Professional Development

Video vibes: Tips and tricks to make yours even better

Jeff Dillon has owned Dillon Video Productions in Ocala for 37 years. He came to Ocala expecting to stay for four months and never left, first working for Jim Kirk of WMOP Radio then for WCJB TV20 and WESH TV2 before starting his own business.

Dillon said the most important part of any video is the ability to tell a concise and cohesive story. Determine whether a story is worthy of capturing the target audience’s attention. Since the human attention span for viewing content is only about nine seconds, it’s critical to hook the viewer and grab their attention right off.

1. When it comes to producing a video – the pre-production, production and post-production – the most overlooked and important area is pre-production.
2. Pre-production essentials should include a specific shot list, script if possible, gear list, contact sheet and model release form – this is mandatory, and if children are involved, will need parent’s or guardian’s signature.
3. Many videos, especially short form for quick turnaround, can be shot and produced using our phones.
4. Know the lay of the land ahead of time. For example, if a building is in the shot, what direction does it face? That will help determine the best time of the day for the video shoot, and where to the people being interviewed feel most comfortable.
5. If an interview is involved, always do a pre-interview by phone or preferably via videoconferencing. Going into the project with a comfortable relationship, rather than trying to establish one on the day of shooting, can also net valuable information that enhances the story.

Research? Who has time for that?

Allison Campbell, APR, CPRC, owns her own public relations business, A&A Campbell Group, and also serves as an elected member of the Marion County School Board. Campbell has extensive research experience in nonprofit, communications and healthcare industries. She is also a doctoral candidate with emphasis in communications research.

1. It may not take a lot of time, or expense, to get off to a great start.
2. Formal research is scientific, sourced, objective and can include content analysis, but it is more time consuming. Informal research often takes less time, can provide quick results and is typically subjective, e.g., feedback in an exit survey.
3. Regardless of whether research is formal or informal, it will be primary or secondary – done with original data you collect (primary) or using someone else’s work (secondary).
4. In setting up or reviewing research, questions to consider are: who, what, where, when and how.
5. Recommended resources: “Influence: Science and Practice” (fifth edition) by R.B. Cialdini; “Diffusion of Innovations” (fifth edition) by Everett M. Rogers; and Google Scholar, which provides abstracts of peer-reviewed literature.

Heads up: Here’s your headshot

Danielle Veenstra, digital marketing manager for CareerSource Citrus Levy Marion, earned national recognition in 2018 as part of the University of Florida’s multimedia news team for work published in the Miami Herald documenting Cuba’s water crisis.

1. Whether taking or receiving a photograph, upbeat energy is what makes or breaks a photo session. Keeping the energy high and your clients happy, while cultivating a comfortable atmosphere, are all part of capturing a great photo.
2. Communication is key: giving genuine compliments to your client or asking about their day, their family or their passions reveals the true person behind the professional mask.
3. Light is your friend. Having a main light source as well as a fill light will cast flattering shadows, while highlighting the best planes of a client’s face. 
4. Posture is important even if we don’t see it in the final photo. The way your client holds their shoulders and their head, and even how they stand, contributes to a confident or unconfident facial expression. Take a moment to walk through positioning the feet correctly, rolling the shoulders up and away from the face and clasping the hands in front or behind the body.
5. Finally, reassuring and talking through next steps of the process with your client makes the photo session end with a positive experience. Let them know when to expect the photo, what kind of crop they will see and the type of post-processing you plan to do. Wrapping up a photoshoot is just as important as starting one.

Why Leadership Matters

Panelists Toni James, APR, CPRC, (Ocala Chapter president 1985 and 1996); Carole Savage-Hagans, APR, CPRC, (Ocala Chapter president 1992 and 2012); and Lauren DeIorio, (Ocala Chapter president for half of 2015 and 2016) shared insights about their time in FPRA leadership and how it affected their lives and careers.

1. Leading involves community. Cultivating a supportive and welcoming environment helps grow and strengthen initiatives.
2. Being a leader is a two-way street. By putting in time and effort into your role, you will gain knowledge, experience and a network of supporters.
3. You don’t have to know everything to lead. Having technical education in your field can help, but it’s not going to be all that you will need to be successful. Being open to new techniques, making mistakes and learning from your experiences will strengthen your confidence and leading style.
4. It’s a slow climb. Starting at the foundation of your organization and learning to lead in different roles will make the ascent into leadership an easier transition.
5. Time management is key for a leader to succeed. Using visuals and to-do lists – and setting aside time to reassess your progress – are all great tactics. However, whatever works for you and keeps you on-time will be the best tactic for you.

Starting Yourself from the Ground Up: The Story of Symmetry and the PR Brew

Owner and operator of Symmetry Coffee & Crêpes and the Buzz & Grind, Mike Mills understands success happens when you pour something good into your community. By focusing on the customer experience, he has created a word-of-mouth network that has launched his companies into growth mode.

