What equipment do I need to start with if I want to get on video?
I heard video is so important for business but oh my gosh where do I start?
How much money do I need to invest?
How much is one of these things and why is this lens so big and why does this microphone have a big fuzzy thing on it?!
And why are these microphones so big?
Okay, well I'm gonna help you out today. I'm condensing 20 years of film-making experience and 25 years of theatre performing experience, to help you, Dare to Dreamers, and Entrepreneurs step into the spotlight.
I've been making a bunch of videos live this week and right now I will address one of the biggest questions I get which is “What equipment do I need to buy to start?”
What equipment do I need for video making? Reality Check
The answer is not gonna be what you expect. People think that equipment is this magic bullet. If you just spend X amount of money in this fancy equipment you're gonna have these amazing videos that everybody's gonna watch.
And that those people are gonna buy merchandise or services from you. You're gonna go viral. All this wonderful stuffs gonna happen as long as you spend X amount of money.
Well, that is not how it works actually.
Once upon a time… when there were no fancy cameras
So let me tell you a quick story about something I learned when I went to film school many years ago.
A lot of people find this hard to believe but I went to school back when there was no easy access to things like HD cameras. If you wanted to work your way up to a fancy camera you had to learn how to shoot on actual film, which was very expensive.
That was the stuff people made major motion pictures with. So when you went to film school at that time, you had to use really cheap video cameras until you could work your way up to that.
So at my school, it was very frustrating because they wouldn't let us access the fancy expensive cameras. You could liken them to red cameras today, those are the fancier cameras videographers can buy but are very expensive.
It's kind of like if we wanted to shoot on film or a red camera today, we had to work our way up to it. If you were in the 101 class they are not going to give you access to these really expensive cameras because you don't know how to use them and at the time oh! That's frustrating!
But you know what? I'm really glad you didn't because they told us we had to focus on the craft.
Things to learn before buying a fancy camera
Learning the craft of telling stories on video first. You didn't need the fancy camera to do that so they gave us these junky little Sony Handycams (no offense Sony, I actually loved Sony cameras and I have a Sony camera now).
But compared to these big fancy film cameras we were like why are you giving us these little home movie camcorders?
They were really hot at the time but they were for home movies. They made us use those because they weren't as expensive. As new film students, we could break them and it wouldn't be that big a deal.
On the brighter side, we learned all the things that you can apply, whether you have something cheap or you have something expensive for your filming device. And we learned everything. We learned the importance of acting, the importance of staging the person in the right place, we learned the audio, the importance of audio.
We learned that the movement of the camera what you do when you move the camera or how close the camera is to the subject and how that affects the viewer psychologically. How that changes the pacing of your story.
We learned how to edit that footage and how that changes how people react to it. We learned the basics of lighting.
You can still learn that with a cheap camera versus an expensive camera.
We learned everything we had to know so that by the time we worked our way up to the fancy cameras, we were solid and we knew what we were doing and were ready and well prepared.
What camera do you need to buy?
So how does this translate to you?
Why am I telling you this story?
Because I know you're not going to film school and you're not asking a film department to give you equipment, but you're thinking about what do you make an investment on and usually the first thing people ask is what camera do I need to buy?
I want you to learn the lesson I learned going to film school, which is you don't need anything fancy.
If you're just starting out, and if you own a smartphone, you have the camera that you need right here. As long as it is a newer smartphone and it's not a razor phone from 2005, you're gonna get good enough quality.
You're ready to go. You can shoot your Instagram stories. You can turn it sideways and shoot your YouTube videos. You have what you need and, therefore, you don't need a camera yet.
Learn the craft first
So this probably not the answer you wanted, but you should be relieved.
I think people might be disappointed because you thought I'm gonna give you the magic bullet camera recommendation.
Again, if you're just starting out you need to learn that craft first. You need to learn the difference between a close-up and a wide shot and how moving the camera can be great or it can be terrible for the story you're trying to tell, for the emotion you're trying to elicit in your viewer or your customer.
You can work on your scripts. That's really the most important part. You got to be focusing on your scripts, and your delivery. Those are all things you can work on and get good at, hammer away at and build a solid foundation of knowledge and skill without spending any money.
What is the first thing you should buy in your video equipment?
So having said that, I did want to give you a recommendation for the first thing that you should buy.
The first piece of equipment you should buy is actually not a camera. The first thing you should buy is a microphone.
I know that's hard to believe because we're saying video, video is supposed to be painting with light. It's just light hitting our eyes, it's a visual thing.
So why am I saying a microphone is the first thing you need to buy?
We don't realize it, we are very visual creatures but audio plays a huge part in a piece of art. It plays a huge part in our psychology.
People will actually forgive low-quality visuals, much more quickly than they will forgive bad audio.
Have you ever watched a video and somebody's in their kitchen and there's so much echo in the room that it's hard to even understand what they're saying?
