Last updated on July 12th, 2020 at 07:45 pm
How should you move your hands when you’re talking on YouTube?
Well, you can see here when I talk, you may say, well why is he making those motions. Well, I have a very tight cropped shot, right?
And I’m not usually the type of person that talks with my hands, you may not be either. I do have one friend that always talks with his hands. I tell him, you know, hey, if I’m going to shut you up I have to tie your hands behind your back. And we always laugh at that. But he’s a real hand talker.
HAND TALKING GIVE EMPHASIS
And some people do talk with their hands, and some people really have smaller gestures. But I want to encourage you to amplify your hand motions, particularly up near your head and neck area when you’re talking on a tight crop on YouTube.
This may seem silly, but if you start paying attention to what YouTubers do, and the ones that do well, even the ones that, like me, help others use YouTube, they emphasize their hands. This is something that I have gotten used to doing because you can get bored very easily because there’s not a lot of action.
People who are rational and sane aren’t always waving their arms, right? But is there a way when you are essentially presenting which is a different kind of way to do on YouTube than it is in front of a meeting or conference, where you have a tight window, is there a way of continuing to get the attention of the viewer by accentuating your hand motions even if it seems silly at first?
I mean, if you think about it, smiling is sort of silly, right? If you’re not happy, and you’re presenting, people still say to smile because people will enjoy it more when you do. So it’s sort of a courtesy smile and my hand motions, even though I’m exaggerating here, are a little bit more so than I would do when I’m talking.
But I think that when you’re presenting on YouTube, you want to try just a little bit to amp up what you’re saying, so you punctuate and get people watching.
Does this sound silly to you? I don’t hear anyone else talking about this, but I try to do this, I try to talk with my hands more. And even at the beginning when I say video content marketing tips, that’s sort of my thing.
I believe that if you can just amplify your hand motions just a little bit. I’m doing it in a silly way now, of course. Now, the only thing you’re going to be able to focus on is if I’m doing my hand motions. You can point to the viewer, that’s something really helpful to do. I point with two fingers or four fingers. I wouldn’t point with one finger, that’s sort of rude. Two fingers. If you ever notice on the airplanes when they’re doing the back and forward, right, to the exits in front and below, they do it with two fingers ’cause they found that internationally, two fingers is the least offending. In some countries, this is somewhat an uncomfortable expression or way, a hand motion. And this is usually a little bit too accusatory. But two fingers is the best way to go.
So I’d like to encourage you to use your hands more when you’re talking on YouTube than you normally would. Not quite this much, but a little bit more. It’ll accentuate the video and make people more engaged.
