The mere thought of filming a live video is crippling to many people, much in the same way public speaking is. Video has always been an important form of online media; businesses and brands have capitalized on YouTube video success for years. The growth of live video thanks to the likes of Periscope, Snapchat, and Facebook Live to name a few, has pushed the marketing & branding “need” for original video creation to a level it hasn’t previously been.

The challenge to creating video isn’t so much growing the awareness of the benefits video can bring to your business, search results, and social media presence, but to getting over the mental hurdle of feeling confident you CAN create an awesome and worthwhile video all by yourself and in a few short minutes.

Here are 5 reasons that may help you move passed that mental hurdle of not feeling confident in creating live videos.

5 Reasons Not to be Scared of Live Video

• You look the same as everyone else doing it Hey, we all know we are our own worst critics! And those other live videos we watch of other people contain “um”s and mis-spoken words and unflattering camera angles, too. I promise that you aren’t the only person who hates the sound of your own voice. 
• It shows the human side of you and your business One of the most important keys to winning customers and turning existing customers into super fans is by developing a deeper bond between you and them. And the only way to do that is to let your customers and potential customers get to know the “Who” behind the company. Watching a video and actually getting to see the people who own the business or handle your accounts immediately breaks down a wall between your business and your customers.
• You don’t work from a script when you talk to customers So often when I talk with clients about videos, they immediately say, “But I don’t have time to write a script first!” My response is always, “But you don’t need a script! You don’t have one when you answer questions or address concerns, so there’s no need for one for a video.” If you take a step back and think about it, you face tough questions from your customers every day, and those questions almost always come without any advanced warning or preparation on your part. The fact is that you already know everything you need to in order to record a short video to post on behalf of your business.
• You don’t need to be intimidated by the tech involved, or learning any type of editing software All you need is your phone with basic, built-in editing tools. Even if you don’t want to go live on Facebook, you can record a video on your phone and review it yourself before uploading it to your social media profiles, YouTube channel or website.
• It can be used and reused many times over So this is more of a benefit than anything else, but maybe knowing it’s a benefit can help you to get over the video-making hump. When you create 1 video, it can be used and reused for multiple marketing purposes. You can use it as content on all your social media accounts (even Facebook Live videos are saved to your Page and can be downloaded to use elsewhere), you can use it for ads, you can embed it on your website or blog post, and you can use it as newsletter content. It can also live on forever through your YouTube channel and Facebook video library.

More than likely, once you complete your first go at recording and posting a video, you’ll feel completely different about it and much less intimidated to make additional videos in the future.