The struggles with maintaining an online presense

It is a unique routine we have with social media to be entertained or become the entertainers. The latter of that, is what is appealing, to see all these people become their own celebrity without Hollywood makings. It's like seems to be easy to achieve that fame. New people are discovered everyday and seem to live the dream of just showing their life and antics as a job. We watch to see how we can also achieve that same ideal. But it can't happen to everyone as easy as we think. I would know, I've been trying for ten years to make an online presence. It hasn't stopped me but I had to find exactly how and why I wanted an online presence.

I used to make constant videos, I got frustrated when it didn't become the success I wanted. I was desperate for all my hard work to pay off.

There is a certain toxic vanity that comes with social media as well. I became obsessed with the likes I got on Instagram. When I put out a video that I felt was great in quality and intrigue. Nothing happened. I followed all the rules and nothing happened. It's hard to have the patience that something will develop after hard work. I still struggle with it, but I always feel selfish for wanting this attention all on me.

I've tried many routes to make people pay attention to what I have created, I've thought of it from every angle. Keep the intrigue, use all your platforms to get the word out. I always feel a bit of jealousy when I see that people do the simplest things without a witty or catchy context and yet it has more attention then I do. I watch as others have a rise in popularity while I still teeter back and forth in the range of 675 subscribers I have. I've been told by my friends how they are jealous that I have 675 subscribers, but 675 people don't watch the videos, it's either these other online audience members subscribed to me then forgot, or just forgot to take me off their interest list. Realistically it's true because only about 12 people watch. Same with Instagram, I have been going back and forth in 390 to 397 followers because people lost interest or forgot to take me off their following list after they saw I didn't follow back or just weren't interested in my format. It really is a fame game.

I view it as when you watch a television show, watching the first episode is the make or break. I still feel as if I haven't gotten people to watch the first episode and want to continue as opposed to have to continue. And with the short attention span of some viewers, the payoff just gets harder and harder to grab someone's attention and keep it.

There are many different routes to take in social media to find that platform that fits your style to put out. Sometimes trying everything doesn't always work. I was getting frustrated and burned out, until I decided dropping other social media platforms and just concentrated on what I felt was easier to me to use, not where the other people would be at. Because it could be that my kind of audience will be on another platform. I tried Facebook, it didn't work. I tried tumblr, it didn't work. I tried twitter, really didn't work. tiktok is touch and go since I'm still getting used to the entertainment format. The two that work for me is Instagram and YouTube. Those are my platforms and I had ideas to do for cosplay and movies thinking those are my topics, I got to go with what I'm good at.

It's hard to stick out in a certain group of entertainers. I did cosplay videos, which did give me a certain limited success with tutorials. However it wasn't satisfying, and there were other cosplay channels as well to compete with. I did movie reviews, to no success at all because people sporadically tuned in only for cosplay videos. I even did a test on this to prove it. In the same day I uploaded two videos. One was a cosplay video on how to make a certain item. The other was a commentary review on the show Castle Rock, which I was proud to see the different style of editing I did with the intriguing commentary I provided. Within that day the cosplay video fared well with a steady rise in views. However, the other one, my Castle Rock video, did not fair well at all. Yes, it depends on the audience and yes there has to be a certain theme to the videos. I was trying everything and I was losing faith fast.

I said earlier that there had to be a reason. That's when I finished my book. I had found my newfound calling to maintaining and creating an online presence. I had this knowledge of video editing, and catchy advertising. I can use that to what I had created. My book, Inglorious Ink, I knew I had to use my knowledge to get that book out there and I knew how to do it but with the ambition I didn't have before. I had that passion back.

My new platform of topics: one became about writing, I made a video starting this series simply called, "I wrote a book," Then continued that with "What's my writing routine like?" It became a unique commentary video sharing my new path as an author. The second topic that I have dived into is starting fashion videos called "lookbooks" where I do not talk in the video at all and I can show my fashion themes. As I've been developing my self-esteem, I decided to partake in trying my hand at fashion videos. I have received positive comments on the style of edits as well as how I conducted the wardrobe. Third topic was the idea of Get Ready With Me videos. I wanted to go back into doing makeup, but I had no desire to do tutorials. The Get Ready With Me videos had the idea of a relaxed video to not instruct how to do makeup but just a freestyling of what I wanted to do while talking about what was going on. I was even able to weave some of my comedic tid bits in there as I wanted. I even found a way to incorporate my movie-buff knowledge into my videos without it having to be themed. Talking about them in a mention as opposed to a topic, that worked well for me. I found that parallel, the balance of doing what I wanted to do and I was comfortable with it, I enjoy it as opposed to forcing myself to do a video.

I started a new editing style that wasn't hyper or over-the-top. I call it the "Fraiser edit" in the show Fraiser, when a new part of the show began, it was always a black screen with the lettering to parallel what was going to happen. I never realized it until a few videos in that it looked like that. The only difference is I have a voice-over in the screen-card to indicate the transition. I felt comfortable with this new format I've started. I have taken pride in my editing and makes it easier to the process. Even filming it, there is a flame of enthusiasm in my recordings that has more of a natural flow. I can make long commentaries about something I'm passionate about. That makes the video, seeing that heart and soul

Social Media stars are the new Hollywood stars, it seems to be achievable to others. But it's a unique routine that has to be your own or you have to find it. I found mine, though it took many frustrations, and I am not there yet, but I do take comfort that it's for the cause of my book as well as to have some fun in other projects. That's my path. It isn't an overnight success nor is it instant ideas. It takes time to craft those ideas and find your own audience. You will be your own success story, not someone else. Change the platform instead of following it.

Take your time and then you'll thrive.

-Sami Parrish a.k.a The Mystical Space Witch