What Should Your Team Film Between Content Days?

Why would I still ask you to use your phone?

Even if you’ve hired me, I would still want some phone footage in the mix. I can plan a shoot with you, but I’m not there every day. Your team is.

They hear the questions, see the work happening and know the little things customers appreciate. That’s worth showing. I don’t want professional filming to take all the personality out of your business.

You don’t need everyone making videos all day. Start with something they already explain well to customers, rather than asking them to come up with a performance for social media.

Our content-day planning guide covers the professional shoot. Here, I’m talking about the useful moments in between.

Start with what customers are asking now

I’d start by asking your staff: what have you found yourself explaining this week?

I can’t tell you that just because I know your industry. Your team knows the people coming through the door and what makes them hesitate. Use that knowledge.

Choose one question and let the person who knows the answer explain it. Maybe it’s what happens at the first appointment, what someone needs to bring, or how you choose the right material for a job. Pick what your customers actually ask.

Answer that one question. You don’t need to explain the whole business every time you pick up the phone. If the idea needs a careful demonstration or several people, save it for the next planned shoot.

Four things worth looking for between shoots

You don’t need to capture all of these. Pick the ones that help your actual customer understand the business.

What happens in the business	A simple thing to film	What it helps someone understand
A question comes up repeatedly	A team member answering that one question	What to expect before enquiring
Work reaches a useful stage	Show the progress and explain the next step	How the team gets to the finished result
Someone takes extra care over a detail	Show the detail and explain why it matters	The service behind the product
A familiar team member does something well	Let them explain their part of the work	Who the customer will deal with

For construction, I like the idea of showing the plan and the process, not only the finished building. Someone responsible for the work can explain what is happening and how the team intends to do it. Only promise another update if you can actually make it.

For a service business, a useful moment might be someone explaining how they prepare for a customer’s visit. You don’t have to film the customer to explain that care.

If your main film explains who you are, let these clips show what that looks like on an ordinary day. They don’t all need to introduce the business again.

Keep the personality, but make it easy to follow

When I say keep some rawness, I mean let people sound like themselves. I don’t mean that bad sound or a confusing explanation suddenly becomes a good post because it looks casual.

Ask a question instead of handing someone a paragraph to memorise. Let them explain it as they would to a customer. If they lose their place, start again. That’s fine.

Check the basics:

• Can we hear the answer without competing noise?
• Can we see the person or the detail they are explaining?
• Does the clip make sense without knowing what happened earlier?
• Have we kept private information and people who shouldn’t appear out of the frame?

W3C’s accessible audio and video guidance recommends clear language, understandable speech and a visible, well-lit speaker where possible. Those are useful standards for a phone clip too; natural doesn’t have to mean unclear.

Explain important details aloud rather than relying only on an image. Add accurate captions for spoken content and check them, especially names and specialist terms. W3C’s captions guidance explains why automatically generated captions need reviewing.

Give the team a small job, not another full-time job

“Can you get some content?” is a vague task. A clearer request would be: “If that question comes up again, make a note of it so we can film a quick answer.”

Agree who can record, where clips go, who checks them and who publishes. Not everyone needs to appear on camera, and a useful observation can become a note for someone else to explain.

Send the clip with a note saying what it shows and anything that needs checking. If your producer will edit it, agree that first. Don’t assume a filming booking includes editing every phone clip or managing your social accounts.

Don’t interrupt a safety-critical task or ask someone to perform work differently for a shot. Capture what can be shown safely and appropriately; leave the rest for a planned session with the right arrangements.

There isn’t a required number of phone clips or a magic professional-to-phone ratio. Start with what the team can maintain. The posting-frequency guide explains my preference for useful, consistent work before increasing volume.

Decide whether the clip deserves to be posted

Before publishing, ask: does this help the person we want to attract?

If it answers a real question or helps someone understand your service, good. If the only reason is that you haven’t posted today, I’d leave it and find something more useful.

Give an interested viewer a suitable next step. That might be asking a follow-up question or enquiring about the work shown. You don’t have to force the same sales line onto every update, but don’t expect people to guess what to do either.

For independent businesses in Newcastle and the North East, DS Media’s Business Content Starter offers a planned set of films and photographs. It is a one-off project, not a monthly subscription; ongoing work is agreed separately.

You don’t have to choose between polished and personal. Use the planned shoot for the stories that need it, and let your team show the useful things happening in between. It should still feel like the same business and the same people.