And for me, I don't even want to watch anymore because I'm having to work too hard.
You never want to make your viewer work too hard because they have way too many options out there for videos to watch. You want to make it easy and the easiest way to do that is to give them an enjoyable audio experience, give them nice clean audio.
Recommendations
You can find mics that go on top of your camera. If you use a real camera you can find one for pretty cheap. It can cost you anywhere from $30 to $100 or something but I'm not going to recommend this right now because I had told you you should start with your phone.
Lapel Microphones
Because you should start with your phone you actually only have to make a very small investment. I think the first thing you should buy is a lapel mic. It's a mic that fits on your lapel that's why it's it's called a lapel mic.
It's also known as a Lavalier Microphone. You may have heard it called a Lav before because that's short for Lavalier.
I actually don't know what that means because I've learned that in film school 15 to 17 years ago.
Anyways, you can start out with a really cheap one.
Mine are very fancy. Around $600 a pop, but you don't need something like that, These are wireless, they're Sennheiser and they're really nice. I actually got good deals by buying them used from a Hollywood Audio guy.
He hooked me up with his used kit he was upgrading.
For all you beginners, you can get mic for real cheap. It's only 13 US Dollars and that's just to start.
Once again you can upgrade your microphone later, but for now, I think you just start small. When you're ready to improve the audio on your cell phone/smartphone videos, buy a lapel mic.
But if you already own an actual camera then you can get one of these.
Shotgun Microphones
It's called shotgun because it's pointy and it's pointing in one direction and so the audio is picking up things in that direction. It's also called a directional microphone.
Not what you would expect as it's not a magic bullet. It will, though, help remove some of the sounds from far away and improve the quality because the mic is closer to your mouth. It'll be a little bit better quality than the cellphone.
iPhone Users
Now if you own an iPhone, with the newer connection, you will have to buy a cheap adapter. They're not expensive and they work just fine. I've used them for major live streams. No problem.
I can make recommendations at certain price tiers so be sure to check out my next video/blog post on that.
Want to learn more about the craft?
You know you don't have to go to film school nowadays because you have access to all this amazing information online. So I'm giving you my 20 years of experience here. Trust me when I tell you you don't need to invest in thousands of dollars on video equipment especially when you're getting started.
Learn the craft itself, like the writing which is free by the way! Writing is one of the best things you could ever learn because it doesn't cost you anything as long as you have a place to write things down.
Learn Beyond the Basics
I hope that you take some of this information and go out and at least by that lapel mic and start shooting videos for your business.
Let me know how it goes. Let me know on social media or leave me a comment with #daretodreamer and let me know if that's working out for you.
So remember, you dared to dream. That's what business owners do, that's what artists do, that's what creators do.
There will be people all the time all around you saying “You need to be more practical, you need to grow up, you need to be realistic, play it safe.”
Don't listen to them, never give up on your dreams always be a Dare to Dreamer.
For those of you don't know me I'm a YouTuber. I'm happy to say I've had millions and millions of views and I also have a film-making background, a theater background, and I'm a musician.
Today I wanted to talk today about camera confidence. A lot of people have a hard time believing my story about how I used to be a very shy kid, and I've been able to go from that to today. I actually direct my own videos. Sometimes some pretty elaborate videos. Some go viral, some don't, a lot don't! But I've had great success with being on camera.
Some people have a hard time believing that all this included a journey. I want to share some tips I learned from that journey.
A lot of those tips I actually learned from working in Hollywood, as well as directing my own films, my own web series, as well as Hollywood workshops I took as a director and as an actor. That I think a lot of people could apply to regular online videos – simple things like if you wanted to do Facebook lives or you wanted to get on YouTube those same Hollywood techniques work the same.
What holds you back?
Have you ever watched yourself on video and you cringe at the sound of your own voice? Some of us have been there? I have been there.
I hated the sound of my own voice. It didn't sound the way I was used to and sometimes I didn't like how I looked on camera. I would be embarrassed. Kind of like you ever not liked a picture of yourself that somebody tagged you in, maybe on Facebook it's that kind of feeling but on a video. So some people are afraid to start on video because of that.
They're afraid of what people will say, they're afraid of how they look, and then some people they might have the camera confidence in terms of how they look but they have other fears regarding video. They might be afraid of what people think in terms of if these people are professional enough to be on camera, old enough, young enough to be on camera. Or maybe you don't have the authority to be on camera for something you do, something you love or a business you run.
You feel like it's for other people to be on video. So there's this common kind of Impostor Syndrome. People have trouble getting the courage to be on camera or when they're on camera they struggle with being confident and thus being authentic.
I know a lot of people struggle with that so I thought I would share some tips. I'm going to be doing a live every day this week to promote this upcoming course that I'm doing. It's a beta course so this is like a one-time chance to work with me live every week in a very small group setting for a very discounted price.
