Three rules for video content

I have a mindmap in which I keep ideas for future projects in almost every domain of life. The advantage of mindmaps is that because you can expand and contract them based on whatever you're focused on right now, there's not a lot of 'baggage' associated with creating lots and lots of ideas in there.

Occasionally however, when I've outgrown an idea without ever tackling it, or I've taken the idea and made it a reality, I'll go back to the mindmap and 'prune' areas that are no longer relevant. One such pruning session was taking place recently when I found my notes from designing the second iteration of the Thought Leaders Curriculum.

I thought some of the ideas noted down might be useful to you, whether you're designing a curriculum of your own IP for sale, or whether you're a team leader in an organisation and you're thinking about the materials on your intraweb that your team has available to draw on.

Massive opportunity cost

We produce these videos once, they get watched thousands of times. The project deserves the respect you would afford of a speaking opportunity for a massive audience, but many times over, and for many years. Anything short of absolutely world class is not enough.

Distilled insight

The nature of the medium means each video needs to be as short as possible. This is not a slight upon our audience, it's simply a recognition of the nature humans, video, and engagement. It is incumbent on us to care about every single second that is delivered. There can be no wasted moments.

Synthesis

One great challenge of the medium is getting people to do the work (as distinct from simply "watching the show"). As much as possible we want to present ideas in a way that encourages their synthesis. Even the best ideas really only become valuable when applied in practice.

If you're creating video (and other) content that is to be watched and rewatched many times over, these principles should help you craft something that will remain useful and relevant for much longer.

If, on the other hand, you're creating a quick video for use on social media that will appear in the newsfeed once and then disappear to the mists of time, the rules are very different. (Without thinking about it too much, I'd say the top three are Be Helpful, Be Authentic, and Just Upload The First Take You Raging Perfectionist).

Keep creating,

Col.

Photo by ShareGrid on Unsplash