I happened to be in Grand Rapids on the right day this month. I was here for the Itasca Area Social Media Breakfast. Erika Kooda talked about the power of YouTube. There were about 20 people in attendance. The presenter had recently been to VidCon and was sharing the experience she had learned there as well as general information about working with video, especially on YouTube. It was great to hear from someone who is learning with the rest of crowd so it feel very accessible to get involved with her.

People had good and basic questions. And the Erika understood that people were generally at the very ground level of learning about different social media channels.

It was great to see the impact of the Social Media Breakfast – of getting local people to talk about local success. Erika used examples people knew – and included a few that people didn’t. People clearly knew and trusted her. And I’m going to say that in preparing for the presentation Erika learned a little and/or cemented some knowledge in a new way. A great way to increase local social media capacity.

Here are some loose notes from her presentation:

Camera options for taking YouTube-friendly video
IpHone
ENG
DSLR

Editing tools
Adobe Premiere – $50/month
Final Cut Pro X – $250 one time
Avid – free
Sony Vegas – free
iMovies/MovieMaker – free

Tips
Edit files in .mp4
Learn to edit online
Consider all platforms – YouTube, Video, Vine

Promotion/Packaging
Twitter – get people to follow you online by talking to them offline
Facebook – scheduled posts in advance
Tumblr – synch social media channels

YouTube Tips
Thumbnails
Presentation
Time – no more than 4 minutes

Project for Awesome – Blog Brothers

Yelp – get goof online reviews

Next big things?

Most big YouTubers are getting paid from Google – but they are starting organizations and more action.

Square space