This course will help you with not only camera confidence but how to tell a story as a filmmaker does. You can use it in your own small online videos. So that you can grow your business and can grow your brand.
How to feel confident on camera?
First of all, if you feel uncomfortable being on camera, I want you to know first off that I've been there. That used to be me when I was a kid. I was afraid to be on camera. I was afraid to be on stage even though I loved performing. And I loved to sing; I had a talent for singing. I had a gift but I was afraid to share that gift because I had such terrible stage fright.
And so some people they either don't start on camera or when they're on camera they look nervous or they don't seem like themselves. They seem a little bit uptight and stiff.
Relive a Moment
First of all, when you are on stage, it's because you're internalizing everything. You're turning everything in on yourself. Your mindset is on “how am I performing” and “oh my gosh everybody's looking at me”. Or if it's on the camera it's: everybody's going to look at me and you're fixating on the camera on the situation and it's getting to you in your own mind. Whereas when you speak to your friend you look very natural. If somebody secretly filmed you would look completely authentic because you're having a real conversation.
The key to looking authentic and feeling confident on camera is to put yourself back in that original situation. You need to use your imagination a little bit. This is why actors appear so talented. This is why actors look so good because they're not performing, they're being authentic.
One technique is you can try to access your memories of a conversation you had with a real person you knew and then if you can channel that your “performance” is gonna look really natural.
So as an actor, a tool that I could use potentially, is let's say there was a scene where I had to be really sad or I could fit a sad memory and I could channel that. I could close my eyes before the scene and think okay what happened right before the scene? And then think was there a time in my life where I felt that way where I was unhappy or sad and I can channel that memory and then I can kind of relive it.
Have a conversation
Now you have to be willing to be vulnerable. If you can remember that in your performance, it's gonna look authentic because you're remembering a real time when you are sad. So that is a trick sometimes that actors use they channel a real memory so that their performance looks authentic. Because they're actually remembering a time when they were in that kind of situation. They're not acting, they're reliving.
Let's say you had a business and you wanted to talk about your product or solve your customer's problem on a video you could use the same technique. Before you record, or even when you record because you can edit it later, close your eyes and remember a time, when you needed to solve a problem for your customer.
What was the conversation you had? What were the things that your customer was asking you? Once you remember that person's face, now you can open your eyes and start recording. Act like you're having a conversation with that person. Act like the camera lens is that person.
Try to Act
So instead of trying to perform and trying to act the way you think everything is supposed to act, turn it or to act. Turn it around to focus on the other person instead of internalizing it. Focus on solving their problems, and if you can do that it will take away some of your nervousness. You will focus your attention on the other person. It's even better as it compounds the benefits because you're also going to appear authentic since you're helping another person. Even if it's just a person from your memory.
And if you've never helped people like that before you might want to invent a persona. Find a photograph of a friend and put that near the camera.
Use an Actual Person
Another trick I tell people is can you have a friend stand behind the camera?
That allows it to appear authentic as well because you are having a conversation with the person behind the camera. But try to look into the lens. That's a common mistake I see people do.
So look into the lens and make sure that you're just imagining that that's a person and if you do have a person behind the camera don't look at the person look at the lens. But imagine that that's a person.
It takes time
Finally I also just want you to remember that this takes the time and it takes practice. Just make sure that you're not too hard on yourself.
Those are my little tidbits of camera confidence tricks for you. I hope they helped you. Just remember those things close your eyes, access a memory of a time you've helped someone with that question, whatever it is that your video is about. If it's an informational video, then think about a time somebody asks you that question. Or If you've never had somebody asks you that question imagine you're trying to help people in new business.
If you have a hard time imagining them use a photograph of somebody you actually know. Then if you're still having a hard time, have a real person stand behind the camera and maybe be your moral support but you got to always make sure you look into the camera lens.
Don't look at your friend who's standing above the camera don't look at the screen to the side because. Remember you're kind of in a time capsule, you're a time traveler. You're speaking to somebody in the future who will watch your video. If it's a live, you might be doing it now but people will watch the replay too right?
Just pick one imaginary person or one person you've worked with in the past that's how you're gonna get authentic.
Focus less on self
My fourth tip is to turn it around. Don't focus so much on yourself. That's how you get nervous, that's how you start to appear unauthentic. That's how you appear disingenuous. You have to allow yourself to just be yourself allow yourself to be vulnerable. I know that's scary, but if you can allow yourself to be vulnerable. If you can love yourself enough to tell yourself ‘people will love me just the way I am, I don't have to be professional, I don't have to be this idea of who I think people need to be.
I just need to be myself and focus on that person and give them my gift. Whether that is singing or it's education, focus on that person, that invisible person who is behind the camera. They need you and so remember that if you can take it from a point of serving others, that's how you can have a beautiful authentic performance on camera, that won't even feel like a performance.
