STEVEN SLOTOW & TIMOTHY SPIERS TALKING VIDEO: FACEBOOK LIVE
Steven Slotow talks to Timothy Spiers on the Facebook group Digital Marketing Cowork Collective Facebook Live, DMCC is a place for Digital Agencies to come together as a community to share and learn from each other. Tim talks about how we can easily all improve how we’re communicating through video and provides some useful tips. At the end of this article is a short, inexpensive kit list for conference calls.
STEVEN:
Welcome to the DMCC and to the community. Really great to have you join us. So to anybody that does tune in live. This is Timothy Spears. I was saying there Spears or spies, which way do you pronounce it?
TIMOTHY:
Spiers, not desperately fussy though.
STEVEN:
Cool. Spiers. There you go. Awesome. So Timothy is joining us today. Timothy got in touch with us actually on one of our YouTube videos & left the comment, which is quite interesting, and it was interesting to me because it was quite counter to what we, you know, sort of the philosophy that we've had around content creation and at least the conversations we've had with a lot of content creators in the last few years. And that was the one around, I suppose, setup and equipment and sort of what you need to have before you sort of go live. So before we start, so you want to just give us a quick rundown, you know, so what's your background? You run a digital agency,
TIMOTHY:
Right? Yeah, sure. My background's always been in fashion and photography. We had, um, a large e-commerce studio. We ended up with 3000 square foot studio in London, which we wound down in the summer 2019 due to building works. My partner and I were going in different directions, I was much more interested in supporting my customers in other ways, you know, creating both creative content and more video content. I was much more interested in how it's being marketed and what they were doing with it. And there was a real disconnect there, with creating content with us and what they were doing with it afterwards. And I found it difficult to help them with that. And it's this kind of, they were using different agencies for different things and the right hand, not talking to the left hand. And so they weren't really getting their bang for their buck out of what they were doing.
So that was quite an interesting challenge with getting this all going, but, you know, I had a client base I could bring across and I teamed up with a marketing friend and, so the creative agency was born. Videos have become the hot sauce now, especially through the pandemic, it really, really brought that to a highlight for everyone, we're doing so much either live streaming or video calls, video presentations and all those kinds of things. So I think the value has increased greatly and people can see the importance of it a lot more. So, you know, I've been looking at ways of how to really help and encourage either my customers, but other business owners and other creative agencies on how to use video and how to be more confident with video and how to produce and market video in the best way.
STEVEN:
Yeah. And I suppose that actually, leads beautifully to the topic of the conversation because I think that you've hit on specifically the problem around the pandemic and video becoming a bigger part of this. So that's actually very much how our community got going. And specifically, the video element and that's how we met, and got going, was through the pandemic. The community came about with Globital, helping digital agencies and resources and we're a resource partner, but we really saw an opportunity for the community and in a way that we could start adding value to the digital agencies that we support and our clientele. And then one of the ways that that was a no-brainer immediately was because we're based in South Africa and a good portion of the agency that we support and we're trying to grow into is in the UK.
So we started pretty much immediately getting going on video by interviewing a lot of the UK agencies and not necessarily just agencies, but agency coaches, because that helps add a lot more value when you've got somebody who's in the business of helping agencies run better businesses. Like we are, we started having a lot of video content conversations with them. And I think as you've alluded to as well as a lot of people, aren't really in the comfort zone. So we sort of actually kind of pry them out and get them into, get them a bit more comfortable with doing that. Also, I think what was where your comment about, ‘Hey guys, you know, how about your gear and your setup it’s not really great and by making a bit more effort it could help.
Interesting, and that very much went against what a lot of the conversations we were having with would meet very many, professionals in the industry, maybe not just in the video industry, but in the marketing industry around the real key message that we were getting from people. And that was being shared in our community was, Hey, it doesn't matter what your setup is. It doesn't matter what your gear looks like just make the best effort you can, but what's more important is that you get out there and you just start recording whether it's for you and your own agency, or for you, you start encouraging your own clients in this world of Covid, in a pandemic and reaching out to agencies, or clientele, or to potential audiences. What's more important is getting the out there, getting the message out there, start telling your story, start getting your narrative tall, sharing your brand, and nurturing, using video very much as a nurturing touchpoint. You're you obviously with what you say, your, your perspective, and I'm sure, you know, the background is, it says a lot about where you're from. You feel differently about that. So, you know, how about it, what is your message?
TIMOTHY:
Well, yeah, I mean, for a start, you know, the thing I love about you Steven, is that you really totally get it and really embraced video. And, you know, you're building up these communities around that, you know, you really understand building your audience or totally, you know, knowing who your audience is, what they want to hear and learn about. And you're building a community, you know, this is massive, you know, we talked about the age of information age, and really we need the age of wisdom, so we need to be thoughtful about the content we put out there that it really brings value to the viewer and the listener. And I think, rather than just churning stuff out, it's what is the viewer really gaining from what we're putting out there?
