How to Build an Online Platform: YouTube

Photo credit: clasesdeperiodismo on Flickr

So wayyyyy back in 2014 I started an online platform series. I covered Twitter, blogging, and tumblr, then decided I'd wait until I had more experience with YouTube before I talked about that avenue. 

I just recently crossed the 10,000 subscriber mark on my YouTube channel, bookishpixie, (which is a bigger following than any of my other social media sites, which is somewhat surprising because it's nowhere near the oldest of my social media accounts)—and it's honestly the most active community base I have, which has translated to a surprising (or maybe not surprising?) amount of book sales and editing clients. I guess you could say I have more experience now. So let's talk YouTube.

YouTube birthday: May 6, 2014 (nearly three years!) 

Subscribers: 10,315 (as of this writing)

Total views: 446,511 (as of this writing)

Time spent weekly: Roughly two hours. 

 Tips: 

• Try to make your videos looks as professional as possible. This means getting a decent camera that can record in HD (which nowadays doesn't require anything super expensive), paying attention to lighting and sound, and learning how to edit videos. I'm somewhat lucky in the sense that I have an Associates in Digital Media/Film and did a year of a film-focused degree at an art college, so I have plenty of experience learning how to work cameras (and their manual settings), how to light a scene, and how to edit video. Not everyone has that obviously, but the good news is a lot of it is common sense and is pretty easy to learn. I want to one day upgrade my camera to a DSLR and get lighting equipment when I have more of disposable income, but I've made do with a relatively cheap camera and using just natural light and room lighting along with my camera's exposure settings to get mostly decent shots.


• Figure out a script style that works for you. Some people like to write out an entire script, others prefer bullets. I'm more a bullet person, and I try not to write more than a sentence or two per bullet. I like using bullet points because it keeps my vlogs flexible and sounding more casual—and also I don't trip up on the exact wording that way, which helps a lot. (I also use the same technique for public speaking.) The exact method you use matters less than figuring out a method that works for you.


• Like literally every other social media channel, the biggest key is to post consistently. I’ve already written a whole post about why posting consistently is so important, so I’m not going to get into that again. But the main benefit to YouTubers is by posting consistently, you’re allowing your viewers to get into the habit of checking/visiting your blog on a regular basis. For me, that means every Tuesday. Whether that’s weekly, bi-weekly, several times a week or monthly is up to you, but no matter what, consistency is key.


• Similarly, your content should be somewhat consistent, too. For me this means I vlog about books, writing, and publishing, with few exceptions. It also means I try to keep my vlogs under four minutes whenever possible—because that's what I've always done and it's what my viewers expect from me now. And many of them have said they appreciate the brevity (and to be honest, so do I—it's a lot easier to edit and caption a short vlog than a long one!). 


• Cross-posting. Cross-posting is helpful for just about every social media avenue, whether it's blogging, reviewing, Instagramming, etc. YouTube is no exception—I cross-post to Twitter, my blog, Facebook, and tumblr. Most of my traffic still comes from YouTube natively (which is great!) but cross-posting definitely helps get the word out.


• Answer the (serious) comments. Yes, I've mentioned this for other social media sites, and yes it applies to YouTube, too. The different thing about YouTube is viewers are pretty used to being ignored in the comments, so when you do respond, they take note and kind of love it. But obviously you can ignore and report/block jerk comments because those happen from time to time. The comments on my YouTube channel are the most active of any of my social media sites—not only do viewers ask questions and comment on the vlogs, but they respond to each other, too. As a bonus, I've gotten a lot of great vlog ideas from questions and suggestions people have made in the comments, so really, it's a win-win. 

Have you ever considered starting a YouTube channel?

Twitter-sized bites:

Looking to build a YouTube channel? @Ava_Jae shares her experience and a few tips. (Click to tweet) 

"Find a script style that works for you," and other YouTube channel building tips from @Ava_Jae. (Click to tweet)

Platform Building for Beginners: Where to Start?

Photo credit: the tartanpodcast on Flickr

So someone asked me recently if I had a post on platform building in general for beginners, and I sort of have a couple specific platform posts, but not a general one, so here we go. Platform building.

While I still consider myself someone who is learning and growing my platform as a debut author, I have learned quite a bit about growing your social media sites over the last many years, and so here are my top five tips.

1. The earlier you start, the better. Ultimately, building a platform takes time—and a lot of it. No matter what platform you use, getting noticed, making connections and getting followers/subscribers is a long game. I requires a slow build up of steadily shared content and reaching out to other people.
   
   I started my Twitter and blog—which is where I have the biggest following—over four years ago. To give you an idea:
   
   May 2011: 447 monthly page views
   May 2012: 13,292 monthly page views
   May 2013: 31,544 monthly page views
   May 2014: 29,727 monthly page views (stats rise and fall!)
   May 2015: 33,536 monthly page views
   
   Biggest traffic month ever: October 2014 (43,347 page views in a month)
   
   So as you can see, it took two years to really get steady traffic going. It’s totally fine, of course, if you don’t have two years to get engagement going, but just don’t expect your follower count to explode overnight.


