Hitting the wall
When you speak, your energy on stage is captivating...
Don’t limit that energy to a stage.
When an expert speaks from the stage, it’s a pretty magical experience.
The energy, body language, and facial expression all help contribute to maintaining the audience’s attention long enough so that they can absorb the expertise and teachable moments the speaker imparts.
That’s why these photos are very powerful image assets when sharing through their content.
Much like when they’re performing in the room, these photos inspire their online audience’s attention so that they stop the scroll and click on the post.
But, this type of powerful image asset can be re-created while you’re speaking OFF-stage, as well.
How?
During many branded lifestyle portrait sessions, I’ll position an expert in front of a plain wall and prompt them to deliver select pieces of their keynote directly into the camera.
While the setting isn’t as compelling as a wonderfully dressed stage with IMAGS flanking the speaker, the intended result is the same - to highlight the passion that speaker has for delivering their specific message of transformation.
And it captures their audience's attention as they scroll through their feeds, especially if the speaker delivers in front of the camera the same way they do when they’re in front of the room.
Recently, I had a branded lifestyle portrait session with Mike, and during the pre-session strategy call, we decided to shoot some speaker photos against a plain wall.
He is an extremely demonstrative speaker, which really plays well for these types of photos - and really, really makes my job a lot more fun in the moment :)
Told you he was demonstrative :)
Now, these types of visuals are quite flexible when thinking about how to leverage these photos across his online presence.
First, Mike could simply repurpose a sentence, phrase or passage from a blog post, podcast appearance or his keynote that compliments the sentiment of the photo and add it right into the open space on the photo to create an impactful piece of content.
He then can elaborate on that concept in the caption, which then leads to a specific call to action so that the audience is compelled to do something next.
Alternatively, if Mike needs his graphic designer to create a unique banner or graphic with some kind of cool, digital background with branding elements included, the designer can easily cut him out of the photo and insert him into that design.
In addition to these two options, my clients have leveraged these speaking to camera photos in other ways, as well:
Blog thumbnails
Digital Ads
Presentation Slides
Podcast/Media/Promo Images
Info Packet Images
At the end of the day, none of this is possible unless the person in front of the camera is truly delivering the heat. But when you do, the possibilities for how to leverage these photos across your online presence are endless.
Curious to learn more about the types of photos that you need in your image content portfolio? You can do so right here.