Vicki O'Neill

The most valuable content that's the least used to build a personal brand on social media is video. Video is the only media type that gives your audience an immersive experience with you. It's also the only media type that lets them get to know, like and trust you faster. The power to reach, connect, engage and convert with video is underrated and growing fast.

The best way to choose the right platforms to share content and engage with a community is to be where your buyers are spending time and where you enjoy spending time. You need to enjoy the content creation process and engaging with your potential buyers just as much as knowing where they are spending time. Before diving into any platform for the first time (or if it's been awhile) immerse yourself in the platform and learn how it works. This could be finding 3-5 people in your industry who already have an active audience. Learn what they are doing and what's making it a channel to be on. One thing you don't want to do is create content on a platform where your buyers are not. Know who they are and share value to connect with them

The one thing that most people don't take into consideration for SEO (on YouTube) is the file name. Naming your file so it's relevant to the title and keywords helps boost SEO. Then the title, description, tags, hashtags, keywords, chapters, category, transcript, text on screen and even the Infocard and end screen are important to optimization (on YouTube).

It's important to do some light video editing when you first begin. This has been a major breakthrough for clients! When they can experience the entire process, the planning gets much better. Using a video editor is the ultimate goal - unless your dream is to become a video editor, there is no reason you should be doing this. Many options exist for video types, experience and budgets.

Create a system for your files and if you're working with a client make it super simple for them to access and share files with you. A system is critical to long term success with videos and client. It's just as important with your videos so you stay organized and can expedite each step in the production process as quickly as possible.

Your platform decision should be based on 1) where your target audience is spending time (likely in more than one place so make the first choice a platform you enjoy) and 2) the types of videos you want to create. Entertaining, educational and edutainment videos go across all platforms - where your target audience spends time will help you determine the type of videos.