My Journey in Personal Branding: YouTube Channel Debut.

How I got started

Being in between jobs now had given me the time to finally unleash my fiery passion for creativity. I had been inspired and have thought about fulfilling it for a long while. Finally, it's time.

Apart from my profession as a Scientist, I am also an accomplished musician - freelance pianist and flutist at a Singapore Foo Chow Association Chinese Orchestra. For personal archiving purposes, I like keeping a video recording catalog of my own performances. Since it was never intended for public consumption, the recordings were in fact undesirably subpar.

"I am so happy to finally complete a video online content which I can proudly call my own. A small accomplishment and humble debut, nevertheless, paving the way to developing a personal brand. Being my own film director and plot creator is an immensely satisfying experience. I enjoy every learning opportunity from filming with my supportive team to designing motion graphics and best of all, I got to learn more about myself in the process such as my capabilities and preferred delivery styles." - Sharon L

I was inspired by YouTube vlogers Tom Daley and Sam Chui. Their work motivated me to start my own. Viewing the graphical animation on YouTube is an effortless task. However, the demanding labor that goes behind conceptualizing the topic of interest, visual creation, groundwork of filming, acting, logo and platform construction for branding before the content goes live could only be experienced if you are willing to get your hands dirty doing the background and foreground work from scratch, as I did.

With multiple free digital platforms at our convenience these days, it is absolutely easy for anyone to create online content. Sadly, some online contents are a total waste of time, bearing poor resolution images and shaky footage. Hence, it is really a no-brainer to know that a view-worthy content is one that is     1) clearly delivered, 2) informative and 3) succinct.

Some advice to start off your personal branding

If you are starting out to expand your social media presence and construct your personal brand, here are some tips:

1. Find your niche. Are you sure that your Scientific publications and discoveries are all that you know and do? Most people can search up your profession and publications. How about something more personal and juicy? Think why tabloids always sell like hotcakes.

2. Build your online catalog. Someone without up-to-date posts and historical content is probably disconnected or disinterested in the topic at hand. Keep your social media platforms active to indicate persisting interest and reachability. If you think your topic has run its course and reached a dead-end, I suggest you do a spin-off instead of ghosting entirely, unless you're determined to kill your brand.

3. Build your style while getting dirty. This is the toughest and most technically demanding part of building your social media presence, which I may have to cover on a separate post. Briefly, the style could be portrayed in various ways such as body language, personality (including humor, playful etc.), filming style, logo animation and design etc. Take time to plan them out carefully before commencing filming. These features formulate the impression the audience has of you like a jigsaw puzzle with each piece playing an information role. You can think about it as being the actor, cameraman, director, film editor at the same time. If this is too much for you, seek collaborations.

Since you are the face of your brand, it is inevitable that you have to be in front of the camera (not just one camera, but multiple recording devices + filming team). It is easy to feel unnatural and trust me, the audience could see right through your facade and cringe. For best results, my advice is to give yourself a 10 minutes break after every 7 takes and be yourself. Facial cramp is a real thing! Anyway, the bottom line is, everyone likes people who are real. Be one.

4. Audience-centric: Make things easy & attractive. They say males are visual animals, but I beg to differ. I think all of us, regardless of gender, has the predilection of things that are pretty. Logo, ease of browsing the website, animation design and your brand name (say your YouTube or Blog name) are crucial aspects of successful branding. Hence, take time to work on the technical details. Apart from the cliche advice of uniqueness or catchy, my stand is to keep things simple and on point.

Try it yourself

I am still learning the ropes of content creation, which is part of branding, whether in blogs or vlogs. It has been a steep learning curve and I am so happy to finally launch a presentable debut on YouTube. But I guess it is the eagerness to see the end product that pulled me through till the end, really. My sharing isn't going to be helpful unless you put them into practice. Hence, I encourage you to try it out and I assure you that it's going to be a fulfilling experience. Beyond a doubt, good content creation and branding are extremely time-consuming. Hence, remember to give yourself ample time to master the diverse skill sets required. It's worth it.

Let's collaborate

Hope you enjoy my 3-minutes Vlog! If you like the video, remember to give it a thumbs up, hit subscribe and leave a comment. More importantly, if you wish to collaborate, drop me a text at this webpage's chatbox or leave a comment below. I will get back to you within 24 hours.

More good content coming up. Stay tuned!