Tag: social media

YouTube Journey, Academy & Tips

Posted on by Maria Bo in elearning, technology, youtube

I wrote this blog post in 2019 and thought I would post it here. There have been some changes to my YouTube account since I have written this blog post but most of what I have written about still applies today. Today I am focusing on YouTube’s new “shorts” format but I will go into that in another post.

I’ve been uploading clips to my YouTube account since its inception in 2005. In the beginning, I didn’t think much of it other than a place to store and share my videos as back then, one had to upload a video to their own server to share it – and what a huge pain in the ass that was. It was a cumbersome process and not convenient in the slightest. YouTube’s arrival was a huge relief for multimedia producers like myself. So, I uploaded a variety of clips from stand alone candid clips to short composed videos. To date, I have obtained a 92% like rate on 4,692,855 views (6,193,022 in 2023) on my clips – not too shabby for someone who neglected their account for several years. Early on, one of my videos got picked up by the Ellen Degeneres Show and several other clips were discovered and licensed by TV shows. But more than that, it’s been a place where interesting conversations have unfolded in the most unexpected way, and it is why I am returning to it today.

In 2016, I completed my MA research analyzing YouTube comments of one of my popular videos where I learned that videos positive in nature (with a genuine surprise element) are most liked, shared and have higher chances of going viral than negative ones. By todays standard (2019), the video is viral (4 million views and climbing over 12 years – 5.5 million in 2023) but in most recent years, more videos have gained momentum more quickly than they did back in the day – due to the platforms massive growing viewership. And so my one clip (of an orca and a dog interacting) continues to climb in views, likes, shares and comments, and it was here where I did my research. I have a few other clips that are doing well but are not viral in the same sense of the first one. A couple of years have passed since doing my Masters and this year I have seriously aligned my attention with the YouTube platform for the first time.

For many years, I ignored my YouTube account completely. What I mean is that I purposely didn’t look at it. Why? Due to an anxiety condition to be honest. Sounds silly right? Well, my one viral video was connected to a bigger story in my life – that of a famous orca named Luna, who I worked with in 2003. The story became world famous and was highly contentious. Because I had been involved, I got stuck right in the middle of it all and it caused me quite a bit of stress. Quite frankly, I didn’t want to look at any of it. Back then the Internet was not as rampant with lynch mobbing and cyber attacks. Today, cyber bullying has caused people to commit suicide and the problem seems to be only getting worse. One just has to do a quick search on the topic to find the pages of evidence. It has become a very concerning situation. And as for me? I didn’t want to see the growing attention of my video(s) but I intuitively knew to leave my work up and that maybe one day I’ll come around.

Over the years I continued to feed the machine as to speak, but not spending too much time on my channel – so upload and ignore. I did add titles and keywords but they were minimal at best, but again back in the day, YouTube wasn’t a viral platform as it has become today. Other than looking at other unrelated content (which I did much of), I ignored my own. That is until now. It is now 2019 and it’s a new year. 2018 was a rough year where I faced some big health obstacles (requiring a couple of hospitalizations; surgeries and organs removed) and with that behind me, my anxieties have dimmed. This has given me a new opportunity to look into things that I had previously ignored or forgotten about. For instance, I used to be an experimental (16mm) filmmaker back in the 90’s and I loved it. My work was screened in festivals, on TV and I was even given an award by the Victoria Film Festival. Enter the 2000’s, and I swapped my passion for filmmaking with that of creating websites – especially with Flash. I got sucked down the Internet rabbit hole and really never came back to filmmaking again. Although after that, I spent a lot of time documenting through video, and that’s where my YouTube channel comes into existence.

I am now revisiting the idea of video making with a new born interest in YouTube. Once better, I decided I would invest in a vlogging microphone that attached to my iPhone and continue to explore with video making. Back when I started out, we used huge clunky 16mm film and (various format) video cameras. It was a very heavy experience but we pulled it off. Today, we have film making machines in the palm of our hands, how convenient is that! I can no longer resist, and so I am returning to these roots. But before I get in too deep, I feel compelled to truly understand YouTube and all of its super powers so that I can truly harness it. In recent years, people have made a living from their YouTube channels and have even become world famous. I am not in this for fame but I would love nothing more than to make it a profession on some level and also help other people with their YouTube endeavours. There is no better way to do this than to study with the YouTube Academy and it’s probably the best thing I have done since doing my Masters.

