Last month, Amy Rogers Nazarov instructed us on how to engage followers on social media in her inspiring article, “Let’s get engaged: How to use social media effectively.” That was such a hit that I invited her back! This time, Amy’s addressing an issue some of you might have in common with me: How to get comfortable being on camera in social media videos. 

Amy is a former journalist who teaches people how to use social media more effectively, with less scrolling and more serendipity. Before she launched Spark: Social Media Strategy in 2014, she was both a freelance and  staff writer. Amy’s byline has appeared in Cooking Light, Slate, The Washington Post, and American Songwriter among many others. Be sure to check out her affordable course, Seven Easy Social Media Hacks for Entrepreneurs & Creatives, especially if you find her articles here helpful.

Video camera shy? Try these expert tips from a top social media pro

By Amy Rogers Nazarov

One day last week I coached three clients on posing and speaking for my smartphone camera so I could build up a little bank of content to draw upon for various social media purposes.

Two are in the home renovation world, the other in performing arts. Each is a confident, accomplished, expressive person thriving in their respective industry.

Yet when I told them we’d be generating video for their social media feeds, dismay flashed across their faces. (The good news is that as I coached them, they all relaxed into the process. We had some fun with it, and I got what I needed. Here’s one of the results.)

Feeling vulnerable?

I tell you this to remind you that if you feel vulnerable trying to make a TikTok video about your release date, or to participate in an Instagram Live with your agent, you have lots of company!

Number one, most people feel anxious at first when showing their voices and faces on social media.

Number two, with practice, you won’t always feel that way.

And number three, nothing is better for building your credibility and trustworthiness with your followers than letting them see and hear you.

3 steps to camera confidence

Ready to feel less video camera shy? Feeling confident on camera will actually make the time you spend on social more fulfilling.

Here’s a step-by-step plan to help you grow your confidence and get comfortable showing up on social media.

1. Start small.

Think of a topic you know inside and out: why you decided to self-publish, the benefits of publishing on demand, why you love to write at your kitchen table, the best YA book you ever read.

2. Rehearse.

Jot down a few lines about this topic, no more than three to start. Read them aloud in a conversational tone, as many times as necessary to sound fluid and conversational. Try speaking into the mirror or to a friend.

3. Speak on camera.

Use your phone’s reverse feature to train the lens on yourself and capture a video of you speaking the lines. Play it back, checking for good eye contact with the camera and that there are no visual distractions in the background. Re-record as needed.

Pro tip: Make eye contact with the camera lens, not with your own reflection. That way it will appear that you are speaking directly to your listener.

Getting on camera, without getting on camera

To get my clients comfortable with this, I suggest they try a couple of approaches that help them slowly move into that full-on, talking head visual that so many are so good at, but others find intimidating. Here’s what I recommend to them and you.

Start with stills.

Just as you walk before you run, try sharing a selfie before a video clip of you speaking.

Partially obscure your face.

It might feel less intimidating to peek out from behind a prop – an N95 mask, a hat, a plant, a laptop lid – in your first selfie or first video.

Blur it.

Tilt Shift, Portrait mode and other settings allow us to make part of our image blurry, while rendering another part more crisply.

Voiceover.

Many social media platforms have a voiceover feature that let you narrate a process – reviewing galleys, say, or writing an outline for an article, making your morning coffee, taking your afternoon stroll to clear out writers’ block.

Props for props!

Speaking of props, they tick a lot of boxes. Just a few:

They add instant flavor and personality to your social media content. How about:

• A hat or other article of clothing
• A mascot, like a pet or a goldfish
• Something that reflects your brand colors
• The cover of your last book

They can convey a message without your having to say it aloud. How about:

• A political poster, current or vintage, that hints at or makes obvious your affiliation
• A religious symbol
• A view out your window to the city or rural setting where you live or work

They can be used as a signature piece in all your content for continuity. Consider:

• A slogan
• A sign
• A memento
• A location
• A piece of wall art

Breathe!

Whatever method you use as you begin to show your face little by little on your feeds, a key thing to remember is one of the simplest, and that is this: Take a deep breath. You’ve got this – or, perhaps more accurately, you will get this.

Giving your followers a window into who you are and what makes you tick as a writer can be one of the most fun parts of social media.

Remember: your followers are already interested in you and what you have to say. As you let them see and hear you, the quality of your interactions with them will only grow richer.

Are you using video in your book marketing? Tell us about it in a comment! And if you aren’t, what’s holding you back? Maybe we can help.

I was so impressed with Amy Rogers Nazarov when we were on a DIY book marketing conference panel together last month that I asked her to write a “how to master social media” guest post for us. Amy is a former journalist who teaches people how to use social media more effectively, with less scrolling and more serendipity. Before she launched Spark: Social Media Strategy in 2014, she was both a freelance and  staff writer. Her byline has appeared in Cooking Light, Slate, The Washington Post, and American Songwriter among many others. Be sure to check out her affordable course, Seven Easy Social Media Hacks for Entrepreneurs & Creatives, especially if you find her article helpful.

