Blog Camp Highlights Part 2

Welcome back to the second part of my Blog Camp highlights.

With the lovely Louise and Katy. Photo courtesy of Louise.

I will start with a few notes I took in the Fashion Blogging session, which was taken by Kat from Kat got the Cream and Christina from Kitkeen.

Key points to remember;

• Embrace your uniqueness
• Create a hit list of brands you would love to work with
• Be nice to PRs, it is a small world
• Respond quickly to people, even if it is a no
• Showcase your skills – show what you can do for a brand
• Buy a piece, style it up and then share it tagging the brand
• Use Instagram (very powerful tool for fashion blogging)
• Use social media to tease a forthcoming post
• Pinterest is also very useful in this field
• Be proactive with PRs in order to secure event invitations
• Join Facebook groups relevant for fashion blogging
• If you feel self-conscious about having your picture taken in public, pretend you’re a tourist!
• Think about using a variety of backdrops to create interest
• Be creative, you don’t have to always wear the clothes – show them creatively on a hanger or as part of a flat lay.
• Think about new ways to approach a post. ‘What would I buy’ or recreate the style of one of your style icons.  A certain piece of clothing three ways.  There are so many possibilities.

Next up for me was the Vlogging session with Helpful Mum Sian.

Why Vlog?

• You enjoy it
• It helps to make you more relatable to your audience
• You can earn money

Considerations

• Do you want your family life on You Tube?
• Are you willing to be found by people who don’t know you vlog/blog?
• People can leave really harsh comments on You Tube

What you need

• Camera or a phone
• Tripod
• Computer to edit on
• Software

 Top tips

• Make sure you video landscape and, where possible, in wide-screen
• Make sure the sound (cheap lapel mic from Amazon) and lighting is good (bounce light off the ceiling)
• Relax
• Remember to breathe
• Talk directly at the camera
• Imagine it is your best friend
• Be Sacha Fierce! Beyonce’s on stage confident persona
• Check the sound before publishing
• Improve audio using handbrake (for example)
• Schedule your videos
• Find out the best time to have your videos go live
• Promote your videos via linkys
• Use PicMokey or Canva to make your endslate.
• Create playlists of other content you like.
• Be confident
• Join the Creator Academy at You Tube

Channel Design

• Have a clear and consistent design
• Create a Channel icon
• Video thumbnails are so important.  Create your own with text overlay and make sure you smile!
• Create a welcome video (around 1 minute) introducing your channel
• Optimise the descriptions of your videos
• Organise content into easy to navigate screens
• Featured : Add links to friends channels or collaborators
• Use an endslate/card at the end, link to other videos

Music

• You won’t earn from the video if the music you use is copyrighted
• You Tube have a list of free from copyright music
• Free Music Archive, Sound Cloud, Audio Network and Vimeo also have free music
• Credit music even if it is free

Top Editing Tips

• There is a tutorial on Tots100 YouTube Channel
• Know your editing software inside out
• Don’t start with a pause
• Cut out hesitations
• Be ruthless – keep clips under 5 seconds (if a family video)
• Using two cameras showing different angles and editing together could be interesting to watch
• Keep the transitions simple, fade to black between scenes

The activity in the initial 48 hours will determine how well the video does.  So get everyone commenting asap.

I hope these tips have given you something to think about.  Have you been to a blogging conference before?