Pro Tips for Creating Video for Social Media

When it comes to putting your voice out there on social media, there are so many platforms to choose from.  

Everything from concise 140 characters tweets to an hour long video on Youtube.  Depending on what you want to say and the audience you want to appeal to; this may affect what platform you decide to use, although many use a combination.

Although I have been blogging for a few years now and have been active on Twitter, there is one social media platform that I have both eyed from a distance and toyed with from time to time.  Video.  It both intrigues and scares me at the same time.

Whilst your words on a page have an impact and can engage a reader, there is nothing like speaking directly to your audience through a video format.  This is the perfect platform for people who speak about beauty products as you can see in front of you how the product looks and how it was applied. 

Video is also a great format for anyone who likes to do opinion pieces or has a specific subject that they wish to talk about regularly.  It can be a great insight into someone's life and teach you things that you did not know before.

I particularly love Pamper & Curves Youtube channel featuring the fabulous Betty who talks about family life and her journey into all things vegan, including cruelty free makeup.

Toast TV have created a handy infographic which they have allowed me to share here today.  There are some fantastic tips such as what to do in the first few seconds of your video, the part where the viewer quickly makes up their mind as to whether they wish to continue viewing.

Check it out below!

* Sponsored post

Oxfam - Stories of Hope

Every month we all have the same kind of withdrawals from our bank accounts.  Everything from our mortgage to the food we eat.  

We make our budgets, we live according to what we can afford and we know that every month, the money that we earn is going to home us, feed us, clothe us.  

As someone living in the UK I have many privileges.  I know that I am safe; both in the house I live in and the country I reside in.  Neither will be taken away from me.  I have food, water, sanitation.  Something as simple as turning on a tap or flushing a toilet is something that I will never need to worry about.

This is why, the most important withdrawals from my account each month are my charity donations.  For people who do not have those basic things such as a safe roof over their head, food, water, sanitation.  I cannot give a lot, but every penny really does count.

I was recently contacted by Oxfam and asked if I would help with their campaign to share stories of hope.  Stories of people who do not have the things that we take for granted every day.  People that have faced adversity every day of their lives, yet still have managed to make a life and provide for their families.

So today, I wanted to tell you about Buchumi.  Buchumi was born in Burundi.  Due to fighting and unrest in Burundi, Buchumi and people like him have been forced to seek refuge in Tanzania.  Buchumi has been living in refugee camps since 1999.  Think about that.  That is 17 years of not having a proper home.

After moving into his first refugee camp, he met his wife a few years later.  In 2010 they moved into a new camp and went on to have four children.  Due to a lack of food and small portions, Buchumi needed to support his family and find a way of making an income.

Previously a teacher, but with the schools closed down, he decided to take up tailoring lessons to learn how to sew. 

Photo credit: Amy Christian/Oxfam

With the income that he makes from being a tailor, he is now able to provide food for his family.  He is making the best out of a horrible situation and is providing a future for his family.  

 “I love tailoring, that’s why I am still doing it. For now, I would love to keep tailoring.”

Due to the influx of people coming into camps in places that were only sparsely populated before, this has meant the Nyarugusu refugee camp, that was originally set up for Congolese refugees, has quickly run out of space. Three new camps have been set up but each need sanitation improvements and emergency supplies.

Oxfam is working in Nyarugusu and Nduta, one of the new camps, to provide water and sanitation facilities, emergency food, and support to access work. Providing a safe and sanitary environment is a major priority in the work Oxfam has carried out, but helping people improve camp infrastructure and gain new skills is also a high priority. These programmes help refugees like Buchumi create an income and gain stability in their lives.

Photo credit: Amy Christian/Oxfam

This is why it is so important that we make a donation  A single donation of £25 could provide safe water for 25 people.  A monthly donation of just £5 could pay for a goat for a family.  £20 could pay for two toilets.

In just 15 years extreme poverty has been halved.  Imagine what the next 15 years could achieve.  With every donation, that time frame will lesson.  We won't live with poverty.

*In collaboration with Oxfam 

Dear America

Dear America,

I write to you as someone "over the pond" watching in interest, trepidation and ever increasing horror at the presidential election.

As someone not from the US, you may well say that my voice doesn't matter, my words mean nothing; that I do not have the right to an opinion about things that do not concern me.  But they do.  Because if Donald Trump wins, the whole world is affected.

I do not talk to the die hard Trump fans, or Clinton fans.  Your decision is already made.  There is no changing that at this late stage.

I speak to the undecided.  Those thinking that their voice and their vote do not matter.  Those who are tired of the same elite establishment being in control (although, if you do want to send Obama over here, we would welcome him).

I get it.  I understand.  Here in the UK as you will have seen, we had a referendum to stay or remain in the EU.  The left versus the right.  As the KKK endorses Donald Trump in the US, we had neo nazis, the English Defence League, Britain First; white supremacists; all firmly on the leave campaign side.

We were lied to.  Given inaccurate information.  Practically no information to be fair.  We were given no indication of what may happen if we left.  You could find some of this information if you researched, but many didn't.

The result?  a 51.9/48.1 split and a country that is more divided every day since.  The Pound is shot to pieces.  Racist attacks rose 300% in the week after the vote.  

Since the vote, research tells us that 1.2 million people regretted their leave vote after the referendum.  A tiny  proportion that would have made all the difference.  People who didn't understand fully what they had voted for.  People who thought that their vote "did not count" and they had purely voted as screw you to the establishment.  Then there are all the people who did not vote at all.

Your vote in the election today may well be the most important vote of your entire life.  Please do not squander it.  Please do not think that your vote does not matter.  That a vote for Trump as a joke to yourself may not affect anything.

Your vote matters.  Do not do what we did.  Make it count.  If I lived in the US right now, I would walk through fire to vote for Hillary Clinton.