Just like many actors will be very humble if you compliment them on their talent because it's not a performance to them. They are just very good at being vulnerable enough to channel their internal memories and their emotions so that they can be emotionally raw with people. That's all they're doing they're not actually performing.
Learn More in my Beta Course
I am doing a live beta course, you will have the ability to meet with me live twice a week, this one time only. After this, the videos will be pre-recorded when I teach the more expensive final class a few months from now. So this summer is the only chance you're gonna have at one-third of the final price if you want to help me make a great product and join in my beta course and be part of this tiny little small group.
I'm teaching people how to create a video strategy before they ever film something, lots of tips that I learned as a director and an actor that you can use. Just like the tips I just told you for your performance. How to craft a good story both as a filmmaker and videographer and as the person on camera who is the person delivering the message. We delve into the technical part of how to post a video and how to promote it.
How you can repurpose your content so you can use the same videos over and over again on all your other social media so that you're not making a million videos for all the platforms out there. Because you do need to focus if you want to grow. My talent is growing audiences and telling stories and that's how I've been able to grow 134,000 Livestream followers, it's how I've got 24 million YouTube views. If you want access to me every week in this live six-week course, just check out this link.
Does it really work if you don't have other people to harmonize with you?
In this post we're tackling, what should I make my videos about?
What should I talk about?
That's a very common question that I get from people.
What if you run out of ideas?
Well, I have to tell you, I promise you, with this strategy I'm giving in this video, you're never going to run out of ideas.
Don't give them commercials
So you're thinking of starting a YouTube channel where you need to have videos. What should they be about? A lot of people make a big mistake, they just think they're supposed to make a bunch of commercials to sell their product. And they might even invest a bunch of money into making really fancy commercials. They even hire a videographer. But to be honest, people aren't looking for commercials. Commercials can be good for ads. You might want to do Facebook ads with those commercials or YouTube ads to get a lead, to get somebody to sign up for some service.
Give them Value
You offer some product, that's great, but when we talk about content marketing, that weekly video you put out or that twice a week video you put out, you're supposed to just be giving value. You're just going to help out your ideal client with these videos to get them to keep coming back to you and to grow what's called the “know Like and Trust Factor”.
They're going to get to know you, they'll like you, and they'll come to trust you because you're giving them such great advice for free. And that's the value of content marketing. Video is proven again and again to be the best way and the fastest way to grow trust.
The more videos you make using this strategy I tell you about, the more your videos are just going to work as a sales team for you while you sleep. They're going to work for you overnight. And just like what happens for me, people are going to come to you who you have never even heard of. And they're going to say, I watched all your videos. How do I sign up? And you didn't even have to talk to them because they watched your videos and you made them about the right thing.
What do I make the videos about?
I know, I know. It seems hard and it seems like you're going to run out of ideas, but all you have to do is think. Let's say your business is established and you have clients, just start thinking about what are the questions that your clients constantly ask you.
In addition to that, even if they don't ask you because people don't know what they don't know, what are things you end up having? To teach them or to school them constantly about things they weren't even aware they needed to learn. That is what you make your videos about. Don't worry about giving away the farm. A lot of people keep asking, oh what if I give away too much information and will they hire me?
It's just not true. If you give lots of value and information that answers the questions that your clients tend to ask, yes, some people are just going to take the free information and run and they'll never hire you, but look, they're not your ideal clients. They're the type of person that's out there looking for free content anyway, so they're not going to hire you. They weren't going to hire anyone. They're just that person that would rather spend tons and tons of time, maybe years to learn something for free, but you are going to get the people who see you're an expert.
You provided some value by answering some questions, but they don't have time for that. You know, they might be running their own business, they might be doing their own thing, but they trust you. So they're gonna pay you for the services because you already answered some of their beginning questions.
So that's what you do.
What New Businesses can do
Now let's say it's a new business or it's not a business where you talk to clients a lot. That's okay. You don't have to. Let's say you want to teach something that you know a lot about. Maybe you don't have a business for it yet or you're just starting your business. Let's say it's about, almond farming or almond trees. You've got an almond orchard and you decided to go into business. Maybe you don't have a business yet so you don't know what people ask in terms of clients because you haven't sold your almonds to anybody yet.
You know lots and lots and lots about almonds. So just go based off of what of your friends asked you you can make content on that. Or what's something you think everybody has to know about almonds that they didn't know such as Oh, it's a source of calcium or source of protein.
No clients yet? No Problem
So you can make videos about that even if you don't have any clients yet. You know, people need to know that. So you can make videos providing free education, free value, and then people who come watch those videos come to trust you. And when the time comes that they see that you're selling omens or almond milk, you're already top of mind to them.
So who are they going to trust?
Who are they going to buy from some random stranger?
Or are they going to buy from the person they've been watching all those almond videos about while they were doing research about whether they should start drinking almond milk?