1. Discover how to view time and how to spend time. Target audiences have families and commitments that are constantly changing – is your product worth their time?
2. Love people. An easy statement that is a hard task to pull off, but when love is received, it is then returned tenfold.
3. Treat your audience like family and evolve the communication status quo to welcome them. As an example of this, Mills created a “Mug Wall” of 400 hooks where businesses and community members can hang their preferred coffee mug to use when they return.
4. Change the customer experience within the walls of your business by putting the right people in the right place. The foundation of any successful business has a team that is ready to bleed for its mission. The wrong people can sink it.
5. Research, learn and understand why a product in your field is successful and copy the parts that work. A quality product will sell itself if your audience is taken care of.

“A candid look at COVID communications from the lens of those in the trenches”

Our panelists – Lauren Debick, APR, who worked for a major healthcare system in Marion County; Ashley Jeffrey, senior manager of media communications at AdventHealth; and Christy Jergens, APR, the community health director for the Florida Department of Health in Marion County – shared a transparent and transformative view of what it is like to deal with a pandemic that is constantly evolving as well as public policy and government guidance that seemingly shift on a daily basis.

1. Know that your No. 1 stakeholder is your staff; provide consistent information and messaging. Tactics used include daily in-house newscasts, use of a Facebook group to communicate with staff in real-time, daily Facebook Live updates, quick turnaround website updates and 24-hour call center.
2. Regardless of the tactic, consistency, clarity and brevity are key. Examples: Facebook Live and internal newscast drop at the same time every day; don’t inundate employees with myriad emails from different sources; and consolidate to leadership briefings and daily safety huddles with directors, who can disseminate the information down the chain.
3. While technology is critical, it is important to bridge the gap for stakeholders who may not have social media accounts or be digitally savvy. Know your audience, i.e., a senior who only has a landline or an employee without a Facebook account. Be ready to use traditional and non-tradition platforms. 
4. Unlike most events, such as a hurricane, the pandemic never seems to end. What proved most challenging with COVID is dealing with the length and extent of the crisis, as well as keeping up with the media and ensuring the information is consistent.
5. Burnout is real. Take time to rest and renew – and to simply breathe (even when it seems there’s never a calm moment to catch your breath).

At September’s professional development meeting, Amelia Bell, APR, CPRC, communications manager at RTI Surgical, discussed strategies for communicating with employees when the world is upside down – starting with RTI’s Surgical Holdings sale of OEM business and separation of the company into OEM and Pure Play Spine all while COVID forced furlough of 70% of employees (including, for a few weeks, her own).

The 5 takeaways from her presentation, “Communicating with employees through the looking glass”:

1. Never make assumptions and ask endless questions. Then re-ask questions to identify not only what employees want to know but also what they need to know, and what communication channels will be most effective.
2. Communicate often even if there’s nothing to communicate. It’s all about reassurance and consistency.
3. Set expectations and be transparent.
4. Adaptability is key. You need to be nimble enough to pivot at a moment’s notice. Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good. And don’t be afraid to ask for, and accept, help.
5. Focus on the future. That means having a communications plan in place that supports the company’s new focus, and considers if current processes will work moving forward.

At August’s virtual professional development meeting, Devon Chestnut, APR, CPRC, communications manager at Cox Communications and our incoming FPRA state president, presented “Innovative Communications: Using electronic tools to effectively reach your audience.”

The 5 takeaways from her presentation include:

1. The environment that we work in drives how we communicate with both our internal customers (staff) and external customers (the public).
2. Evaluate your communications tools and find enhancements to fill in the gaps.
3. Share content across multiple platforms. People retain 95% of information from videos and only 10% of information from reading text.
4. Invest in tools to produce videos and be visual. Be catchy with headlines and repurpose content.

Produce relevant and engaging content, get creative and educate employees on how to look their best, especially when producing videos. For example, purchase an inexpensive ring light.

In 2019, the public relations profession was listed as one of the top 10 most stressful occupations – and that was before the pandemic. While 2020 challenged everyone, it also gave people unique opportunities to pause, reflect and decide who they want to be – for themselves and for their families, communities and workplaces.

Here are 5 takeaways from Lauren Debick’s February presentation, “Love yourself, love your life and love your career”:

1. Love yourself. Self-love means having a high regard for your own well-being and happiness, taking care of your own needs and not sacrificing your needs for someone or something else. This is different for every person.
2. Increase your self-love by celebrating moments when you are not perfect, doing at least one thing each day your present-day self and future self will thank you for and writing yourself compassionate letters. Perfectionism has real consequences. Perfectionists have shorter life spans and can suffer from eating disorders, depression and suicidal thoughts or actions.
3. Love your life. Americans report being the unhappiest they’ve been in 50 years because of isolation, loneliness and less optimism about future generations. However, refocusing can help because it gives us control over our actions and our lives.
4. Refocus by writing down your priorities, setting boundaries, getting organized and taking breaks. Also focus on one thing at a time. Multitasking is a myth, ineffective and unproductive.  
5. Love your career. The average person spends 90,000 hours at work in their lifetime. If we’re going to spend one-third of our life at work, shouldn’t we do something that makes us happy? People who are happier tend to earn higher wages, and that’s not the same as saying people who earn higher wages are happier. People who love their work take fewer sick days and live 10 times longer.