I've been neglecting my videos.
Yes, I haven't been producing as many as I'd like, but that's for another post. Today I'm writing about how I have videos that are finished, have been delivered to clients, they've posted them and the event is passed ... and I still haven't posted them on my own channels.
I guess what I'm really writing about is how I'm trying to fix that. I don't just want to get caught up on the batch I have waiting, what I'm trying to do is create a system to keep video posting on a regular basis.
As I was looking at a folder full of finished videos needing to be posted I had a few thoughts in quick succession.
1) this is going to be a lot of work.
2) I keep getting myself into this situation
3) How can I make this easier?
4) how can I keep out of this situation (having a back log of stuff to post)
5) I always rush posting videos and don't do a good job.
6) This is a lot of work to let sit here and not show show anyone.
7) Stills are so, much easier to post.
That's when I started to look at things differently. "Stills are so, much easier to post." Expect it's not true. Once they are ready to upload a good stills post is not easier than a good video post. You still need a title, an interesting & accurate description, useful & descriptive keywords/tags. Once it's posted its' a god idea to back it up with a link or mention of it on other platforms and channels.
If the process of posting stills and videos is so similar why did my slightly overwhelmed brain think stills are easier? That's easy to answer. I have a system and I'm in the habit of using that system.
In Praise of Systems
Before I had a system for posting stills they went up when ever I felt like it, singly or in bunches, with random keywords (if any) and descriptions that had very little consistency.
Once I found some software to schedule my stills posts things started to fall into place. I created a post production process that moved images to completion efficiently and consistently & the scheduling software made the posts consistent, in that they where at the same time (then times) each day with certain keywords/tags in most posts and each post had links to other work in the description. Aside from that it let me make things now and post them when the time was right, like around an event or holiday.
This process brought me from a place where 700 hits in one day was so noteworthy I made a blog post about it. Where as today I'm consistently getting over 4000-5000 hits a day.
What Took Me So Long?
Short answer, I'm not sure. But, once I looked at it that way it was obvious I need a parallel system to get videos to the places where people can see them.
I already have a pretty good system to get videos from idea, into shooting, through post production & into the hands of the client. But, the supply chain ended there. What I've been working on is a logical & practical set of steps to keep it moving from there to Youtube, Vimeo, and Flickr in a consistent and predictable way. AKA: Systematically & on a schedule.
There are some tools available, but all the ones I've seen are paid options. I'm not ready for a paid service, at least not yet.
What Exactly is that I'm doing?
It's all very simple and obvious. The hardest part was just starting it all in motion.
To start once the piece is finished and the client has it I move it into a folder "Needs to be Scheduled". Youtube has a scheduling feature that let you to upload it now and schedule the date it will be posted.
Once it's scheduled on Youtube the project moves into the "Scheduled-Queued" folder then "Posted" and eventually to the "completed" folder on a pair of portable hard drives for long term storage.
The completed folder is were all of my projects have always gone. The difference is that I won't have to go in there at random times during the year and try to figure out what has or hasn't been posted to which channels.
The Glue
There are two things that are holding everything together for now. A text doc & a spread sheet.
The text doc holds a description template & a list of common key words grouped together by subject. This helps save time when adding this info when uploading to the different platforms.
The spreadsheet is used to keep track of the projects through the posting process. It has all the project names, the platforms they need to be posted on, the "Release Date" and fields to indicate what steps have been completed.
This is the kind of stuff that I'd like to see in scheduling software. For now, I'll spend some time with my system and see how things go and also keep an eye out for something that can keep all the info in one place.
The Schedule
While starting to setup this process I've set the target of posting one video a week for the next 52 weeks, which will end on my my birthday. I have the first video posted on 3 platforms (Youtube, Vimeo & Flickr) 10 more scheduled on all 3. the posts for the first batch aren't perfectly coordinated on all platforms. This is because of my hap-hazard practices in the past. Some videos had been posted on or two but never 3 and never at the same time. So, my 1st scheduling task was to get the first batch of videos on all platforms without any repeats.
Then I started to schedule some seasonal stuff. I have a Christmas project and an Easter Project ready. They are both scheduled appropriately and I'm working on finishing a few personal projects and getting them into the scheduling system.
Well Duh.
Everything in this post is pretty obvious. Make schedule, organize the projects, stick to the schedule, keep track of the projects through the system.
It is obvious and pretty simple and for some reason I never applied it to videos. I used it to post 3 stills a day every day for years. But never applied it to videos.
Videos that take so much more time and more work to plan, to shoot and to finish in post. All that work and I slacked off when it came to the part that allowed people to (hopefully) see and appreciate them. Duh!
What Next?
Now that I've song the praises of scheduling and regular posting we'll have to see how it works.
Will I be able to produce enough content to fill the schedule? That will be difficult but, "I think I can" If I do will I be able to get more people to look at my videos? That might require a bit more work.