I have just completed 7 core courses over the past month, and applied my learning in realtime – transforming my dormant account into a living and breathing reflection of myself. I have spent countless hours revising the metadata on 296 videos (and still am repairing videos) which includes correcting titles to reflect better analytic search results, beefing up keywords and creating custom thumbnails for each and every video (a very labour intensive task). I am not finished however I have revised my most viewed videos and am working backwards so that I may breath life into those videos that have been forgotten about. I am fishing clips out of my archive to build new found themes and stories for viewers through my playlists and sections.

As a result, I have become a YouTube analytics junkie – kind of ironic knowing where I started. It really is a worthwhile place to spend some time in order to fully understand where your account is at and how to grow it. I will continue to learn through the Academy as there are more courses I’d like to take but they take some time. I do not recommend flying through them, rather learning with realtime content and applying each and every exercise given, as it helps to transform and build your channel in the best possible way.

To date here are the courses I have completed:

  • After your shoot
  • Before your shoot
  • Building a Global Channel
  • Copyright on YouTube
  • During your shoot
  • Earn money with ads on Youtube
  • Get discovered
  • Get insights with YouTube Analytics
  • Grow your community
  • Hook them with your channel trailer
  • Live streaming on YouTube
  • Platform overview
  • The quickstart guide to YouTube

I will continue to work my way through other courses but I started with the ones I felt were most useful in helping me to get a grip of my current channel and the pile of content I have dumped there. This is also helping me to make decisions on how to direct my future content, by examining my audience through analytics. There is a kind of science involved in this.

With all this said, I feel confident in declaring myself as a YouTube specialist. I will continue to grow this endeavour mindfully with my attention invested on past and future content. I am also capable of helping others with their YouTube endeavours. I now fully understand some of the key components of getting a YouTube channel seen and growing. I have observed many accounts fed with current content but with little to no views. If they just took a few extra steps in shaping their content and channels – it’s best to do it as you go along, as going back over a large volume of content will be time consuming and back breaking. This is why I am undertaking this on a part time schedule. My poor tail bone just cannot take the number of hours required to repair my own channel. Ultimately, all of this has given me the knowledge and experience and can understand how to marry the content with the analytical side of the data. Together with my graphic design skills, I can experiment and transform my content to see what works best.

YouTube Academy is 100% worth the time and energy if you are serious about your YouTube channel. If you don’t have the time and the energy but need assistance for your channel, then you can get in touch with me. There are some critical keys that users need to consider with their channel or it’s really not worth the time at all. I can’t stress this enough; understanding the meta data and analytical side is the most critical to getting this right. I’m constantly amazed at how YouTube continues to grow into what I think is the most powerful platform on the Internet and it promotes a place of creativity, independence and excitement. There is also a reward in all of this, getting paid. Although getting paid is a huge benefit in running a channel, it shouldn’t be what brought you there to begin with. It starts with your passion and if you’re really tied into it, then the rest will follow. As someone who has had a monetized account for several years now and didn’t care about it, I know this first hand. In order to become monetized you need to meet certain criteria first and it’s become harder as of recently. So ultimately it’s really best that you’re driven by your passion and not the money. As YouTube emphasizes over and over in their courses, just keep at it!

My tips for starting out:

  1. Understand your niche(s)
  2. Come up with a branding
  3. Create videos you are passionate about and be yourself
  4. Don’t produce offensive content (stick to community guidelines)
  5. Use proper meta data (titles, keywords, descriptions & thumbnails)
  6. Don’t mislead or spam viewers (including in meta data)
  7. Engage your viewers & ask them to subscribe
  8. Create an upload schedule, let your viewers know about it and stick to it
  9. Understand analytics and utilize it to steer your channel
  10. Use tools such as cards, playlists and sections to group content

Please subscribe to my YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5Pjhkm5EbwMN7hFjDQfGMA
Check out YouTube Academy here: https://creatoracademy.youtube.com/page/education

Online Learning Design & Development

Posted on by Maria Bo in elearning, technology

I have finally decided to make the commitment and go back to school for a short time, to shape my services into a new area for me and become certified in Online Learning Design & Development through Algonquin College. I have a ton of scholastic background and digital technology experience so I don’t need to commit to a long and heavy program, just one that I feel will set me off on the right track as I have a few goals in mind for next year, 2022. As a lifelong and often self-directed learner, I feel very strongly about learning and helping others to learn to use platforms and the necessary tools to shape their material. One of my favourite platforms is WordPress along with a couple of other tools for content creation, that I will introduce once I have completed the program.