So, that's how it works if you don't have any clients.
And finally, if you're still out of options, if you're still having trouble figuring out what to make your videos about, you have the Internet, my friends.
Use online tools. I'm going to tell you about three real quick.
Quora
One is Quora and you probably have run into it. Maybe you didn't remember the name but have you ever run a Google search for a really long-tail, really long-winded question like “How do I sew sleeves onto a shirt when I have really big arms?”. I know this sounds random, but I did an exercise the other day with somebody about sewing and we were trying to figure out how to like really niche that down and apparently, that's a thing people asked for.
People want to know how to sew arms into shirts when you have really big arms and you need big arm holes. So you, you might do a search on Google for something really obscure like that and Quora often pops up. It's a website where people can ask really specific questions and then human beings respond to those questions and give their answers and then they get upvoted.
Quora has questions from all industries
So you can look on Quora, see what are the most common questions in your industry, like what's better for protein, cashews, or almonds, or where is the best place to buy almonds from in California. Those are the kinds of questions you probably get to find on Quora. And then the great thing is all of those questions that you find, you can make a video about every single one of those and provide value by providing information.
And if you really, really want to have an impact and gain exposure, if you see somebody ask that something in Quora, you could make a video answering that question and then you could answer their question on Quora linking to your video. That might show up on other people's Google searches. Ha! You see. So we got a little hack there.
And a lot of people don't take advantage of Quora. I can tell you some people they're killing it on Quora they're answering people's questions. And then at the bottom, they have a link to their website or they mentioned they do services and they do get leads that way.
Keywords Everywhere
So the second tool I want to tell you about is a plugin called Keywords Everywhere. It's free and when you run Google searches, it will give you more information. It will give you information on the volume of searches, how competitive that is, that search you just did.
And it will also show you suggested or recommended or similar searches. So for instance, when I was showing someone Keywords Everywhere, I put in “how to sew armholes”. That was how I discovered, through the other suggested one, entries on the side of the Keywords Everywhere plugin in Google search. It shows up on the side of your Google search. It showed me that apparently people also search for how to sew big arm holes for fat arms. I never would've thought of that. That's like not something that would've come to mind. And so you know that might be a small audience, but it's a very niche audience.
If you have a sewing YouTube channel or a sewing blog and you're going to start making videos for your blog, man, you're going to get some traffic, you're going to get some very specific traffic.
Your Business or your service might be different, but Keywords Everywhere is really helpful and it's free. Just run a search for Keywords Everywhere on Google you will find a free plugin.
Answer the Public
My final tool I'm going to give you is Answer the Public. Answer the Public is kind of like a more robust version of Keywords Everywhere. You can put in a question or you can even put in just a topic and it will show you related things.
People are asking around that topic and it's very dense. You have to pay for the longer report, but you'll still get plenty of information. So you could say “ballet shoes” and then you can see all the questions people are asking about ballet shoes and it shows it in a really cool visual chart kind of way. It organizes by who, what, when, and that sort of thing. It's very visually stimulating.
It might get you to think outside the box in terms of ballet shoes, in terms of anything you search. It's going to give you some new ideas for videos. Just go try it. Ignore the scary looking guy that's on the cover of it. There's a weird video of a guy just standing there. It looks like he's waiting for you to ask a question. It's a weird video that's on the website. I said, don't let him intimidate you. Try Answer The Public.
To recap, one, you talk about what your clients ask you.
Two, if you don't have any clients yet, what do your friends ask you?
What are things you talk about over and over again about this subject you know so much about?
Three, use the tools that I talked to you about. They're free to start with Quora, Keywords Everywhere and Answer The Public.
The Script
Next, I will talk to you about the script itself.
What should you put in your video script?
What should you actually say in this specific video? So that you can have more impact.
You can provide more value and turn those viewers into raving fans and customers.
So check out that video and remember never give up, never let anyone talk you out of your dreams.
And Yeah, and don't forget I have my Beta course. This will be the only time, my friends, that it will be available for this cheap is that My Course and I'm teaching it live. It's like a live mastermind. We will be doing video calls twice a week and normally group consulting is going to cost like three times as much. It's only because it's a Beta course. You're going to help me perfect this prototype so that we can together make the most amazing video marketing course ever, to help businesses grow with only video and show them where to start.
What's included?
You'll walk away with an entire video strategy. You'll walk away with how to have confidence on both sides of the camera. You'll understand how to use the technology, the gear, the software and you'll know how to use those videos for other social media.
Start with YouTube and then post them to other places like Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn. And you're going to have your own little community. You'll have me giving you feedback every week on your videos, which normally cost a lot more money.
