Confession

Pull the thread, they said.

We all started out by joining Facebook, now social media management is an all day affair. Some companies have tried to create software that would make posting to more than one site easier, but you lose the personal touch. Besides, Pinterest and Snapchat aren’t included. The software makers are unable to keep up.

Yet for broadcasting, artists and writers are competing to have a presence. News and creative mediums now include social media. Video journalism, vlogging, blogging and podcasting are a part of social media. Education has become free or cheap with all the “how to” articles and videos that are available and it can be overwhelming. As a writer, I have to decide what kind of writer I want to be, which means finding a niche.

Some writers and artists are content doing their work and keeping it personal. Some are fortunate enough to have a marketing team, an advertising team and a public relations team.

I​f you are starting out and you want to share your work, first ask yourself what is the purpose of your work. Next, decide what medium you are best at and most passionate about. Lastly, think about your time management skills.

A chart for me, for example, might look like this: the purpose of my work is storytelling, I am a writer and I have decent time management skills.

Let’s break it down further.

• Because the purpose of my work is storytelling, I know now that I want to broadcast the stories.
• The next question is to decide what kind of storytelling and then discern the niche.
• I know that I am a writer, but also that people don’t always have time to read, which means getting the story out with imaginative ways is important.
• Because I determined I have decent time management skills, it would be helpful to schedule my time to include three main tasks: writing, my main gig, then there’s broadcasting, or sharing the story, through your favorite and accessible channels, and, lastly, learning new tools of communication (since my main medium is writing).

T​his may sound simple, but it can be time-consuming, and while learning, it is common to make mistakes and have to do tasks more than once. When I re-visited Violet Crown so that I could add video to their story, I had to upload it twice, learn how to edit the captions and publish it three times before it was (mostly) the way I wanted it.

You may spend a day learning Twitter, and another whole day editing a vlog and another day researching your niche on social media. You’ll feel better about it if you manage your time in advance rather than let time get away from you.

I​n my case, I want to use the raw story or interview, the written story and video story if possible, then I’d like to share them using a blog, a vlog, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. All of these things take time. But if your medium is photography or visual art, you might need only use Instagram and spend time connecting with other artists and influencers in your medium using hashtags, private messages and contests. After getting comfortable with one outlet, you may find yourself with extra time. That is when you add on.

I ​have a friend that I interviewed when I decided to make this change to photography and videography who got to that point. He has been experimenting with video recording his photography shoots. This will serve two purposes: he will have documentation of the shoot and he will be able to create videos of his work for the public.

I​n the last week, I interviewed four photographers, a beekeeper and a bicycle mechanic. My point of view is that of a storyteller and of a public relations professional. It’s sort of an odd combination. The intention is to create portraits of these great people through the story, so for me, it doesn’t necessarily have to be through the single medium of writing.

I hope their stories will be as inspiring and meaningful to you as they are for me to tell them.