You’ve got the message – Video is Hot. You have made the commitment to step up your video game in the year ahead. You have even been working on the plan for how you are going to use video to grow your business next year.
Here are some of the tools to consider in your planning:
Get a better webcam -> if you are using the built-in camera on your laptop or PC you are selling yourself short. Get an external webcam that can be used on multiple devices. High Def webcams are inexpensive, reliable and deliver a noticeable ugrade in your video. I recommend the Logitech C920 and have never been disappointed – it’s 0nly $49.99 on Amazon right now.
Learn Google Hangouts -> this free tool works for recording video whether it is just you, a group, or even for a webinar presentation. It has become one of the standards video broadcasting and with your new webcam above you will look like a star. Just make a commitment to learn how Hangouts functions, lower-thirds, and how to setup your video for success. I have a feeling there will be plenty of changes with this tool in 2016, so it is important to be willing to stay up to date with the changes that are rolled out.
Blab -> this app is gaining big momentum for good reason. Ideal for interviews, sharing content, thought-leadership and building traffic and awareness of you and your brand, this will be a place to be in 2016. Different from it’s cousins in the live-streaming world Meerkat and Periscope which I call “selfie-video”, Blab is focused on group broadcasting, sharing and re-purposing of your efforts. The ability for your viewers to interact via chat, Twitter or even ask to go ‘live” on camera all add strong interest and value to the audience and to the final results. It can be used from a desktop or a mobile device so the versatility is a benefit. Each Blab broadcast can be uploaded to YouTube, embedded on your own website and stored and viewed on Blab.im itself. This should be a big part of your video outreach plans moving forward.
Get a better microphone -> The pro’s all say this but we don’t always listen. “Sound is as important as the video quality.” It 
really does make a difference. The most common but worst quality choice is to use your built-in microphone on your laptop and your built-in webcam. As previously recommended for your webcam, get yourself a high quality USB microphone and you will never look back. USB makes it plug-n-play setup easy, and you can use it on multiple devices as well. My recommendations are the Audio-Technica AT 2010USB for the best sound I have found from a USB microphone currently at $119.99 or if your budget is a bit less, go with a Blue Microphone Yeti for $84.99 and you will be set in the microphone department.
Camtasia Studio -> This software is the most frequently used tool I have in my video toolbox. It can be used to record a video of you talking to the camera. It can be used to capture anything you have on your computer screen. It is my favorite 
way to edit and improve audio. It is the best all-around multi-purpose tool that I have. It will become your best friend
now that you are committed to adding video to your game. The most frequent way that I use Camtasia Studio is to combine multiple video segments from different sources into one final video. I import video from a Google Hangout, a previous YouTube video, some screen demonstrations and then combine it all together to tell the story that I want to tell. I can add graphic overlays, text, images, photos and logos as they are needed. Many times I delete all the video that came with each of the imported videos and record an entire new track that narrates the story and fits my goals for the video. Once I am happy with the way it looks and sounds, Camtasia Studio then gives me multiple ways to save the finished product. I can save it directly to my YouTube, Vimeo, Google Drive or to my local hard drive in a variety of resolutions all the way up to 1080P for high-def viewing.
NOTE: If you choose to purchase Camtasia Studio with the link above, you can receive a discount by using the following code at the end of the shopping cart process:
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Promo: 10% off new single user Snagit Paid & Professional, and/or 10% off new single user Camtasia Studio Paid & Professional.
You have made a wise decision to incorporate video into your sales efforts. The tools above will enhance your results, speed up the creation and editing process, and provide you with reliable tools whether you use a Windows PC or a Mac. Jump in, gather up your tools and dazzle us with your creative output.
This post is sponsored by my friends at TechSmith. All opinions are my own.