Screen capture videos have many great uses.
Have you ever sat back in frustration and thought “this would be so much easier to show rather than tell!”?
Fifteen minutes into a long-winded email that does little but confuse the recipient you realise you should have created a screen capture video to demonstrate your points – it would have been quicker and more effective!
Well, getting used to screen capture videos can help you with your internal communication and your training, as well as with external sales and customer service, where a highly-produced, personal and polished video is not necessary.
Following, we look at creating these videos, but first we take a look at their range of uses.
Using Screen Capture Videos
Screen capture videos are very versatile – they are perfect for tutorials, training a staff member remotely on a particular task, providing feedback about a job to overseas contractors or for “grabs” for clients – for example to show them a point about their web site.
They can also be used to help make slide videos for sales presentations (see my separate blog post about this.)
Creating Screen Capture Videos
You will need some screen capture software to make your video. The two most commonly used are Screenflow, for Mac, and Camtasia, for PC and Mac. Of the two, if you have a Mac then Screenflow is recommended as it is more intuitive and the whole screen can be recorded, though Camtasia users also extol its virtues.
As you record your screen capture video you may need to refer to notes, to keep everything coherent. Depending on usage of the end video, it’s often not necessary to script like in a video presentation and a notepad with bullet points off-screen usually suffices.
If you are just training a staff member you can use the bullet points to add structure to your video and keep it in a logical order.
However, if you are using the capture software to make a slide sales video you will need a polished script. Put some time into this as most scripts that sound “off the cuff” have had a lot of work gone into them to make them sound “natural” – it’s a case of practicing this art until you get it right.
In-depth post-editing of screen capture video is not normally necessary because of the same reasons that a detailed script is not necessary – the end user often doesn’t mind if it’s rough around the edges. It’s the content rather than the presentation that matters with training videos, for instance.
Having said that, it is possible to animate your video in post editing – adding zoom, highlighting, changing angles etc.
For recoding audio, which is still important, even though it may not be for “public consumption”, you can use the built-in microphone in a Mac or a Bluetooth headset.
The more you use screen capture software the more you will find it replacing your traditional forms of communication with remote staff and you will find other uses to help with customer service and sales pitches to clients. The Lights, Camera, Profits! workshop is packed full of tips and advice. Find out more about it by clicking here.