Wednesday, 16 November 2016

MM Tip #5 - Video and headshot pet peeves?

Are you using video to help market your business online?

Pretty much everywhere you read anything about online marketing today, we are told that we need to use video.

Great!

Here are some of my pet Peeves on the use of video.

How does it make you feel when you open a video that you can tell has been done on a cell phone and their face is so close to the cell phone that you feel like they are literally yelling in your face?

How does it make you feel when you watch a cell phone video and you can tell that they do not have a script, and they are winging it? I don't know about you, but I have a challenge watching those.

What do you think when a gal does a video with a low neckline showing lots of cleavage? 
Are you going to take her seriously? Now we could go into a tirade about discriminating against women, but let's face it, men especially are naturally very visual. It is challenging to keep the eyes focused on the face with all that skin showing.

The same goes for hemlines. Stiletto heels and a skirt half way up the thigh...hmmm! What impression would you get, especially if you were a guy? Would you take the woman seriously?

There are lots of webinars telling us how to use video to market ourselves and our businesses effectively. However, it seems that people just hear, "You need to use video." And they wing it most of the time. What kind of an impression are you leaving with your audience and potential clients?

Great to see people trying to use video. I will give them that much.

Bottom Line: Yes, we should use video to market ourselves and our businesses. -But let's be professional about it and practice, practice, practice. Think how you want to come across to your viewers. Do you want to seem professional or slap-happy? Remember it reflects on you and your business.

This brings into the discussion another pet peeve of mine in marketing and that is the topic of appropriate headshots.

It appears that the men just need to be more professional in their dress and need to use a professional when getting their picture taken.

Women on the other hand still need to watch necklines and hemlines.

There was a gal complaining to me one time about how she was getting "hit" on by men. I checked out her profile and her headshot. She had on a lovely professional suit and was a very attractive women, but the headshot was a full body shot with her sitting and her legs crossed exposing her thigh halfway up to "kingdom come". Now what kind of impression do you think she was leaving? Need I say more?

When I suggested to this woman that she might want to rethink her pose, her comment to me was that she should be able to just be herself. It was her view that it is up to the men to change and not her.

In my humble opinion, it is up to me to change myself, and then the world will follow. We lead by example.

That's the way I see it anyway.

Love to hear your thoughts on these topics.

Christine Till
The Marketing Mentress





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