Being in front of a camera has never been my forte. And when the common marketing advice was “blog more,” I was more than happy to oblige. But then when it became “post video,” my soul shuddered.
For one thing, I have a face that encourages doomscrolling. For another, I have an anxiety-induced stutter. And being in front of a camera definitely induces anxiety. Which induces the stutter.
But I’m committed to growth in 2026…and trying tough, scary things. Like video…
So last month, I committed to posting a video/day for 4 weeks straight. Instagram, YouTube, and even [Lord help me] TikTok.
[Psst…speaking of… I’d be super grateful if you subscribed to my YouTube channel. My last full-length video features a real-time edit of a book I started writing in high school, but I hadn’t opened the file in 20 years.]
Now, I’d love to regale you with a tale that the consistency immediately made me take off. That I found the key to going viral and gained 100,000 followers in four weeks’ time.
Not so much.
Here are the results:
Instagram views: 15,421
TikTok views: 5,245
YouTube views: 7,790 [shorts and full-length combined]
Total views: 28,456
Not exactly earth-shattering results, but also…that’s 28,000 times that content I created found its way to someone else.
But here’s what I DID learn…
Several of my best-performing videos were also the easiest to put together. My best-performing videos on Instagram were just me reading 1-star reviews of famous books. 5 minutes on Goodreads. 2 minutes of filming. 10 minutes to edit and post.
Plus, I cross-posted the same video across multiple platforms for maximum reach with minimal work.
Different platforms have different preferences. Instagram liked those 1-star reviews. But TikTok seemed to like educational posts more. And YouTube was entirely unpredictable based on content but seemed to be more about the video title [the hook] and the time the video was posted.
It’s easy to say, “Oh, only X type of person gets attention online,” but that’s a cop out. Eventually, you realize that being visible is a choice more than it is chance. Sure, conventionally attractive people can win eyeballs faster [and for longer], but that’s not enough on its own.
Posting consistently interesting videos is the real name of the game. “Consistent” and “interesting” are also the two toughest parts to figure out. Because we humans can be pretty bad at gauging what’s interesting to someone else.
If you’re going on pure metrics, probably not. I gained a few new followers here and there but nothing that’s going to help me sell a course called “How to Add 5,000 Followers in 28 Days.”
But it was worth it for other reasons:
Practicing the art of hooks
Figuring out what people are looking for on other platforms
Getting over my own fear of being seen
I’ll likely drop down to 3-4 days a week for now, especially since I have a pretty busy next couple of weeks between client work and launching my book marketing app ForWord.io on July 3.
Join the ForWord.io Waitlist Here
Have you given video a go? If so, what have you learned? What worked for you?
Until next time, Storytellers, keep changing the world…one story video at a time.
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