From Edie: Samantha Tschritter gives us four practical ways writers can collaborate on YouTube, grow their reach, share audiences, and build a stronger Christian writing community.
YouTube for Writers, Part 12: Collaboration—Exploring this New Feature and What iI Means for Writers & Influencers
by Samantha Tschritter @SETschritter
Well, I guess collaboration is this week’s theme. In case you missed it, here’s the link for the Your Best Writing Life podcast in which Linda Goldfarb and S. E. Tschritter discuss different methods of collaboration across various social media platforms.
Throughout this last year, once a month, I’ve given tips, tricks, and insights on how to maximize your Youtube presence. This is the twelfth and final installment in this series, and I LOVE the idea of ending the series with the concept of collaboration.
In this blog, I’ll share four nuts-and-bolts methods of collaborating content on YouTube, and conclude this “YouTube for Writers Series” with a charge that all Christian Writers need to keep in mind regarding social media followers.
Four Methods of Content Sharing on Youtube:
- Recording a Zoom Video
- Giving Content Away
- Newsletter Links
- The Collaboration Checkbox
1. Zoom.
With a free Zoom account, you can host up to a forty-minute meeting and hit Record. This is plenty of time to interview another author or writing professional and have a “face-to-face” conversation that would benefit others. You’re essentially allowing others to eavesdrop on your thoughts or expertise. Anyone can do this. You don’t have to have a podcast show.
2. Giving Content Away
If you record content or create a post that would work for Youtube, X, IG, TikTok, Facebook, etc., you can email the short clip to others, or share the video through Google Drive or Dropbox. You’re providing the content and you’re giving the people you share the content with all the views and watchtime hours. Let’s say you create a book trailer. The posted content benefits you because it’s your book that is being promoted, and if the person you’re sharing with struggles to produce content, it’s a no-brainer post for the week.
For the algorithm’s sake, it’s best to share videos with similar genres. For instance, Terry Whalin’s books are largely writing advice; therefore, he wouldn’t be the best person to endorse my upcoming romantic suspense novel. The same is largely true for social media. You can post across genres, but if you’re worried about confusing the algorithm and your audience, stick to posting similar content.
3. Newsletter links.
When you create a video that you love or you want to promote, send the link to fellow authors and ask them to share the video in their newsletters. Agree to do the same for them in exchange.
4. Youtube Collaboration.
When you watch “How to Collaborate with Other Authors on Youtube,” Heidi Gray McGill and I discuss collaborating on videos. Here’s how that works.
- Upload a video to YouTube
- Amidst the video settings there is a box that says, “Invite Collaborators.” Invite collaborators. Type the Youtube handles of the people you want to invite into the search bar.
- You will receive a link. You must email the link to the person you’re inviting into the collaboration so he or she can accept the collaboration.
Collaboration and Competition cannot coexist. (How’s that for alliteration?) There is an unspoken competition in the publishing industry that is non-existent in God’s kingdom. Only so many traditional contracts are signed, only so many spots available. Panic ensues. Elbows are flung. Resentment builds.
Conversely, as Christian authors it is crucial to remember,
“As the rain and the snow
come down from heaven,
and do not return to it
without watering the earth
and making it bud and flourish,
so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater,
so is my word that goes out from my mouth:
It will not return to me empty,
but will accomplish what I desire
and achieve the purpose for which I sent it” (Isaiah 55:10-11 NIV).
The beauty of being called by God to write is that our words will outlast us. Our ability to share God’s love on the page will extend to future generations. What does God require of us to make that a reality? Obedience. What God does not require of us in order to make this happen is a traditional contract. God requires that we follow Him. He does not require that we acquire a certain number of social media followers ourselves.
In faith, we know that God sees the greater picture. The Bible speaks a great deal about collaboration—the concept existed long before social media profiles and a focus on bulking up platform numbers. The Bible records communities grieving together, traveling together, worshipping together, building together, meeting together, fighting the enemy together, and breaking bread—together. Notice a theme? Paul speaks of one Lord, one faith, one baptism (Ephesians 4:5).
What does this have to do with collaboration on social media? When we collaborate with one another, we multiply God’s goodness the way Jesus did with loaves and fish. There are many people in this world who don’t know that quality, God-honoring fiction and non-fiction exist. When we collaborate with one another, we introduce people we know to godly work they would not otherwise know about.
Collaboration is the body-building tool Jesus used to show us how to work together. A detail that strikes and humbles me about the fish-and-loaves miracle every time I read it is that Jesus did not need the disciples’ assistance. He didn’t have to ask the disciples how they would feed all those people. He didn’t need the disciples’ help to feed the hungry. And Jesus didn’t have to plan just enough work for every disciple to participate in the cleanup—twelve baskets, twelve disciples.
Jesus demonstrated the beauty of collaboration and the fulfillment that stems from working together. Collaboration is a community-building tool we get to use to support, encourage, and build one another up.
“And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts (Colossians 3:14-16, NIV).
TWEETABLE
Don't Miss the rest of this YouTube for Writers Series!
Tschritter currently resides in Simpsonville, South Carolina with her husband, their three teen and preteen daughters, cats named Pitter and Patter, and their Siberian husky whom she lost the vote to name Onomatopoeia. Nothing refreshes Tschritter’s soul like gardening. She gardens to work through plot holes, writer’s block, character development, and book ideas. Tschritter spends a great deal of time gardening. You can find her on social media at Linktr.ee/LoveSamEvans.
No comments:
Post a Comment