Let’s get engaged: How to use social media effectively

By Amy Rogers Nazarov

Today’s authors and writers have available to them a free and fantastic tool their counterparts a generation ago could only have dreamed of.

It is a bottomless resource of inspiration, prospective readers, generous colleagues, tips on editing and selling, leads on relevant podcasts, and a great deal more.

This free tool is social media.

And whether or not you are just beginning to explore it or have been making TikToks since the platform launched, I promise you that by intentionally engaging with followers on any social media platform, you will derive a host of benefits, from unexpected support from strangers to an idea for your next book.

What is “engagement?”

Let’s talk about that word “engagement” for a second. This is the key to all of the potential goodness waiting to be unlocked. What exactly does engagement mean where social media is concerned?

I’d sum it up this way: When we engage with others on social media, we are being a bunch of different things, such as:

• Responsive
• Conversational
• Reflective
• Curious

We are also doing several things, such as:

• Teaching
• Guiding
• Questioning
• Connecting

The dreaded boring dinner party guest

Yet in the absence of these behaviors and traits, we show up on social media as a virtual version of the tedious guest you hate to be seated next to at a dinner party: the one who goes on and on about their projects, their successes, their goals, their relationships, etc. and never once asks you about yours.

via GIPHY

It’s the kind of individual that has you dreaming up excuses to leave the gathering early. (“Sorry, Sheila, but I just got a call that my parakeet somehow escaped her cage, Gotta dash…”)

Ugh.

Online or off, don’t be the person that drives away dinner guests – or followers!

Trust me when I say your Instagram gallery or your Facebook page or your Twitter account will be much more fun to read, follow, and maintain when you are doing and being the things I just listed.

Like, comment, share, save

In practice, then, what does engagement look like?

It looks like answering a poll question on Twitter when an editor you follow posts it. It looks like weighing in on the pros and cons of newspaper paywalls, or on mergers in the New York publishing world.

Perhaps it will simply be saving an Instagram post that resonated with you to read more carefully later (note: Instagram lets you organize saved posts by topic, which makes them much easier to locate later.)

Engagement looks like following authors in your genre, or in the genre you aspire to. It might be posting thoughtful questions when an agent hosts an Instagram Live. It might be taking a stab at answering a question someone else posed.

Quality engagement = quality conversations

Through this type of engagement with others, you might be pleasantly surprised at the quality and depth of conversations with strangers as passionate about a topic as you are – and conversely disappointed by the lack of engagement with people you’ve known forever (one of my key arguments for only following, on any social platform, people and organizations who are squarely in your niche, not your Uncle Vernon. Save following him for your personal accounts!)

Best of all, engagement begets engagement. The more you thoughtfully engage, the more others will return the favor.

Generating content vs. engaging

My rule of thumb for the amount of content you create versus the amount of content you engage with: 1 to 5.

For every carousel ad you generate on Facebook, for every Reel you make on Insta, leave a comment, question, query or opinion on five other accounts. Not just strings of emojis, either, cute as rows of hearts and puppy faces may be. Type in actual words and sentences! As writers, this part should come pretty easily to us.

By the way, when followers engage with content originating from you, and you comment on their comments or answer their questions, that, too, counts as engagement!

Keep the conversation flowing in a couple different ways:

• Don’t “post and ghost.” Check back within a couple of hours on your latest posts to see if it has elicited responses from followers.
• Each time you add a comment, toss in a related question. “I see you’re a fan of Stephen King. What newer horror authors do you enjoy?”
• Loop in someone else. If you’re a food writer chatting with a journalist who covers the local food scene, tag a chef you know and invite them to join the conversation. You never know what kind of synergy this kind of additive approach to an online conversation will have.

Set a timer for 10 minutes

One of the best things about spending time on social media intentionally engaging with others is it will make your time there feel less burdensome and more serendipitous.

Try engaging for 10 minutes a day, maybe 15; set a timer if you have to in order to guard against slipping into a passive scroll.

I get that many people don’t like social media.*

While it’s certainly not without its problems, social media still enables all kinds of random and rich connections with the sort of readers, writers, and thinkers who will be intrigued by you, your work, your process, and your projects.

Go engage with a few of them today, and for the next month or so, and see what kinds of inspiration and connection you can discover. That might even convince you that it’s worth it to master social media.

What works best for you on social media? Please tell us in a comment.

(*Editor’s note: If, in spite of this excellent advice, you still have no interest in social media, take a look at my short training program, Book Marketing Without Social Media, on the Writing Blueprints site. They’re offering Build Book Buzz authors a $10 discount.)