YouTube.
Isn’t that the platform all the teenagers are on? People about two decades (and change) younger than me? Isn’t it full of pranks, beauty tutorials, challenges and so on? Isn’t it the place where you can get ‘disliked’ on your videos and get awful comments?
Well, yes it is.
YouTube has been a platform I’ve wanted to do for ages. In fact, I’ve already got some videos uploaded on there. But I’ve never had the courage to really go for it. I love filming. I love the creativity of editing where you try and find the story amongst the hours of footage you’ve recorded. It is something that both intrigues me but also scares the hell out of me. The perfect combination.
I’ve experimented with IGTV and I’m now on my seventh week of vlogging on there. Which I’m really enjoying. I love how I’m becoming more relaxed at talking to camera, how I’m learning new skills and how I’m continuing to push myself, to keep trying new things.
There is another reason why I’m branching out and trying another social media platform. My blog is my passion and nothing gives me more pleasure than knowing people are reading my words, enjoying them and being inspired by them. This is my space. Where I can do what I want.
The social media channels of Pinterest and Twitter are useful but they’re not spaces to create original content as such. The former is a place to share your work and the work of other people and the latter is a place to converse or make contacts.
The social media platform I’ve got the biggest audience on is Instagram. On this platform I like to create original content with my words and pictures as well as share my blog posts and talk to a like-minded community of people. It fulfils the purposes of my blog, pinterest and twitter - which explains why it has grown so quickly in the last few years.
On Instagram I have also created a second account for my book club and I do a weekly vlog on IGTV.
I have created a lot of content for Instagram. And this makes me feel both pleased but also a little uncomfortable. That’s a lot of eggs in one basket.
I would like to be still blogging in six months, 12 months, 18 months time. But what will Instagram look like then? What if there are changes out of my control and my engagement drops? What if people no longer see me and therefore don’t know about my blog posts? A drop in engagement on Instagram will lead to a drop in visitors to this blog.
So, with that in mind, having got used to filming on Instagram Stories and IGTV I’m excited to turn my camera horizontal to film videos purely for YouTube.
It’s a chance for me to create fresh content. To try new things. I’m excited to see where this adventure takes me.
The video below is my Introduction to A Bookish Baker video. I hope you like it.
Oh and one last thing - don’t forget to subscribe to my channel! It really helps get me seen on this busy platform.
