By Akosua Asare
| Vertical videos, trends, editing, and new tools. |
Everyone is constantly talking about it.
Content creation this, TikTok that, “You gotta use Reels to increase engagement!”. The digital media ball never stops rolling. We really do always have to keep making it, continue to learn how its evolving, constantly chasing the ever changing algorithm.
All I do is content creation. I’m a GenZ, recent media graduate whose life title is basically Content Creator, and yet, I’m still constantly having to chase the new tips and tricks just like everyone else. I’ve been getting a lot better though (humble brag). I’ve been learning new things about how our social media tools work while creating for Sesh’s social medias (+ my own and others 😅) and strengthening my own skills.
Here’s just a handful of things I’ve learned recently that I hope can be some help to you!:
Note: this is as of early Sept 2022. The content and trend cycle is constantly evolving.
⭐IG Reels has a ‘Grooves’ feature that automatically syncs your videos to music and sounds. I haven’t used it yet because I prefer to crop my videos manually, but if you have, I’d like to know what you think about it!
⭐Utilize YouTube Shorts! You can simply post your Reels and TikToks to YouTube Shorts to reach a whole new audience. The YouTube algorithm is weird, where some of them will reach thousands of views and others will only get 4? Never hurts to shoot your shot on a new platform. (Note: YouTube has a large kid audience so if you’re trying to reach GenZ particularly, this and TikTok is the move)
⭐When posting a Reel to TikTok (or vice versa), make sure you use the sound that available to you in that app. Using popular sounds instead of originals can be key to reach and engagement so if you can find the same sound on each platform, use that and lower either the added or original video sound.
⭐Using TikTok for fun on my personal account has made me so much more skilled at doing it for work. Playing around with it not only taught me how to literally use it, but what works and blows up, and what flops.
⭐Shorter Reels and TikToks >>>. People’s attention spans are short, the shorter content that I make always does so much better. Keep it concise!
Some additional helpful snacks:
📄 Paragraph posts like these (and this, also this) are trending and an easy way to get views/engagements. Paragraph + couple seconds long video + tranquil sounds = views!
😍 Think about aesthetics. Get a “pretty” shot and capture the vibe of a moment as filler content. People love visually pretty things like this and this.
✂️ This is also trending. It looks hard but I’ve found a tutorial! Requires more patience and time than editing skill.
📝 This creator has a really convenient lazy video content tip
🔖 #BookTok, #FilmTok #Foodie #Vintage #___Tutorial. Think about what people search up when looking for things to save for later. You want your content saved and bookmarked!
Happy content creating! 👋
