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What I learned at VidCon: How to Improve Your Social Media

Jul 10, 2018 | life updates, Lifestyle | 2 comments

How to improve your social media / What I learned at Vidcon

When I was planning my June, I realised that we would be in Southern California during Vidcon. Having watched far too many Casey Niestat videos in my day, I knew that Vidcon was a big thing, and that he would actually be talking at this years event…so Anna and I used it as a learning opportunity and hit up the Anaheim Convention Centre, pen and paper in hand.

Here are some of the things I learned..

Pinterest

Do not under appreciate this social network. It is one of the most looked at/engaged with social media platforms. Half of US millennials use Pinterest, with 200 million monthly users worldwide. It’s actually used more of a search engine to ‘connect with yourself and discover what you love’. There’s 2 billion searches each month on the platform – meaning that we should be optimising each image or pin for a search engine by being incredibly descriptive.

I personally do not use it anywhere near enough to share my blog posts and photos, but am going to make a conscious effort to do so going forward.

Life of a pin is 3.5 months, and is far more evergreen than other content online. You can re-share old posts, and make sure it’s

Best Practices:

  • Get a business account so that you can customise your profile and gain more analytics about your Pinterest
  • Claim your website – Pins link back to your site will have your icon and name no matter who saves it, along with a follow button. You can also get analytics about the traffic coming to your site from the platform.
  • Pin public content at least weekly
  • Videos are increasing on Pinterest and can be really powerful for cooking, workouts etc. Keep them under 3 mins, and vertical if possible.
  • Use ‘Shop the look’ to tag things you’re wearing.

Follow me on Pinterest here.

How to improve your social media / What I learned at Vidcon

Instagram 

I was obviously really excited to attend the Instagram talk, however was a little disappointed by the content. I’m not the only one who has been frustrated by the algorithm changes over the past few years, and the fact that only a portion of the people following us get to actually see our content. However, the guy from Instagram denied this was happening, and said that 50% more followers are reached with the new algorithm.

Here’s what else I learned;

  • IGTV – Another way to share either curated or real-time content. Video is the future, and this format means we can share up to 60 minutes. For the first time, Instagram are allowing us to upload from our desktop/laptop rather than just mobile devices. It’s going to be interesting to see how this develops…
  • The feed is going back to a slightly more time based algorithm, however they’re looking at the interest in your post from your followers, the relationships (i.e. engagement) and timelessness.
  • Apparently they DON’T hide posts in the feed, and it doesn’t matter whether you have a business or personal account.
  • Hashtags are still important, and you can now follow them like you follow an account. Use relevant ones in both your caption and in the first comment – use small niche tags as well as bigger, more widely used hashtags. Instavast is an app that can tell you the best hashtags to use (although I haven’t used it yet).
  • Tag relevant accounts, use location tags and use the explore feed to see what type of content gets used there and therefore gets seen beyond your following.

Follow me on Instagram here. 

The Power of Live Content 

Live video is bigger than ever on IG, although how this will change now that IGTV is around, I’m not sure. However, the talk I went to at Vidcon discussed the reasons for Live being such a great way to connect with the audience;

  • Quicker results
  • Strategically increase audience
  • Establishes authority and credibility
  • Most engaging kind of content
  • Creates an environment of trust

There are three different ways you can create live content phone (raw, live video), browser (straight to Facebook or Youtube) and using software (a usb webcam and mic).

If you’re sharing live content, then it should be a combination of personality and professionalism, as well as consistency.

Top tips;

  • Share live content that is a combination of personal and professional
  • Consistency
  • Ask for engagement – be specific with your questions.
  • Cross post on different social channels to draw followers to your live.

How to improve your social media / What I learned at Vidcon

YouTube/Video Content 

Im terrible at consistency with my video content but that’s what we should be doing when it comes to Youtube  Ideally three times a week (!!) although at least once, on the same day each week. You can tell the best day and time to post by looking at your Youtube Analytics – you want to post at the start of your traffic peak. For most people, May and September are months with lower traffic as people go through transitional stages in their lives. December and January are the best months, so make sure you have good content for those months!

Title is really important. Use active words like ‘running’ rather than ‘ran’. Include buzz words, trending keywords and emotionally loaded words to draw your viewers in to click on that thumbnail.

When it comes to thumbnails, you want something that represents what the video is about but that gets your audience excited. Draw them in with a bright background, a picture of human faces/eyes is most enticing and creates a strong emotion. Make sure it is big enough for the small screen – imagine that everyone is watching your video on their phones!

Top tips;

  • Post about Relatable topics: relationships, events, places, family friends for increased engagement
  • Be authentic – conversation with a friend, share stories.facts about yourself, look directly at the camera even when interviewing someone else
  • Be consistent – one video a week minimum, similar tone, genre and style
  • Videos that are between 7-16 minutes do best (with 10-13 mins the prime video length)
  • Brand consistency – colour scheme, logo, unique look to your thumbnails
  • for inspiration, look at your favourite creators and put your own spin on the topic
  • Don’t link off your Facebook to Youtube – create a snapshot video or pic directing people to your new video.

Do you follow me on Youtube? subscribe here, I’ll be putting these tips into action in the next few weeks) .

2 Comments

  1. W.Purves.

    I am grateful that at my age I do not have to follow or understand all this.
    But keep[ going, we are missing some of your excellent blogs! G.

    Reply
  2. Tess @ FitBits

    3 YouTube videos a week?! Do they think we don’t have jobs?! It takes me ages to edit videos, I need to go on a course to speed up. I wish I had more time for my poor blog. I do love writing it and making videos tho. You’re smashing it Charlie, keep it up!

    Reply

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