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Video is here and it’s here to stay folks! Hopefully you’ve caught onto this already, but if you haven’t yet, I’m letting you know that it’s definitely DEFINITELY here for good! There, it’s been said. Twice. Let’s move forward!
Activating video in your workplace, for many, is a brand new and scary thing! Whoaaa! Whilst there might be plenty of Instagrammers, YouTubers or Facebookers in your team, they may not yet feel 100% comfortable bringing those same skills to their professional arena.
How do we build video skills at work? Excellent question! Here are some fun team activities of mine, to introduce video gently and diffuse any nerves in your team! These activities can be done in your monthly team meetings, team building days or built into professional development sessions.
ACTIVITY #1 - Create an Instagram or Facebook story
This activity is particularly great for those really freaking out about video or those who are time poor. IG and FB stories only require 15 mins of time or short intervals of time over a day.
1. Team up in twos or threes. Balance each group with confident social media users and those who frequent it less. If there are people in your team who don’t use social media at all, they’ll need to be with a buddy who does.
2. Provide some guidelines so that people are videoing with purpose. For example, if you have a work event approaching, ask your team to spend 10-15 minutes at this event documenting it in video for their story—they could video event highlights, interview colleagues, voice over event footage etc.
3. Alternatively, allocate a day of the week to each pair and ask them to create a short “what we get up to on _____” for their allocated video story day (#worklife)!
Make sure you #leadbyexample and kick off this activity by sharing your own IG or FB story as an example so the activity is clear to the team and easy to follow. Debrief with each pair soon after their video posting so you don't ‘drop the ball’ (also, stories expire after 24 hours or go to archive) it’ll help keep momentum and spirits high. You could even ask your team to come up with a hashtag for this skill-building activity!
ACTIVITY #2 - The sixty second interview
When I say interview, I simply mean having a conversation with your colleague! No pre rehearsed or practiced answers!! The aim of this activity is to get your team used to being authentic and relaxed on video—no scripts, no teleprompter, just let everyone have a go at being the interviewee.
1. Divide into pairs or small groups. Use the VideoMyJob app and set up your tripod (or if all tripods are being used, point and shoot selfie-style, these videos aren’t going anywhere!)
2. The interviewer can sit in frame with the interviewee or sit behind the camera, just off to the side. I recommend trying both to see which style you prefer and which style you and your colleagues find more engaging to watch.
3. Create your own ‘Question Bank’ or use ours to get you started. It only takes a couple of questions to fill up 60 seconds!
4. Have a timer set to one minute or use the time viewed in the recording screen of the app. When you approach 60 seconds, wrap up and sign off with a “Thanks for sharing your time today” or similar.
5. Review videos back as a team or ask pairs to provide constructive feedback to each other.
The purpose of the timer is to get used to speaking succinctly and the idea that 1-2 minutes is often all you need to share valuable and easily digestible information! For video job adverts in particular, we recommend aiming for 90 seconds.
ACTIVITY #3 - 1 minute messages
Is someone in your team leaving? Returning from long service leave? A new starter? Is there a birthday, a promotion, a candidate who just got placed, a candidate who just missed out, or a reminder that needs to be circulated?
1. Come up with various scenarios, like the above, write them on paper and put them into a hat ahead of your next team meeting.
2. Ask individuals or pairs to ‘lucky dip’ a scenario.
3. Highly recommended that you complete this activity, i.e, the filming of message, during the meeting time. Everyone doing this at the same time and with the same constraints, adds to the energy and excitement.
4. Allocate 3 mins prep time (create bullet point scripts in the app or just recap them mentally), 5 mins film time (that’s enough to retake 2-3 times) and 2 mins to skip editing but create a thumbnail and ‘Publish - Unlisted’. Many personalised video messages won’t be published publicly, so it’s a good opportunity to explain the differences in the publishing settings of app.
5. Include one of our sample videos in your meeting agenda or play them when you introduce the activity.
It will get noisy if everyone is filming in the same room—which is actually totally fine however, flag this with the team or designate people to separate areas when you get to videoing.
This activity provides the team with evidence that recording a video message starts with an idea and often only needs a few minutes to set up, recall what you want to say and then record!
My final advice
Don’t shy away from a little healthy competition, token prizes and shout outs to people making an effort to stimulate video flow and encourage ideas! Allocate a 30 minute ‘viewing’ session with BYO popcorn and magnums to watch each others videos and take the opportunity to discuss key takeaways and learnings in a relaxed and fun environment.
Make this a positive team building experience and collaborate for unique ideas and great outcomes!