So it's like a great deal. And then you'll also have this small group of people who you'll have to leave comments on your videos and give you live feedback. So it's really valuable. If you're reading this post later, I'm sorry, the cart is closed. That's why you want to turn on notifications for me so that you catch me whenever I'm offering a deal. And you should still sign up on the waiting list because I'm always going to set it up so that early bird people get the best price. So you're going to want to sign up for my newsletter so you'll know when I'm teaching this course again, and you can get the best price.
This is Part Three of the TinaTimeTV series where I, Michelle Osorio explore using the community tab on YouTube. Have you used the community tab? What sort of response did you get? Watch the video or read on to find out.
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Using the community tab?
If you are not already utilizing the YouTube Community tab, you should start asap. It's an amazing place to get to know your audience, to let people know what's going on in between videos, especially if you're late on a video or you haven't posted in a while. It's a great way to have a conversation too.
You can also share pictures. You can tease a video that's coming up and say, for instance, ” here are the snacks from a snack collab video I did coming out tomorrow so make sure you have got your notifications turned on”.
Do polls give feedback on what people want?
Don't forget that people love polls. That's one really powerful part of the community tab that I love. You have a direct line to your subscribers to ask them whatever question you want.
What's your favorite type of content on my channel? Advice, reactions? What's your favorite type of reaction video? That's your chance to really narrow down. That's been very helpful for me. I've done several surveys fully intending to do one thing and then I'm completely surprised by the response and people wanted something different and so I went and did that instead.
That's not to say you have to do everything that they want you to do. It's important that you stick to your brand, but at least you'll know so that you don't end up just posting a video you think is going to do well and then all you get is crickets.
Because you can easily fall into that trap of sort of not providing the audience with what they want as well and not being selfish and just doing what you want all the time. You have to do what they want to an extent, but you can implement what you want to do alongside as well.
How often should you post?
Your videos should be very authentic, very natural, very organic, very “just-seeing-it-for-the-first-time” type. Once a week is usually the minimum, but better too, especially for Tina's type of content, as she makes reaction videos, two or three is totally fine.
It's important to find a balance. Whatever number works for you, that will keep you consistent and happy and able to keep going.
Let me know:
I'm curious, do you have a community tab and how often do you use it? I want to know in the comments, what do you use it for? Or if this gives you some ideas, what do you plan to use it for in the future? And how often do you think you'll be posting?
So far we've been talking about how to get your large subscriber base to come back and start watching more of your videos. But there's a whole another part of this, which is on how to make your videos more discoverable to people who aren't your subscribers. You don't have to just fight your way to winning your old subscribers back. I think it's a worthy cause, but there's a whole audience out there that hasn't discovered the amazing Tina Time TV. So you can also focus on discoverability and that's what we're going to cover in the next section of this series. Stay tuned to find out.
We're back with TinaTimeTV which is a reaction channel that Tina runs and she is working on getting more views on her videos. We already talked in this series about how she can improve the click-through rate for her current subscribers to come to click on her videos and watch to improve her views. But she can also focus on getting discovered by other viewers that are not subscribed to her yet.
How to get your videos discovered?
If you are struggling to get your videos discovered by a new audience on YouTube here are a few handy tips you can implement to get your videos discovered. Starting off, you first need to ask yourself, how do you decide what kind of videos you are going to make?
Tina: To be quite honest, I thought it's doing reaction videos when I first started, so my channel and I've never, got off of the reaction video vibe. It was almost just the case of going, right, what should I react to, music that I enjoy, hip hop, R and B. Then I started to implement different genres like pop.
So when I look at Tina's channel and there are a lot of titles that specifically just say Tina reacting to “this video”. We talked about this before in terms of trying to get more subscribers to click through. It's the same concept with new people, but you also have to consider they don't have any idea who you are because they've never seen any of your videos.
Compelling titles to interest new audience
If you have a video title that just says reacting to or Tina reacts to Drake's new Song, x, y, or z, think about it from the perspective of the viewer because, once again, as I said before, you want to think about the value you're providing to the viewer since that's what draws them in to click on it.
What am I going to get out of this If I click on this video? If it just says reacting to “blank” or “Tina reacts to blank”, what you need to do is put yourself in their shoes and think about how do you stand out compared to a hundred other reaction videos that come out, especially over time as more people come out.
I would really think about the angle you're going to approach this video from that will make it different, unique, and special, then craft your title based on that. Make a unique and have a compelling thumbnail based on that. Not just you sitting there and a picture of the video. The viewer is going to see a dozen ones like that. And if they don't know who you are, to them, it's just some random lady reacting.
Come out unique
Every time you make a video from now on, think about what is unique about you that you can lend to this video. How can you explain that visually in your thumbnail and verbally in your title.
For instance, I really liked that when we did our J K Collab. Tina talked to me excitedly about how J K is from her town. That's a really unique and interesting angle that not a lot of other YouTuber's are going to have. So if you were able to quickly react to a new J K video, I would highly suggest you find a title that says something like fellow local girl reacts to JK , something like that.