Many people were forced to work online because of the pandemic, and I know that it’s only going to become more imperative to adapt to learning in this environment. I got a glimpse of the struggle that some faced this past year when they were thrown into immediate roles they had no experience in – and I was called in to help them out. I now know this is a space I need to further expand on.

The areas of my study will include: online learning theories, developing online course content, online course delivery and evaluation essentials. I will begin in January and will finish by the end of April. I have for some time, wanted to focus more on this endeavour however I got busy with other projects. This new learning will marry well with my previous Masters in Communication and Technology through the University of Alberta and my training and career experience in digital design. All I need is the training to shape my andragogical (adult learning) knowledge into the learning endeavour – to assist others with their projects, to create my own self-directed learning for self-healing in reflexology and to provide a full package of tools that cover the gamut in content creation.

Additionally, I have a specific interest in assisting in the design and development of elearning for those who experience learning challenges. I grew up with this experience, had problems concentrating, comprehending, was placed in special education classes and even in a cardboard box in front of the class, next to the teachers desk. As an adult, it takes me longer to read material as words jump around the page. Sometimes I can miss spelling errors even after reading and rereading my writing. I can experience dyslexia, and can find myself experiencing jumbled words when reading out loud. Even though learning has been more challenging for me, it’s something I absolutely enjoy and feel strongly about. I have studied a little about best practices for absorbing information (no more than 2 hour sessions with breaks after 20-30 mins of information intake) and what kinds of patterns work best for learning and memorization. Some of us are visual learners, while others need to write down information.

Another aspect of experiencing a learning disorder, is being made fun of by peers, even friends and family who misunderstand the disorder as lazy, stupid or silly. I remember vividly being made fun of by a classmate in high school when she found part of my essay to be the most hysterical thing she’d ever read, and decided to read it out loud to the class inspiring an outburst of laughter (cue the Disaster Artist). I feel it’s very important to shed a light on the fact that everyone learns differently and just because some of us are more prone to making errors or taking longer to complete a task, does not make us unintelligent.

So please stay tuned. Although Careful Crafters may seem inactive, it’s been the backbone for several of my other projects, that are now built, so it’s time to embark upon this path.

TikTok Video Challenge

Posted on by Maria Bo in Digital, elearning, tiktok

Make 5 tiktok videos & have fun!

Did you know that video has become the #1 media format consumed on the Internet today? And with almost 700 million users on TikTok spending at least 1 hour a day on the platform, means it’s the perfect time to get in on the action, and it’s never been so fun and easy!

The following video exercises are designed to acquaint you with the tools on TikTok. Each video should be 30 seconds or less and must contain your own video footage stored on your smartphone.

Before we begin, please create an account with a user name through ‘edit profile’ settings. I will provide a short introduction to TikTok’s environment and community ethics.

Videos:

  1. Inspirational: Upload a video clip, add soundtrack, text, title, description, tags.
  2. Music Video: Clips synced with a soundtrack, add effects, filter, title, description, tags.
  3. Educational: Selfie green screen filter, add soundtrack, effects, title, description, tags.
  4. VoiceOver: Clip(s) and features from above, add title, description, tags.
  5. Collaborative: Duet or stitch a video, add sticker, title, description, tags.
  6. Bonus! Filter Face: Use any selfie face filter, add soundtrack, title, description, tags.

Prerequisites: Some computer navigation and smartphone camera experience.

Requirements: You will need a smartphone with camera accessibility and your video clips situated on your smartphone.

Disclaimer: I am not personally responsible for any of the impacts you incur with your TikTok account, be it negative 😦 or positive 🙂