With National Nutrition Month just weeks away, NOW is the perfect time to use it as a hook to introduce yourself to the media and raise your profile as a nutrition expert! One of my favourite DIY projects for Nutrition Month is creating a short video that’s packed with practical tips.
For the past three years I have partnered with my colleague Amanda Nash, RD to develop our own videos, each one focusing on the Nutrition Month theme. It has been a rewarding and fun experience, and we always learn from each other. You can do the same – either on your own or with a buddy – by following these simple steps:
- Use Dietitians of Canada’s Nutrition Month resource materials: This year’s Nutrition Month theme is “Eating 9 to 5 – eating well at work!” The campaign resource manual is a ready made guide that gives you ALL the information you need including key messages, ideas and practical tips. Pick a topic that resonates with you and your video partner. This year, the “commuter craving” topic hit home for us.
- Plan your strategy: Decide on 3-4 key messages you want to deliver in your video. Pick a suitable shoot location that is bright and tidy, such as your kitchen. Plan your food display and/or recipes, and itemize any foods, ingredients and props that are needed. We create a master list of who will bring what to help us stay organized!
- Write a script: We work together to develop our script, allowing each of us to take turns sharing key points and tips. Aim for you video to be about 1-2 minutes in length. Our script then becomes our “game plan”. Before we shoot the video, we rehearse it out loud a few times with each other until it feels comfortable and natural. We add in our own personal antidotes of how the topic relates to us personally.
- Ready, set, shoot: Use a video camera on a tripod or an iPhone on a stand. Always do a check before you start filming. Look through the lens of the camera to ensure you and your food display/props are within the viewing frame. Remember you can do as many takes as you like! Amanda and I tell each other “It is better to do something, than to be worried about doing something perfect and end up doing nothing!” Most of all, – smile and have FUN!
- Promote your video: Send your video link to local media outlets as an easy way for them to promote Nutrition Month in the community. Post the video on your own You Tube channel, website, and other social media channels. Send the video link to Dietitians of Canada too so that they can post it on their website.
Check out this year’s Nutrition Month videos created by dietitians at http://www.dietitians.ca/Your-Health/Nutrition-Month/Videos.aspx.