2. Stick with platforms you actually enjoy. I’m all over the internet—this blog, Twitter, tumblr, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube. But! You definitely don’t need to use all of those platforms if you don’t want to. Instead, I recommend you stick with platforms you actually enjoy using (though if you’re like me and you enjoy using all of them…more power to you)—your interactions will feel more natural and your followers will notice. Plus, keeping them updated won’t feel like such a chore.


3. Connect with other people. Ultimately, the whole point of having a platform is getting to know other people and making connections. The more you reach out and engage, the more connected your followers will feel. Be yourself and show them you’re a person—not a sales robot.


4. Consistency is everything. No matter what platform you use, the key is always always consistency. The only way to develop a steady buildup of followers is to continue creating and sharing content. Depending on what platform you use, “consistent” doesn’t necessarily have to mean every day—but the more you share and create, the more engagement you’ll get. That said…


5. Don’t become a spambot. This is the biggest turnoff for readers and followers of every kind, on every platform. No one wants to see a feed where the only thing shared is about the person’s book. You want to market your books, obviously, but that should never be the bulk of the content you share. Share other people’s stuff, talk to people, create content about something other than your book that your followers enjoy, that way when you do talk about your book it won’t feel forced or overdone.


6. BONUS: Cross-post! Assuming you have more than one social media account, the best way to take full advantage of your many social media sites is to cross-post the things you share. Granted, you want to do this carefully—and you don't want to cross-post everything. But if you have a blog post, share it on your Twitter and tumblr! Have a vlog? Put it on your blog and Facebook! Have an Instagram account? Share your photos on Twitter! This not only helps boost your output on all sites and get what you share out to more people, but it also helps people who follow you on one channel reach out to you on another. Win-win! 

What tips do you have for platform building?

Twitter-sized bite:

Not sure how to start building your social media platform? @Ava_Jae shares her top tips. (Click to tweet)

How to Build an Online Platform: Twitter

Photo credit: Scott Beale on Flickr

So I’ve been doing this social media thing for a little over three years now, and it semi-recently occurred to me, after a couple people commented at RT14, that I guess I’m semi-sort of okay at it?

I don’t know you guys, I hadn’t really given it much thought until recently.

Occasionally I’ve had people ask me how I got so many Twitter followers/blog views/etc., so I figured I’d share what I know in a couple convenient blog posts. And really, all I know is what worked for me. Your mileage may vary.

Okay? Okay.

So I was going to include all the social media sites I use in one post…but I quickly realized that’d be a ridiculously long post. So I’m splitting it up! Look for more of these in the future. :)

Today’s focus is Twitter!

• Twitter birthday: April 10, 2011 (3.3 years, as of this writing). 
• Followers: Roughly 2.2kish as of this writing. 
• Time spent weekly: Way too much (read: all the time). (Can’t actually count because…yeah). 

So Twitter was the very first social media venture I started with, and thus the one I have the most experience with. In many ways, it was the scariest (because OMG I’m online now), but I quickly learned that Twitter is actually ridiculously fun and addictive.

Tips: 

• Getting a ton of followers isn’t the point. What you want are followers who engage with you and genuinely pay attention to and like what you have to say, so that they share your content and remember you. I don’t automatically follow anyone who follows me, but I do follow anyone who fits into this criteria. And it’s how I’ve made some awesome Twitter friends.


• Don’t spam. I wrote a whole post about what qualifies as spamming. It doesn’t work. Ever. Don’t do it. 


• Be yourself. I follow some people who swear. I follow some people who talk politics and religion. I follow some people who scream in all caps about the next Sherlock episode and rage about whether or not Korra and Mako should be together.
  
  Guess what? You’re going to lose followers for being yourself, but it doesn’t matter. Again, you don’t want followers for the sake of having followers—you want people who genuinely like you and what you say. So say whatever you want to talk about and be yourself and you’ll get genuine connects with people who genuinely like you. And that’s pretty awesome.


• Be professional. This may sound like the opposite of the last point, but it’s not—you can be yourself without being rude or burning bridges pretty easily. If you’re a writer, it means not raging about rejections or screaming about the evil publishing gods or badmouthing industry people (or people in general, really). Be nice. Be polite. And still be you. (TL;DR: Don’t be a jerk, okay?) 


• Reciprocate. Eventually, the day will come where people share your stuff. I generally advise you pay attention to people who frequently share your tweets and see what content they share—you may very well find you like what they have to say, too.
  
  I try to make a point of saying thank you to people who share my tweets, but lately it’s become ridiculously difficult to thank everyone because…it adds up quickly and quite frankly, I don’t always have the time to catch up.
  
  But! Before you reach that point, I totally recommend you take the time to say thank you (and even after you reach that overwhelming point, do your best). It’s a great way to connect with people, and it’s a nice thing to do. Like I said before—be nice. 

So those are my Twitter tips! Now I want to hear from you: what tips do you have for building a platform on Twitter? 

Twitter-sized bites: 

Looking to build a platform on Twitter? @Ava_Jae shares her experience and a few tips. (Click to tweet)

"Getting a ton of followers isn't the point," and other Twitter platform building tips from @Ava_Jae. (Click to tweet)