One of the best things you can do for your customers is a simple video demonstrating how to set up and/or use your product. As I’ve said before, engineers tend to be visual people, and you can engage with them much more effectively through a video than with a printed manual alone.

Have a look at this video, though, that in my opinion doesn’t get it quite right. The ideas are good, but the angles are wrong, the zoom is a bit jarring, and the camera wobble is distracting.

There’s some really good information in the video, but I find myself focusing on the camerawork rather than the product. At that point, you really have lost the viewer.

I would have been tempted to script this and practice it, to work out what I wanted to viewer to be focused on at each point in the script. Once you get past the intro, the camera is no longer on the presenter, so you can have as many goes as you need to get the voiceover correct. And by using a couple of different camera angles, you can cut between different points in the action to pull your viewer’s attention to the exact point where you want the focus to be. And all without the need for a rather nasty zoom.

Always remember your continuity, though. If your hand is in a particular position on the product in one shot, make sure it’s in the same position when you cut away to a second angle. And again as I’ve said before, please put the camera on a tripod.