I am sure you all can tell by now if you’ve been following along on stories, but making Youtube a priority is a HUGE goal of mine in 2o19. In the past I always saw taking photos for my instagram as my number one job, but I’ve been trying to keep an open mind and be okay if there’s day that I don’t post on instagram because I am filming a video for Youtube. I think it’s such a great way to share more, be MORE REAL, and expand on how well we all know each other! It’s very daunting, as I would not consider myself a vlogger, and yet it’s exciting to learn an entire new channel, and discover all of the ins and outs. I feel re-invigorated, and my goal is to post at least one video per week.
In order to get my channel up and running, there’s been a few steps I’ve been taking behind the scenes that I figured I would share with you, in case you’ve been wanting to start on Youtube as well! Here we go!
Step 1: Purchase a Vlog Camera – For a while, I’ve been filming my instagram channel videos with my Canon SL2, the camera that I use to shoot blog photos. It takes beautiful video, but it’s extremely bulky to carry around as a vlog camera, and it’s also best to shoot in manual focus mode so you don’t hear the focus during filming, which is difficult. I found that not having a proper camera was deterring me from shooting, so it was finally time to bite the bullet. I love this Canon G7 because the screen flips around, making it easy to film vlog style, and it also came highly recommended. I have yet to break it in, so I can definitely report back on how happy I am with it in a few months.
Step 2: Create a Channel Intro – I knew that a big part of being a Youtuber is branding myself the same way I have on instagram, so I needed an intro for all of my videos to make them “my own.” I started by diving into the footage I have on my iphone, and most of it was shot with 8mm app, so I decided to make the intro clips using this footage. It felt less authentic to film specifically for the intro, and more authentic to just find old clips I already shot while living life. I then needed to find unlicensed music, and my good friend Matt Martin provided this lovely song from his solo music in which he goes by Martin Matthews. My final step was creating the video, which my amazing assistant Danielle did using Premier. We created it using the site Motion Array, and it took a few hours. I am so happy with how it turned out!
Step 3: Create Channel Art – Another big piece to launching a cohesive Youtube is to come up with a look and feel for your Channel art, which is basically the cover photo for all of your videos. I decided back last year that I wanted to carry over the orange theme of my instagram to my Youtube, and I’ve been using the site Canva to create free channel art. It looks much nicer when you land on someones page and you can clearly see what each video is about, or there’s nicely designed channel art. I am still figuring out the best and most successful way to do this by researching and using analytics to test out new things, but for now here’s a peek at how my channel looks! Spoiler alert: it’s very orange.
Step 4: Decide what you want to post about! This one may seem quite obvious, but it’s actually such a difficult question and one I am still trying to figure out as I venture into this journey. It’s extremely difficult to know what your audience is interested in seeing before you post anything and have the analytics to back it up, but I can say from the past that my audience reacts very well to tutorials and styling videos, but seems less interested in vlogs. I myself am also a bit bored of vlogs, and I would rather shoot in a more structured way VS just constantly filming my life, if that makes sense.
With knowing that, I decided to create a schedule each week in which Danielle and I have a video idea and strategy, and film it for a few hours on a specific day. This makes it easier to make sure I am actually getting enough footage. I’ve created a google doc with a running list of ideas, dates I want to create them, and essentially making an editorial calendar for Youtube in the same way I do for Instagram. It’s so important to know what feels the most “you” and to make sure you stay comfortable in sharing your life and your world!
I love the idea of sharing some behind the scenes videos, and actually shared my first one of behind the scenes from the shoot in the above photo!
Step 5: Join the community! This one is SO important, and I learned from being very active on instagram that some of my greatest ideas are born out of conversations on somebody else’s story, or things I save for inspiration from other influencers. We’re here to inspire one another, and since I still have so much to learn, it’s been really fun fully immersing myself in this new world and realizing there’s so many great accounts i never knew about! A few of my favorites I follow or began to follow thanks to your recommendations include:
I am so excited to join this new community, and can’t wait to see where it leads me in 2019! Make sure to subscribe here!