January 30, 2013 By Kristy Fifelski
Every government agency isn't lucky enough to have video production staff in-house. But with a smartphone, you can easily shoot decent quality videos to upload to your YouTube channel and share on social media. Using tools like accessories from Schneider Optics and editing apps such as iMovie, you can quickly upload short videos without paying big bucks for an editing team.
I shoot most GovGirl videos on an iPhone! Paul Williams of Government Technology magazine talks about shooting video on smartphones in this interview. But no, the special effects weren't done on a phone.
Maintaining a consistent government website is tough when you have multiple authors. Download this free template and use it as a starting point for your own Web Author Handbook. Customize it how you wish and adapt it for your own government's needs.
Kristy is known as "GovGirl" in the government technology industry. She is a former city government web manager who has a passion for social media, technology and the lighter side of government life.
Catch weekly GovGirl videos here on GovTech and follow hashtag #GovGirl on Twitter for more conversation.
Cool tips .. thx! And you guys have entirely TOOOO much fun doing this stuff - esp the effects! :)
Hi Kristy and Paul, How do you go about captioning these videos? In government, we are requiring that all videos that we promote or post are captioned.
Can Government Entities utilize YouTube's free service or must we use the paid service?
Hollywood, eat your heart out! I'm proud to be a citizen with cool government stuff like this. Go GovGirl!
@Janet and Tom, thanks!! @Tom, don't worry, a regular YouTube channel is perfectly free and will work for your government. @Lynn - good question and yes, you can upload a text file as a transcript to accompany any YouTube video. More details here: http://support.google.com/youtube/bin/static.py?hl=en&topic=2734693&guide=2734661&page=guide.cs