We have all made mistakes with short form videos.
Like if I were to scroll back to my first videos on TikTok back in 2020, I would cringe.
I hope nobody sees them.
And I already know that you’ve got some videos out there and you’re like, “Oh God, just delete them”
But today I wanna talk to you about mistakes that you’re making in short form videos and how to correct them.
So I do have a list of them. So let’s get into it.
One of the first mistakes that you might be making in your short videos is not having a plan.
Because a lot of times, we just get this idea, we grab our phones, and then we start recording and we haven’t really thought out a plan.
Because when we think about it from a business perspective, every single time we post a video, we’ve got a goal in mind.
We’re trying to reach our target audience. We’re trying to convey a message and or we’re trying to get people to make a decision to follow us, opt into our email list or make a purchase.
And so, before you actually start recording content, you’ve got to create a plan.
Why are you there? What is this video about? And what can people get from this video? What can they expect from your video?
Because you’ve gotta convey all of that throughout the video, the beginning, the middle, and the ending.
So first things first, before you shoot your video, get a plan.
That doesn’t mean you gotta have this detailed script where you’re reading from a teleprompter like you are a newscaster.
It just means you have a plan.
Now, I have my seven points written out that I wanna talk about. Your girl has a plan.
The second thing, the mistake that you might be making in your short form video is your video doesn’t have a hook.
The attention span of a person is short.
It’s like the size of a turtle’s brain. It’s really small.
And so when someone is scrolling on social media, you’ve got maybe a second and a half before they’re either gonna watch or scroll away.
So you’ve gotta have this, what we call an opening hook and attention grabbing.
A reason why someone is gonna stay and why they’re gonna watch that video.
And so a lot of times when we teach our clients, I tell them that the opening hook is the text you have on screen and then the first thing that you say.
Now sometimes I say exactly what the text is on the screen. Other times I’m just trying to capture your attention with that. And then I’ve said something else which is still related.
So when you think about a hook, a hook could be the following:
“Here are the five things they don’t want you to know”
“Here are five websites that feel illegal to know”
“The number one thing you’re not gonna believe, I’m gonna tell you”
“Here’s a secret that I cannot believe I’m about to tell you”
Those types of things stop the scroll, right?
Because people are scrolling and so what you’re gonna wanna do, you want to stop them from scrolling and so you have to have some type of opening hook.
Doesn’t have to be clickbait or anything like that, but just giving people a reason to stop and watch your content.
The third thing you gotta have in your video is that you’ve gotta have a call to action.
And a lot of times we just don’t right now.
Listen, I’m not saying that in every single video, you have to save, follow me, grab the link in my bio.
But your call to action could be Asking a question, “What do you think about this? Tell me what you think of the comics, or make sure you follow me or tell me what you are struggling with?”
You’re inviting people to take action with you right now.
Of course, as a business, we want everybody to go and buy our products and services.
But everybody isn’t ready to buy. Everybody isn’t ready to necessarily opt in, but they will take action if we ask them.
Now, I’m not gonna say in every single video that I shoot vertically, that I’m always saying, click this, do this, do that.
But most times I am asking them to do something which could be just inviting them to ask another question in the comments.
Asking them to share their feedback or I’m asking them to actually take action in terms of opting in or making a purchase.
So you’re gonna wanna make sure that your video has a call to action.
The fourth mistake that you’re making with short form video is that you don’t have a link in bio.
So listen, if you’re on TikTok, it’s important to know you gotta have a thousand followers on a creator account in order to have a clickable link in your bio.
So that’s the unfortunate part, but once you have access to that, you need to have some type of link in your bio.
But listen not just a main website link.
Here’s what I believe. So I have a full website, which is www.keenyakelly.com.
When you go there, there’s lots of stuff that’s there. But I don’t want you looking at all this stuff, I really want you focused on what I want you focused on.
So we have a link that we created that has our free tools, a quiz that has a TikTok mini course, an advanced course or something else.
And so there’s also a video that walks them through “Here is what is on this page”
And the whole purpose of having that page is just to guide people through here’s what we have to offer and you can get this or that.
And so we like to make it very clear versus them going to www.keenyakelly.com and seeing all of this stuff there getting lost in my images or getting lost in my divorce story or whatever.
I’m literally just telling them what I want them to do with that clickable link in my bio.
So also on TikTok, on my account, it says, I teach female coaches how to grow on TikTok without paid ads.
And then I say, click below for TikTok tools. Why? Because I’m giving them a call to action in my bio so that they will click and do something in the bio.
The fifth mistake that you’re making is that you are looking at yourself on the screen and not looking into the camera.
So a lot of times it’s really uncomfortable for us to look into the camera lens because we can see ourselves on screen.
We wanna look and see if we look good, if our teeth look good. Do we have a booger in our noses?
We wanna look at ourselves, but it makes the viewers feel awkward.
So the biggest mistake that I see people making when they’re using video is that they’re continuing to look at themselves on screen and they’re not actually looking into the camera lens.
So you wanna make it a habit of learning to practice looking into the camera lens.
Yes, you can see yourself? You can see all the things on the screen, but you have to choose to look at the camera lens.
It is really awkward when someone is watching you look at yourself. This way they will scroll away.
And the sixth mistake you’re making is low energy.
Now, I’m not saying you gotta have high energy like me, or that you have to be a Mexican jumping bee or the Energizer bunny, but you can’t be boring.
Especially if you’re a coach, a consultant, and you’re trying to teach people and people are having a hard time watching you because you have no energy with you.
You’re not excited to be there. You can tell you’re not excited to be there.
Nobody wants to watch a piece of content when a person is just as if they’re ready to go to bed.
That’s just not what people want to do. Because remember, we as marketers, we are the commercial to people’s entertainment.
So they’re scrolling, not looking for us, they’re scrolling, just looking for whatever it is they’re looking for, and then we create content that interrupts their scrolls.
So you can’t have low energy, which brings me to my last and final point, which is you are not having fun.
Again, I’m not saying you gotta dance or gotta be goofy, but when you’re creating content, it should look like you like being there.
It should look like you are enjoying creating this piece of content, whether you’re teaching something.
Whatever you’re doing, you should just look like you’re enjoying yourself being there.
Because remember, people can watch so many different people. There’s so many people doing whatever it is that we all do.
So when I think about it, when people hire me as a coach or consultant, they hire me for my knowledge and experience or whatever.
But they also hire me for what they expect to experience with me, right?
They expect me to be excited, they expect me to be motivated and motivating to them.
And so you have to look like you’re enjoying it. Again, it doesn’t mean you have to be animated or anything like me.
But you see, some content creators where they’re in front of their microphone and they’re just resting, but you can tell they’re enjoying the conversation.
It’s not this high but they’re enjoying it.
If you feel like you’re not enjoying it, then people are not gonna enjoy it, and they’re not gonna be watching your videos.
So I hope that you have found this valuable.
In addition, if you are looking for vertical video help, TikTok marketing help, I would love to assist you. We can help you with our digital courses and we help you with one-on-one consulting services.
We also have free tools here as well, and so I would love to be your coach helping you to strategically build your business this year and.
So if you enjoyed this article, make sure you go ahead and like and follow for more.