People have developed a highly sensitive nose for detecting stuff they don’t like on the internet. And it's OK. Really. If you are posting a video to Facebook, your friends don't expect cinematography on the level of Steven Spielberg. Professional or power users may need to meet a somewhat higher standard, but remember one thing above all: it's important to sound like yourself, not like some hip stranger that you may think you want to be.
Marketers have found that the most effective videos aren't scripted, and may leave a little to be desired in the area of production values. However, people believe them even when they don't give credence to highly polished and rehearsed set pieces. They often dismiss the narrators in this type of video as "just actors" when, in fact, they are not.
It's also important to keep an eye on your production values -- you have only a few seconds to convince your viewer to watch your video. Bad audio or shaky camera work will provide enough reason for clicking away. Being authentic with videos doesn't mean that you have to produce a bad video. Your piece still needs to be something that interests the user long enough to keep them watching.
There are some techniques that you can learn to keep your videos from actually becoming painful to watch. We'll talk about some of them in later posts. But the point we want to stress here is this: no matter what, content is still king.
Get your message out and don't let concerns about technique paralyze your efforts. Viewers like unscripted videos of real people talking in a natural way. So isn't it lucky that being authentic with web videos is actually easier to do?
Just think, you could put a lot of work into producing something that many of them will reject as fake or "just another ad". At best, this kind of reaction is not what you're trying for and getting this result is a waste of your production budget. At worst, it may carry with it a feeling of insincerity that will cling in the viewer's mind to your product or message for the indefinite future. And we're pretty sure you don't want that.