It’s raining in Melbourne so I’ve decided to take a bit of time to make a video. I received quite a few messages yesterday and today around the same thematic, which is about how to speak up on social media and how to get over the fear of exposing ourselves a little bit more. In the end, I replied to these people and though I’d comment here.
On social media there are 3 main types of content.
There is audio which is essentially podcasts. There is written content, which you can find everywhere, on Linkedin, on Medium. And lastly there are videos which are, of course, the most popular but which aren’t the easiest to create.
We are not all skilled in vidéo and it’s okay
For me, writing is really not something that I am best at. I often make mistakes and I find no pleasure in writing long texts. It’s not easy for me. On the other hand, video is something that I’ve worked on for a long time and it’s rather easy for me to pick up my phone and film myself.
Try to see in which types of content you are most comfortable creating.
Writing being the easiest as all you need is a keyboard. Audio, podcasts are cool because you’re not on screen so may feel less pressure. On the other hand, videos are the best at the moment but they are the most difficult to create as we’re not all at ease with seeing ourselves on screen.
The second is that we often make the mistake of comparing ourselves to others that are more advanced. I often see requests like : “I would like to be able to do like him.” Yes, expect he’s been doing it for over a year and a half and it’s the 100th video you’re watching. There has been a massive learning curve over the last year. And he started off with a bad camera, the sound was not good. We too often want to start off on top.
I have people sending me messages : “What camera should I get, which microphone, should I get Adobe Premium ?” Wow ! Calm down ! To record a podcast, all you need is an iPhone and you can record with the dictaphone. It doesn’t matter if you can hear the cars behind and it doesn’t matter is there’s an echo.
To film and edit your videos you can download “Inshot” which is an app that allows you to edit at your fingertips, it’s very good. What’s important to begin with is not the esthetics. What’s important is to start, to keep the rhythm and to have interesting things to say.
Try the daily content for 30 days
The third point, I recommend is daily content. I’m a big defender of daily content. Why ? Because it’s as if you wanted to work out every day, well, of course, you’re going to see much better results than if you only worked out once a month. So this is sort of the same thing. By saying to yourself every day “I must create content” you’re training yourself to see the content around you and to kick yourself up the backside every morning and saying, “Right, today I have to post something.” And little by little you’ll get better at editing, at spreading content and at telling stories. To start with, your videos will be a little wobbly but little by little they’ll get better.
Daily content is great. Except to get content every day for 30 days, what you need is not to say to yourself, “OK, well Maxime said I have to create content every day so I’m going to post a video every day for 30 days.” Posting a minute long video every day is a challenge. One that I don’t recommend you start with.
Find something that you’re sure you’re going to be able to do every day for 30 days
So it could be, like something I recommended yesterday, to write a status. So writing down one of your thoughts, at least every day. For 30 days. It could be on Linkedin, on Facebook. You can take the same phrase and put it everywhere, of course. If you manage to do this, that’s very good. After this, it could be “I’m going to try and write a 10-sentence article every day for 30 days.” Or it could be “I’m going to take a picture of my commute every day for 30 days.” Or it could be “I’m going to put down a thought, but this one I’m going to record so I’m going to download the app Anchor which allows you to create podcasts directly from your phone’s dictaphone.”
The idea is to get yourself into a dynamic where you are somebody that can create content every day. Exposing yourself on social media is not necessarily showing your face. Writing a status or recording a podcast exposes you in the same way and that’s very good.
Pro Tips : while you’re recording a podcast you can film yourself. Which means you’ll have both video and audio content.
So to resume, here are the 3 main things. One, find which type of content si the best for you. It’s not because videos are the hot content at the moment that you much absolutely record videos. Tw, stop making excuses by trying to create something to perfect first off. Better to start than to not do anything. Third, try to create one content a day for 30 days. See it like a dojo, like training where you’re going to learn lots of little things and by the end you’ll have no hang ups at all.
If you have any questions put them down in the comment section below the video or send me a private message and I’ll answer with pleasure.
Pro tips : about multi-diffusion, when you create content is to put it everywhere. On Linkedin, on Faceook, on Instagram don’t worry about it. Even written content you can post it on your Instagram stories and create a picture post after.
A successful method to learn how to run 10k