Building Confidence with 12 Seconds

I've been playing with a new social networking tool that is also a great confidence builder. 12 Seconds is an online video site that allows members to post twelve second video updates (yes, twelve seconds is all you have) about themselves, their day, whatever they can think of (within reason), to share with their friends, family, co-workers, staff, or the world at large.

12 Seconds can be used as a video diary to post every day or intermittently throughout the week. Use it as a work diary to post about your work; a food diary to show what you're eating; a travel diary to show where you are or where you been. Or maybe you just need to vent or rant.

The creators (a "small team of nerds mostly from Santa Cruz, CA") of 12 Seconds decided that keeping the twelve second time limit helps to keep things fresh and interesting. I've found that some days twelve seconds seems like a considerably long time while other days it seems considerably short. The time limit makes it great fun either way.

The website is super easy to use but you do need a webcam or mobile phone though. You simply visit the site, set up an account, click on record and talk for twelve seconds. You can then watch it and save it or if you don't like it you can delete it and start again. You can share the videos via links and ebbed text created by the website.

Once you've finished your video. You can look at other 12 Seconds vloggers and leave comments (text or video) on their latest videos. Like most networking sites you can follow your favorite posters or be followed by others.

If you can't think of anything to talk about they have daily prompt challenges to get you started. Like today's prompt was "tell us a great thing about the place that you live". Or you can sift through the 12erator, as in generator, for other ideas for your 12 Seconds post.

How does it build confidence? If you are self conscious about talking and sharing yourself with others then twelve seconds at a time is a good place to start before working up to a longer video. You can share ideas without having a face looking back at you. The short bursts are easy to do and you can do them right on the 12 Seconds website. Give it a try, and after a month I bet you'll have a whole lot more confidence doing it. You'll see from watching the videos that participants come in all shapes, sizes and colors. Now go share twelve seconds of yourself.

Visit 12 Seconds for your daily burst of confidence.