Reference
Find something like, or just say I'm from the same town as JK this is what I really think. Maybe not that long, but that will really stand out. You'll need to craft the title and do your research. And that is something a lot each of us does not spend enough time on.
Over time you will get good at crafting quickly and have the perfect hook. Also, you need to do it before you shoot your video. Then you'll know how to have a compelling hook at the beginning.
Say I'm from the same town as J K and a lot of people are learning about the Brummie lifestyle. You can say: Here's my real reaction to whether his video is legitimate or not. It doesn't have to be that exactly. It's just you're trying to tell them at the beginning, just like in the title, what is unique that they're going to get out of the video. What's special compared to every other reaction out there.
You just have to think of some way that will help you stand up. Think of the really popular reaction videos of seniors react to kids games or teenagers react to video games from the '80s. It's not just Joe Schmo reacts to Monopoly or Nintendo Game Boy. What's special about it is that person we know is going to have no idea what this is about and that's what makes it funny. Only you can bring a special vibe to the video.
Leverage other influencers
If you are trying to draw in a crowd that likes reaction or advice videos, leverage other influencers popular in that space. Perhaps you could go to some other influencer who has made a reaction.
It doesn't mean have to be about the most popular thing. Maybe they decided they wanted to react to some funny eighties commercial and the video did really well. What you could do is you could also react to it. Give some kind of opposing view and reference them.
That's a way for you to potentially get in front of another reaction video person's audience. You specifically want to call them out, say their name. Probably mentioned it in the description or the title. You can even do funny reaction to reaction videos. I think those are hilarious. It doesn't have to necessarily be roasting or controversial. You give enough signals to YouTube to understand that this is somehow related to that other person's video. So that hopefully your video will become suggested.
YouTube will say, oh this viewer who subscribes to Sally's Superstar, might like this other person who made similar content.
Every niche can have various different types of strategies depending on the type of content you cover. Let me know what your content type is and how you plan to get your channel more discoverable.
What's more?
Reaction videos can't be monetized because the music belongs to the person that made it or the record company. So they monetize that video. They stop you from being able to monetize a video.
But wait. There are other ways to monetize if you want to make money from it which we'll talk about in the next video. So make sure you click on that and check out TinaTimeTV as well.
Does your YouTube Channel have a Brand Identity of its own that speaks for it even before you do? Do you believe in increasing your click-through rates through a solid brand identity for your YouTube Channel?
This is part 2 in the series with TinaTimeTV where I look into her YouTube channel and give her tips on how to get more out of it. In the last part, we discussed how a few simple channel makeover tips can bring a drastic change in the look and feel of a channel.
You can watch this session on my YouTube channel as well.
Improving Click-Through Rates Through Visual Brand Identity
In this post, I am going to look into Tina's videos and tell you guys a few things about a YouTube Channel's brand identity and how working on that can increase your click-through rate.
What is your channel's brand identity? It is the look and feel of your channel that stays in the minds of your audience and speaks for you even before you do.
Tina left her channel as she went on vacation, and her audience did not hear from her for a long time. Now that she is back, things seem to be picking up on her channel even if the pace is slow and that's great. I'm glad that Tina didn't give up, get mad or walk away. Some people are impatient, you know.
My main channel's been around a long time, but I know that doesn't mean that I should expect anything when I've taken a break or when I've changed my content a little bit. It could take months and months for the YouTube Algorithm to understand what I'm doing and understand how to serve the market.
Moreover, it takes a while to get my subscribers to trust me again. They've got to trust you to make consistent content. It's good to take responsibility for that to keep going. I'm glad that things have started to pick up for Tina again. That's something you only get when you are consistent.
Get Consistent Thumbnails
One thing I would suggest to Tina and everyone out there is to perhaps have more of a consistent look for your thumbnails. In Tina's channel, I saw different fonts, different sizes, different colors, which is fine, but your audience doesn't really get your brand this way.
In Tina's channel, I didn't get the look. I did see like there's some common vignetting but some fonts are pretty hard to read and a few need change in color to pop out and be more visible.
Have Some Brand Colors
It's good to have some brand colors that speak in your visuals. You can choose some brand colors even if you don't want to go for a full brand deal. It doesn't always have to be the same, but it's really good for viewers because when they see a thumbnail, eventually, they're gonna know this is a TinaTimeTV video before they even read what it says. They start to get used to the color, the look, and the feel of your videos.
On my music channel, my colors are blue, yellow, and white. My Dare to Dream School Is for a bit of a more adult audience, but still slightly young and feminine too, so I went for purple, blue and white. Those are my colors.
Anyways, the idea is that the thumbnails don't always have to be identical. You can change it up to change the look of your channel. I suggested to Tina that it doesn't always have to be her on the right and the box on the left. You can make many variations but still have a similar look, similar colors, and similar fonts.
