6 Tips to Being Yourself on Camera

You WANT to do it, but when you start recording, you just CAN’T relax and be yourself on your social media!  Whether you get tongue-tied, freeze up, or just start ‘acting’ when you don’t mean to do so, it’s just not natural for many of us to be ourselves when we look into our phone camera.  Believe me, I know this first hand.

When I started on social media, I was terrified to speak.  I dabbled in all kinds of videos, posting NYC sights to music, sharing household tips by demonstrating to music, but speak into that lens???? No, not me, I can’t do that!

Well I proved myself wrong and I’m here to tell you that YOU CAN DO IT TOO!

Here’s how I overcame the camera-shy obstacles and learned how to be myself in my social media posts.

1 – Don’t’ think about what everyone else is doing

It’s a reality that we compare ourselves to others when it comes to many things but hopefully with experience (and I hate to say it, but yes, with age), we start to free ourselves of that instinct to do so.  You’re an individual and you’re going to bring something special to your own audience. You might think, “someone else is already sharing what I want to share” or “so many people are already doing what I want to do” on social media, but it doesn’t matter because “everybody else” is not you. What you bring to your followers and your social media feed is your own unique and genuine self. You are going to communicate whatever you share differently because there is only ONE YOU!  Once you figure out how to show that to people comfortably in front of the camera, you will have success. So how do you do that?

2 – Don’t address a big audience – talk to one person.

You are not on stage performing when it comes to social media. Skip the old school YouTube “hi guys” opening and just talk to one person. Keep it personal and keep it real. Don’t look at yourself in the camera in, (that’s enough to stop me in my own tracks) look above your head and think about the friend you want to share something with over a cup of coffee, tea or a glass of wine. If they were sitting across from you at the table, you would not be performing for them, you would be chatting with them.

Think about the flip side – the person watching on social media is not sitting in an auditorium!  They are probably, sitting on their couch, lying in bed, or at taking a break from work to scroll on social media. They are alone with you, so you need to be alone with them. Tell them what you want to share as if it’s just the two of you.  It takes the stress out of the equation.

3 – Don’t look at yourself on your phone!

It’s difficult to remember, but if you are shooting in selfie mode and you look into your own eye, you will not be engaging with your audience. It will appear to the viewer that you are looking down, which will not connect you with your listener. Fight the urge to look at yourself and look above your head into the camera lens.

4 – Share something with a friend!

It helps to talk about something you know. Even when it comes to selling a product, if you know your product and you truly love your product, you won’t be selling. So if you pick a subject that you know about, you’ll be sharing and you’ll be authentic. You won’t have to think about a script, because when you’re having a conversation with a friend, you don’t think about how you are going to word it, you just talk!  Try it, you can always delete it!

Start by making a list of things you might like to share with a friend, neighbor or family member – maybe it’s a special way you cook something, a tip you have for fixing something, a talent you have or an amusing story from your childhood and think about who you might share this with in real life.

5  – Practice makes (not) perfect!

Start by picking a topic and just record yourself!  Recording is not posting.  Recording is not even a commitment to posting.  Recording is just practicing and that is how we get better at ANYTHING in life right?  Record the mistakes, because bloopers are fun to have in the archives and that’s why we have editing tutorials here.

And the fun of social media is that it is NOT supposed to be perfect!  We can let perfection go here (sigh of relief). Perfection is so “yesterday” and last I checked, it’s 2022 and you can be authentically, beautifully imperfect and it is in style!

6 – Make if fun

This is not a chore; it should be your fun thing. Laugh at yourself, let yourself make mistakes.  We have editing tutorials here, so you don’t even have to use the mistakes, but they will be fun to look back on.  One of my favorite types of content to post are my bloopers because they show that creating content on social media is NOT perfect, it’s crazy, it’s confusing, it’s frustrating at times, but when you finally succeed at a post and get some views and comments – wow it’s exciting and it’s fun!

So try it!  Challenge yourself to record something every day for a week.  At the end of a week, take a look at your videos without judgement. Think about one person who might enjoy seeing them. Did it make you smile? I hope so and if you keep doing it, maybe one day you will have the confidence to post one!  Don’t forget to tag @hellosocialize so we can come and support your content because YOU GOT THIS!

WATCH THIS TUTORIAL ON YOUTUBE!!!

Happy Creating! – Helen@themuthership 

Will you accept the challenge? Comment below and let us know.

The post 6 Tips to Being Yourself on Camera appeared first on Hello Socialize.