Lessons
Lesson Info
Class Introduction
I am Daysha Veronica and I'm so excited to be here with you guys today to share my tips on how to optimize your content for increased visibility online. I have a very robust background. I worked at BuzzFeed for the last 3 1/2 years in video. So a lot of the tips that I'm gonna share with you guys today will be video-based examples. However, I think that they're all pretty practical for any type of content that you're trying to share online. Okay. Okay, so before I get into that, I wanted to tell you guys a little about me and how I got to the place where I'm at today. So, this is a picture of me, I graduated in 2014, and as you can see, I am holding my beautiful Honors Media Studies degree in one hand. I had student loans in the other and no job. (laughing) Hashtag relatable, every millennial ever right now. And so, I was still very determined to make it in this industry and it actually feels really full circle to be here with you guys today, because when I graduated, my college was ve...
ry gracious to let me stay on campus for three months. And I told myself, okay, if I don't make it, then I will just go to Seattle because you guys had raised minimum wage to like $14 at that point. And I was like, I'll be a waitress and I'll write my scripts and I'll make it somehow. So I'm sure you can only imagine how happy I was when BuzzFeed contacted me about a month into my unemployment, and they asked me if I was interested in being an intern. And so it's from that internship position that I was able to work my way up to being a video producer, and I was that role for 3 1/2 years, and while I was there I produced a little over a 100 videos that got well over half a billion views collectively across YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook. So, to put that in perspective for you guys, when I was doing this presentation for another organization last year, I was doing some research into Refinery29, which is a competitor website that has a much more female millennial demographic. And when you looked at their lifetime YouTube count, at that point in time, it was 122 million views on YouTube, and they had been on YouTube for about nine or 10 years. So I made 10% of the videos that they had made in seven less years, but generated over five times the amount of views. So, yes, I'm killing it. (laughing) But as you guys may know, all good things must come to an end so that even better things can begin. And so that better thing for me was developing my self-confidence website, which is called Yes Queen. Yes queens! And so, the audience that really resonated a lot with the work that I was producing at BuzzFeed were women. In particular, it was women who were looking to feel more empowered in their voice, in their body, and just feel good about themselves. And that was a lot of feedback that I got from the content that I was making was that, you know, your work makes me feel like I can feel comfortable in being myself. So with the audience that I was able to build while I was there, I was like, I want to lean into this more. I was somebody growing up that had a lot of confidence issues, body confidence, mental health issues, stuff like that. And so I wanted to let this be my gift back to the world. I'm also a body positive influencer, so if you ever follow me on my social media channels you will see that I talk a lot about health and wellness, but from a more holistic standpoint, so it's not just about fitness, but again, just like, feeling good in who you are and what you believe. I'm also a grad student, so I'm currently at UCLA right now for an MFA in play-writing. And lastly I'm a digital video consultant, so if you ever want more of my expertise, I am here and available. But yes, so now that you know a little bit about me, I want to transition into learning more about you and how I can help you with my presentation. Okay, so as we know, the internet has provided us with so much opportunity, and that is largely because of social media. So you can literally go from being a nobody to a somebody in a matter of seconds, which can be very exciting for some people and also extremely terrifying for others. But I'm really hoping that you're here 'cause that sounds hella exciting. And I think that one of the valuable things the internet has given to us is accessibility, especially as like common folk. It is so much easier to produce, create, and promote content than it has ever been. And yet how many of you feel like you've been struggling? By show of hands, how many of you feel like you're struggling in capitalizing on that accessibility? Yes, yes, I love the honesty. Keep your hands up, okay. (laughing) Okay, so how many of you feel like your content doesn't get the attention that it deserves? So you're comfortable with sharing it, but when you share it, it just doesn't feel like it's hitting the people that it needs to hit. How many of you feel like that? Okay. And then lastly how many of you are just completely burnt out? You're like I just don't think this is possible at all, I think that the only way that you can achieve virality for your work is if you're a part of a mega-corporation like BuzzFeed? Yup, I feel it! So I want to say thank you for your vulnerability. I know it can be hard to raise your hand and admit that you're struggling, but at the same time, that helps me to know how I can best serve you today 'cause this is about you guys getting what you need out of this. And I want to let you know that it's not a myth, that is possible to increase the viewership of your content. And that there are guidelines that I can show you to help you get to that place. However, I do want to say that instead of thinking about virality, I would love to encourage you to focus more on thinking about how to increase the visibility of your content. Because as someone that has worked in digital for the last 3 1/2 years, I can tell you that going after virality can be very soul-sucking and you will burn out very, very quickly. Even though I have a lot of views that I'm very proud of, there was a lot that I had to go through to get there that I wouldn't necessarily say justified the end result. And so a lot of how this presentation was focused was more so on teaching you how to just increase the visibility because the other thing about virality is that it's pretty random. I think a great example, we had this video, that somebody produced when I was an intern and they were a fellow. And it was a video on fruit hacks, four ways to eat fruit. And this video got, like, 11 million views in like, a day, and we were just like, how and what on God's green earth was so viral about this video? And so we were testing and iterating for days after that video came out and, you know, other videos did well, but nothing necessarily compared to that particular video. And that's the hard part about virality is that sometimes it's really not predictable. So again, I want to teach you how to focus on increasing the visibility because that's something that is much more sustainable. I would say the biggest thing you want to keep in mind going through this is that being consistent and authentic is so key in this process. If you can do that, you'd be amazed at the results that you'll get from just doing that alone. And I think it's two principles that a lot of people underrate online.
Ratings and Reviews
andrew blyth
I really value the content, but it's almost unwatchable for me, and it's not Daysha's fault. I'm a misophone, which means certain noises really, really irritate me. The person who put the microphone on her put it on so that I hear every single moment she smacks her lips. It's so irritating I cannot watch a complete video in one sitting. I haven't finished the second video yet, but I must take a break, and maybe I can come back to the rest later.