Reflect your Brand and Content
Since Tina makes reaction videos having a more emotive face on the thumbnails can perform well for her. I saw that in a few of her thumbnails which reflect the content as well as her personality.
If you are doing something like Tina, that is making reaction videos, having an expression on your face in the thumbnail can make a difference. In most of her thumbnails nothing much is going on and that's a chance to have more of a visual reaction from her audience.
To stand out you want to tease what's going to happen in the video. Perhaps you didn't like the music video or maybe you did, but you're going to surprise people. You start out thinking you're not liking it and weren't going to like it but then you did. In Tina's case, she should want something that really has a visual punch to it.
It depends on the channel though. If you are going for an elegant theme on how to organize your closet and that kind of thing, maybe you don't need a big punchy, bold kind of look and color.
But for Tina, since she is doing reaction videos it's totally acceptable to do something that stands out more and has more of a color splash. I suggested her to decide on her look and decide on some brand colors.
Hire Someone
You can hire somebody on Fiverr. I hired a person on Fiverr to do my overall look, banner and my graphics. But once in a while, I'll also come to him for some thumbnail templates and I'll ask for a few pieces that I can piece together in Photoshop. These should fit that same look, the same theme, and the exact same colors.
I even save the hex code (the numerical representation) of the colors to be precise. So I always know my colors wherever I am on my blog, on my website, or I'm making new graphics. This is to have a consistent look and feel all across the Internet.
Think about Exciting and Inviting Titles
In addition to thumbnails, you also want to really think about your title. Think really long and hard about it and work on your title before you even shoot the video. That will help you know whether this is a
video that will even be something that your audience will want. Once that will perform well for whatever performance metric you're going for; might not be views in all cases, you'll see the title actually really worked.
It's up to you, think what do I want to accomplish with this video? What will I call it? And then once you have a really good idea of what the video will be about, what it will be called and what are the thumbnail will look like, then you can start working on actually making the video.
Have A Direction
It's important to work in a direction. Most people just shoot the video and think about the rest later. And if you're not result-oriented, it will affect how you shoot.
It'll affect what kind of thumbnail pictures you take and it will affect your working on the title.
You might decide, oh, you know what, this is old.
Nobody cares about this anymore.
Or Oh, this would be better if I went for this angle.
What if I made it a British person reacts to all American Hero, GI Joe movie number five?
Having a solid direction helps you think of the angle and that way you can think of the better title.
What Actually Happens
The reason why I bring up titles is that the title and the thumbnail are absolutely the most important things to consider when we're talking about trying to get your existing subscribers to watch your videos. Because here's what's happening.
You are not getting 111,000 people deciding not to watch your videos.
A lot of those people don't even know you have a new video out because nowadays people are subscribed to so many channels that YouTube isn't going to show them everybody on their subscription feed.
In fact, now YouTube is so obsessed with improving overall watch time that they will show people videos of channels that they are not even subscribed to. So now you're competing with people that your audience doesn't even know.
For that reason, it is so important that your title and your thumbnails stand out and are representative of the content that you think they will like. What probably is happening is that YouTube will show your brand new video to just a small percentage of your YouTube subscribers. And if it's not a really compelling thumbnail, if it's not a title that stands out, or like in Tina's case, if it just says Tina reacts to ‘name of a movie that the subscriber hasn't heard of', then maybe the subscriber doesn't care. They don't know what that movie is and so they just don't click it.
It's important you think about that title. Maybe it's a movie that they're going to want to know about because your title is really funny or it's terrible but in a good way. If that's the case, then it needs to be something like: Tina reacts to the worst movie of 2019.
That way it doesn't matter if they know what the movie is. All that matters is, oh, they want to know what the worst movie of 2019 is. They might now be more likely to click on it and then YouTube starts
paying attention to you as well.
YouTube is thinking when I showed this thumbnail and this title to this subscriber, did they click it?
Nope, they didn't. They kept scrolling.
Then maybe this video is not that good.
Over time it will show it to fewer and fewer subscribers because it needs that click-through rate as
well as other indicators that we discussed to determine if this is a good video fit for that person.
You should be focusing on how to get your subscribers to click on the video more when the video first comes out because then it will compound and YouTube will show it to more and more people from your subscribers until there's a general drop off. This is the same concept as Instagram's. The algorithms has to be figure it out.
YouTube Channel Brand Identity in Conclusion
So, in conclusion, you need to be doing a few things to make people recognize you as a brand:
You need to work on your colors, font type, font sizes, and general styling to gain a brand identity.
Make compelling thumbnails that speak of you, your brand and the content inside the video. Thumbnails should be made with the focus on inviting people to your content.
Same goes for the titles. Titles should be as catching as the thumbnails so that it helps to increase your click-through rates.
Stay tuned for part 3 of this series and more amazing tips on expanding and improving your YouTube channel.
