Lifestyle | What I Learned At The Manfrotto Vlogging Masterclass

Hello Lovelies! Today I was at Manfrotto's Vlogging Masterclass, and I thought I'd share with you some of the things I learned there. The day was packed full with masterclasses on the best way to use youtube, lighting, and gadgets that can help you film (so I shall try my best to relay all that I can remember). I should probably say first that I'm really awful at the technical side of cameras and filming, so most of what I'm telling you in this post is more on the SEO youtube side of things because camera settings and the like really does go over my head. 

TREASURE YOUR BLOG

The first talk was by Josie from FashionMumblr (who has hit 100k subscribers) on Vlogging basics. Her first bit of advice was that if you blog and vlog, you need to treasure your blog as it's the only platform you really own. This goes for all social media really as we don't own Instagram, Twitter or Youtube so all of those platforms can be taken away from us (something to really keep in mind). 

KEY WORDS ARE YOUR BEST FRIEND

One of her other key tips was to create search friendly video titles. Think about what key words you use when searching for videos, and try searching for similar videos and see what key words they use too. Another important tip is to always put brand names in if you're doing a haul for example, as that is something people search for a lot. Similarly she suggests using click bait, but not the type of click bait that's misleading as that will just disappoint an audience. Instead you want to excite your audience with interesting thumbnails and titles, that will really make your audience want to watch your videos. One of the girls there also said that it's important to name your video files to the same title as your youtube video, to really optimise SEO. 

Similarly, tags are very important. Josie suggests your first tag should always be your channel name, then obvious key words, and then try searching for other clever key words. You can use vidIQ to find out what tags others are using on their videos too, to get some ideas. Josie also stressed the importance of your video descriptions and said that essentially this should be a re-wording of your title, rather than just spam words as youtube can pick up on non organic descriptions and penalise them as spammy. 

ENGAGEMENT IS KEY

As with any social media, active users are going to be rewarded, so Josie stresses making an effort to engage with new channels but also to engage with your own audience. Make sure you reply to all your comments and keep that relationship with your audience. She also suggests asking your viewers to comment a certain thing, like for example a yellow heart so she can see who has got to the end of her videos, but also to keep engagement high. 

FOCUS ON RELEVANT CONTENT, BUT ALSO PROMOTION AND POSTING TIMES

One of Josie's top tips was to keep a content calendar, to keep holidays and seasons in mind so you can create relevant content that people will be searching for. She also suggests that if you take part in popular trends such as the 100 layer makeup challenge for example, it's important to jump on the bandwagon early to really reap the benefits. Josie also stressed the importance of promoting your videos elsewhere (she does so primarily on Twitter). Some of the others at the event stressed to be careful when sharing videos on youtube, as Facebook tends to penalise them. So to avoid this, try uploading a short video trailer to facebook, and then linking your youtube in the comments. Facebook like users uploading videos to them so this is definitely a top tip!

Finally, Josie talked a bit about scheduling content. One big point that I've never really thought about is not scheduling your content. It's much better to upload it publicly straight away as Youtube's algorithm favours this. But if worst comes to worse, you should upload your videos privately, and then change it to public manually at the right time. Her last bit of advice was to find a scheduling time that works for you, and not necessarily the popular upload time as your video could get lost. Instead look at your audience and think when they'll be watching videos. For example after school. 

LIGHTING IS ALL ABOUT LITTLE TWEAKS

One of the other talks we had was with Jim Marks, all about lighting. He said one of the things we should take away from the day if anything, is the simple fact that light bounces. It doesn't just hit our face, and we can use certain tools to bounce the light around the room to get exactly what we want. He advised really taking a look at how the light comes into our room, and really keeping in mind that light changes throughout the day. Little tweaks, rather than big ones really go a long way. He also advised when sitting at a desk, to sit far away from the wall as this will reduce shadows, as well as playing with where the light is. The closer, the softer it is, the further away, the harder it is. 

His final piece of camera wisdom was to take your camera off automatic. Of course the only way you can really get the exact photos you want is by going on to manual mode, and playing around with the settings. Of course for a lot of us this is scary, and it is very easy to just shoot with automatic. However I've definitely been encouraged by today's event to play around with it a bit, and really start to improve my videography and photography. 

Finally I just wanted to mention the Shoulderpod G1* (pictured) that we were gifted, that is a bit of a gem if you vlog or film from your phone. Basically it's a grip for your phone, that can be used on it's own as a stand or can be screwed into any tripod for more advanced filming. Personally I don't use my Iphone for filming but I'll definitely use it for Instagram stories, watching youtube videos and skyping friends. 

P.s you if you want some camera gadgets of your own can get 20% off at Manfrotto with the code FOLLOWER17

Anyway that's it for today! Thanks to the lovely people at Manfrotto for putting on such a great event. If you want me I'll be cramming for my Japanese Art exam (yay!). And if you feel like it, do check out my channel too.