Staring out at the “Dreaded Blank Page” is the hardest part of your new journey into making videos like a boss. But there’s a lot to talk about. Actually… too much! The trick is to not try to say it all. Brevity is bliss. Your audience will greatly appreciate your taking the time to condense your message to its essence so that they don’t have to parse through it looking for gems.
If you missed our first Video Like a Boss series, we talked about the Age of Distraction and how you can cut through the noise with video. Now I’ll give you the tools to figure out what to say.
List of video topics
In addition to a bunch of suggested topics, we’ve created a basic content outline that works in almost every situation. Use it to keep your videos simple, short, and on-point.
Browse the list below for inspiration if you’re not sure what topics you want to tackle for your first few videos:
Internal company news:
- Product Milestones
- Introducing New Employees
- New IT System
- Announcing a promotion
- Quarterly Sales Updates
External company news:
- PR Response to Crisis
- Stance on Political News
- Mergers and Acquisitions
- Strategic Planning Updates
- Closure on Deals and Partnerships
Personal:
- Book and Product Reviews
- Learning Experiences
- Favorite New App
- Life Lessons and Insights
- Entrepreneurial and Leadership Tips
Your first 12 weeks
This sample editorial calendar covering three months could be used on a loop without anyone noticing that it’s repeating. And if new events come up, they are a great opportunity to use video to update your employees. Use the list below or come up with your own using the worksheet in the appendix.
- Week 1: Business Progress
- Week 2: Product Update
- Week 3: Team Congrats
- Week 4: Customer Update
- Week 5: On the Road
- Week 6: Quarterly Results
- Week 7: Personal Reflections
- Week 8: Celebrating a Team Member
- Week 9: Internal Priorities
- Week 10: Book or Article Review
- Week 11: Celebrate Culture
- Week 12: Look to the Future
The TWIN Strategy
T: Topic
What are you going to talk about?
W: What
The content. What you’re saying.
I: Impact
How will this affect the viewer?
N: Next
What is the next step or call to action?
The TWIN strategy is a simple encapsulation of everything we think belongs in a video and nothing more or less. By covering the topic, the what, the impact, and the next steps, you’re giving your audience everything they need without boring them with extraneous information.
Topic
Start by introducing yourself and plainly stating what the video is about. This sets expectations and gives people a reason to keep watching because they know what they’re getting into.
What
Come up with no more than three points for your topic —this is the meat of your content. Explain why each point matters to you, to the company, or to the audience. People can’t digest more than three points, so if you want your message to stick, keep it to three.
Three points are also easier for you to remember when you’re making your video. No need to push it through. If you only have two points (or even one), that’s fine!
Impact
How does this topic impact your audience? When they become a part of the story, it gives the audience a reason to care and a reason to share.
Next
Tell them what comes next and how they can learn more or get involved.
The basic outline
Use this outline as a template for your videos as you start out. We’ve used this format ourselves and in our workshops and find that it is extremely flexible and can cover every topic we’ve thrown at it.
If you need more help getting started, watch our Video Like a Boss webinar for more video tips. And next week, we’ll go over the TWIN strategy in more depth, and how to connect with your audience/employees in front of the camera.
