Camera Confidence with Angèle Cristina

at Cambridge Social Media Meetup

Angèle Cristina is an online life and business coach with an effervescent personality. It was a pleasure to hear her speak about achieving camera confidence at Cambridge Social Media Meetup today.

Angèle helps people with their confidence on camera. As an ex-TV presenter, she has had first-hand experience and loves supporting people to learn how to use videos in their marketing, especially on social media.

To start, Angèle tells us she’s always been comfortable on stage, but less confident on camera at the beginning of her TV career. She also understands that for many of us in the audience, camera confidence doesn’t come naturally. She immediately puts everyone at ease with her warm and engaging style.

Today, she’s going to share her top tips for how to appear more confident on camera. She tells us that 85% of online content is video-based – it’s time to get up to speed!

Top tips

Angèle’s first tips are simple, practical ones:

  • Just do it!
    Practice more often, it doesn’t matter if you don’t post it
  • If using your phone, keep it in landscape orientation
  • Have the camera at eye level
  • Get used to hearing and seeing yourself
  • Share with a trusted friend for constructive feedback

Technical tips

  • Look for the light ? – test and see results – good light is essential
  • Face a window
  • If an overhead spotlight is too bright, cover it with baking parchment – this softens the light
  • Ensure there’s no background noise – this can be distracting for the viewer
  • If using your laptop’s webcam, close all unused apps – notifications can create unexpected noises and the fan works overtime creating a background hum
  • Don’t sit/stand too close / far from the camera (about 1.5m)
  • Keep eye level to camera
    • Place your laptop on a shoebox
    • Look into the camera – you’re looking into your clients’ eyes
    • Connect with your audience
    • Put a sticker near the camera on your phone/laptop
  • Stand in front of a wall
    • Avoid distracting plug sockets etc behind you – test record and check what can be seen in the background
    • Definitely not a curtain (they have an uneven texture that can be distracting/old-fashioned)
    • Have a branded background (if possible)
    • Or use a plain background (portable folded pop-ups can be bought cheaply online)

Your appearance

  • Wear a contrasting colour clothing to your background (otherwise, you blend in)
  • No words/slogans/patterns (unless it’s a talking point for the video) because these can be distracting
  • Small patterns can cause visual ‘noise’ on camera
  • Makeup is not important!
    • Get your audience used to your normal face, don’t put pressure on yourself.
    • But if you always wear it, then do so ?
    • Whatever makes you feel comfortable.
  • Smile! Soften your eyes ?

Tips from an introvert (Ben – Angele’s husband!)

  • Don’t overthink it
  • There’s no editing with live videos, so just go for it
  • Talk about your area of expertise (something you’re comfortable with)
  • Show and talk (reverse camera to surroundings or screen share)
  • There are no rules (you don’t even have to talk!)

Angèle’s final 3 expert tips (for Facebook lives)

  1. Practice, practice, practice! 
    • Record a video first
    • Go live for the first time within a closed trusted group for constructive feedback
  2. Create home studio lighting
    • Natural light (window) during the day (time of day makes a difference)
    • Use baking parchment to soften any overhead lights
    • Within Facebook live change front lighting settings
  3. Look at the camera, not yourself or the other person (on screen)

Q&As

  1. How do you get subtitles?
    • Facebook has a setting (top right) on your group or business page
    • Rev.com (transcribers) around $1.00 per min
    • Captions app (iPhone) real-time and editable
    • Clipomatic
  2. What video editing software is there?
    • Finalcut (Mac), iMovie, Camtasia, InShot, Adobe Premier, Filmora (similar to Canva – drag and drop)
    • Depending on your purpose, use native client – use Facebook live as the algorithm will prefer your video
  3. Where should you ‘go live’?
    • In your groups / community – Facebook is pushing this
    • You can go live on your personal profile. But don’t do business in your personal profile (against Facebook’s rules).
    • Advertise when you’re going live. Doesn’t matter if only one person is watching – the algorithm will show it to friends of friends and your community will grow organically.
    • If you keep the ‘live’ on your page, people will watch it later. The algorithm helps it be found by friends of friends etc

My final thoughts

It was an absolute pleasure to meet Angèle and hear her (and her lovely husband Ben) speak so enthusiastically about using video in your marketing efforts. It’s definitely fired up our intentions to use video more.

Angèle was truly a captivating presence in the room and clearly knows her subject. Find out more about her offerings here:

Website: www.wondrousonlinewomen.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/wondrousonlinewomen

P.S. She has amazing taste in shoes and colourful nail polish >

About Cambridge Social Media Meetups

It was my first time attending one of Lenka Koppova’s morning meetups and I will definitely go again.

These happen twice a month where she welcomes all to the informal meetup where they chat about social media, online marketing and business. Each time, there is a knowledgeable speaker with a unique area of expertise.

If you want to learn more about how social media can help boost your business, in a supportive and friendly environment, join in: