it's most likely going to be new to most people. Most people don't pay attention as much as you would think. Even even videos that that you already have that are already repurposed. Post them again, there's timing involved in this different people see things at different times. So you might have a video that you post the same video, you post multiple times in the same year. And I've I've, I've been in your position to work in a nonprofit that has, like a wealth of long form content that needed to be repurposed, because there's lots of great, lots of great content that can be made just from what's already available, use whatever is available, and find new ways to create it. That's really what it's all about, and that it's great for keeping consistency. And it's already there, it's sort of doing a disservice to the stuff that you've already made. If you don't find ways to keep repurposing it. We're doing this

Sami Bedell-Mulhern 51:35
podcast that I host that that podcast is taking two months off for the summer. And, but worse, we have all of these short form pieces that we've created, and some of them will reuse. But we're just going to continue to share the same frequency that we've been sharing, but it's old podcast episodes, because they can still be relevant. Some of them might be stuff we've already shared before. But yeah, yeah, I love that you said that, because I think that's 100% True. People, Patrick, and I say this all the time, people don't care about us as much as we think they do.

Ben Hendricks 52:13
And it's sad. It's it's that a spotlight spotlight effect that people you know, people assume that people pay more attention to you than you think. Yep. So, um,

Ben Hendricks 52:38
So here's my contact for my site. If anyone wants to set up, you know, everyone wants to have a chat sometime. I'm available. They can get ahold of me there. And, yeah, I mean, I'm happy to answer any other questions or talk to any more people that that want any more permission.

Sami Bedell-Mulhern 53:04
Yeah, the other app that I was going to bring up to, I think in is descript. Have you used a script? Much? Yeah, that's really cool. Video Editing AI tool on that one. Just hit me, Joshua, that might be helpful for you also. And I think I heard a rumor. I think I heard a rumor that loom will also pull out automatically your arms ahhs and pauses.

Ben Hendricks 53:29
I wouldn't be surprised.

Patrick Kirby 53:58
Now this is so good. And again, I just love the sort of the the bookends of this of like, listen, just figure out why on earth. You're doing this in the first place. You've got a boatload of content already. You've got a great starting place where you don't need to create something brand new, use what you've got, start practicing on this stuff, get it out there. And again, what Ben said early on, and should be repeated every single time that you don't think you're gaining traction. Consistency will win every single time. All the time. It's brilliant. You're awesome.

Ben Hendricks 54:34
Yeah, thanks so much for having me. This has been a lot of fun.

Sami Bedell-Mulhern 54:37
Yeah, Ben, thank you so much. This will be in your student dashboard within the next couple of days. We'll also make sure all of these links are included in all of the tools. I tried to get them in the chat as fast as Ben was sharing them. So I don't know if I got them all but I got the majority of them but we'll make sure all those links are in there for you as well. Especially those of you that are watching the replay. Ben, thank you so much. This has been awesome. and we'll see you all again in August bye everybody