So I think the quality of what we're doing is, is really important rather than just churning stuff out. But yes, my background is so visual. I'm about, how can we do this better? I'm always looking at, how can we do this better? And, I think, after we've spent so much time in the pandemic at first, it's like, yeah, let's just communicate. Aftera while it's like, well, yeah, okay. But can we do this better? I think people have lent on the excuse of being in a pandemic too much and that it's a bit tough at the moment. We're all locked down and it is what it is actually here to stay. This is the way we're communicating now. It's so much more a digital life now and we'll go back to some sort of face-to-face meetings, but I think we're going to really be doing this in the long term.
So I think we've got to think about, how do we do this better? How do we improve this? And if our competitors are improving, and we're not, how are we going to be perceived and how professional are we going to come across? So if we're in the marketing game, then we've got to market ourselves as well. So we need to be looking at ourselves as a personal brand and how we're communicating and how we can do that better. And there's some simple tips and tricks you can do. I think there's a lot we can address and we can do so easily, that's my thought process. And so I do a lot of blogs helping people with video marketing and then also about their production and about their performance.
I don't want to say these things, so it puts people off, I think, yes, get the camera, create content, don't talk about it, do it. I think absolutely. And I don't want to discourage people in that way, but also, how can we improve these things? I'm about to release another blog today and that's on personal branding and how you can communicate better. How we do that through video and, how we can produce these things better.
STEVEN:
So, if I get your point that it's a great message, especially that idea of, as you said, we're sort of in it, and now's the time to sort of be thinking about how to improve it. What would your top two or three tips be? I mean, maybe from a gear perspective, what would your two or three essential things that an agency should invest in right away to make sure that they are maybe competing and, and improving that level other for themselves, and then potentially maybe even creating a new service offering to them?
TIMOTHY:
Absolutely. You can just straight off the bat, do simple things like use a mic that's a USB plug and play mic, so you're audio is clear and good quality. And I think you a good webcam. So, you know, these something like a logicteck 922, these kinds of things are HD 1080P and not that expensive and just a decent video light, to brighten up the room, brighten up your face. And it just helps the viewer or the listener, because you don't want them to be distracted by crackly noise, bad quality. You want them to be absorbed in the message. So that's the other thing that visual and the audio just becomes natural and the audience sinks into and is focused on the message.
STEVEN:
That's really cool. So if you wouldn't mind to maybe put your details down below as well, and maybe if you've got links to some of the gear that you were mentioning if you’re happy to put those, some things there, so people can check out exactly which products you as a gear head, that you would recommend that they can invest in, as you said, it's not a tremendous overhead cost, but it pays dividends with the production quality that you get.
TIMOTHY:
Yeah, absolutely. And I'll do a little follow up vlog of it as well of some tips on just easy setups as well, just to help people.
STEVEN:
Yeah, yeah, no, that'd be great. I mean, as I say now you're a member of the community. You can always just jump in, share whatever you feel is worth sharing in the community. As you said, it's all about sharing value to people and sharing, helping agencies and businesses. And I think this has been exactly that. So, thanks very much for sharing.
TIMOTHY:
Great, lovely. Love to meet you.
STEVEN:
Yeah. Awesome. You too. And I'm sure we'll catch up in the community as well. And, um, thanks very much guys really great to have you, and we'll see you in the community and as always, you know, you know, we're here to help, agencies deliver, and that's what we're about. So, you know, if you are looking for some help when you're looking for some assistance or, you know, anybody else who's looking for assistance share, share the community with them, or just get in touch with that started, you know, we was happy to start a conversation as a senior, you know, starting from a YouTube, a YouTube comment. Thanks to Timothy for sharing his knowledge. So whatever you guys have to share, always keen to hear.
TIMOTHY:
Awesome. Thanks Tim. Thanks very much, Steven.
KIT LIST
As promised here are some tips below for good kit that will make a massive difference to your live streams and conference calls. If anyone would like more advice feel free to reach out to me by clicking here https://bit.ly/2Q3clHz
You can find helpful vlogs on video marketing and production tips here: https://bit.ly/3cSAtpg
It would be great to connect on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/timothyspiers
WEBCAM £70.00
Logitech C922 Pro Stream Webcam, HD 1080p
MICROPHONE £75.99
FIFINE Podcast Microphone Four Pickup Patterns USB Mic with Mute Button, Gain Knob& Monitoring Headphone Jack Computer Mic
VIDEO LIGHT £129.99
Dazzne D50 Desk Mount Video Lighting with C-Clamp, LED Photography Light with Wireless Remote, 15.4in 45W/3000K-8000K/3600LM/Dimmable 0-100% for Video Conference
VIDEO LIGHT £79.99
Neewer Super Slim LED Video Light Soft Lighting 40W 3200K-5600K CRI95+ Dimmable LED Panel with LCD Display