Four months ago, I decided to try recording short videos in Tiktok format. I have been writing about the brain for many years, so I chose this topic as the main one.

The plan was simple – to post videos regularly throughout the year, regardless of views. Read more about the intermediate result of the experiment.

Regularity

Regularity is the key entry threshold. Do something regularly? Well, no. It’s not about me. Not about me at all. For four months now, I have been teaching a new video almost every day. How did it happen? And the secret is simple – you need to shoot rarely, and edit every day. It is impossible to force yourself to shoot videos every day. But once every two weeks, spending an hour recording ten videos at once is quite a formidable task. You procrastinate for two hours, then you hang up the phone and suffer for an hour hating yourself and the whole world.

Then you just spend 15 minutes every day to edit and post on all platforms. Editing and teaching is fun, like a game. Looking at the numbers after publication is fascinating. All this motivates to continue. As a result, the balance of pleasant/unpleasant favors the former.

I also decided that I will not write a script for the videos in advance (although everyone advises). Since I realized that the preparation of the script will immediately tip the balance towards the unpleasant side and I will simply stop shooting. Between “shoot badly” and “do not shoot”, I chose the first.

I just say many takes of individual phrases that are united by a theme. And during editing, I collect it in a more or less tolerable video. In the videos themselves, it turns out dynamically, but when recording, I spend most of the time looking at the ceiling, trying to collect random words in my mind.

Platforms

I decided to teach on the following platforms: TikTok, Insta, FB, Vk, YouTube, Likee, Yappy, Zen. Each platform has its own specific audience and its own recommendation mechanisms.

It is impossible to adapt to everyone. That’s why I chose the video format that I’m comfortable with and trusted the will of recommender systems. A few words about each platform:

Likee and Yappy — for several months, views continued to be measured by dozens. Stop wasting time.

Zen – One video reached 40k views. But on average, videos gain from 200 to 1000 views. And this number has not increased in these four months. It decreases faster. Looks like a dead end.

VK – About the same bullshit. There is one video that reached 8k views. The average number of views is around 400. But here I can at least see that the algorithms like some videos more and others less. I will try to continue pouring.

FB – It goes as a bonus to Insta. When you upload to Insta, it duplicates videos in FB. Videos gain from 500 to 2k views. But here I already had an audience. Views do not increase, and efforts do not need to be spent.

Insta — this channel initially seemed the most promising. Videos flew for 5-15 views. the clips That Didn’t Fly received 1.5k – 2k views. It was pretty clear what the recommendation system was looking at. But something happened in May. Instagram changed its algorithms and stopped showing videos of new audiences. For now, I will continue to teach.

YouTube – He is the most stable guy. It just shows my videos to a slightly larger audience every month. It all started with 300 views, now it averages 2k. Sometimes they jump to 5k views. But the videos never reach a large audience. As I understand it, YouTube has a “sandbox” mode. Before it starts showing you to a wide audience, the recommender system checks how consistently and regularly you post content. And after 6-8 months, it starts to rock in full. I’m waiting

Tik Tok – still king, even after leaving Russia. At first, I posted videos from the computer to bypass the blocking, but TikTok burns it and does not show them to anyone. Figured out how to teach from the phone and grew from 200 views to 2.7 million in two months. It’s nice. Ten thousand subscribers in a couple of days, that’s all. A roller that shot like a snow globe rocks the others.

The main secret

I’ve read hundreds of secrets about how to film, how and when to teach, how to describe, and even bought a paid consultation on the subject. Moreover, I spent a long time trying to understand and work around recommendation algorithms. And here’s a quick summary – it all doesn’t work.

At some point, you just have to admit defeat and understand that recommender systems are smarter than you. They learned to avoid tricks from thousands of tricksters just like you.

Exactly two approaches work. First, to be ready for a marathon despite the number of views. I wrote about this above. Second, focus on training your own brain to create videos. And this is the main insight that I caught.

If you shoot videos for several months, gradually the brain learns to do it better. At the same time, it is very difficult to break down into components what has become better. Some fine-tuning of the neural network. You understand how to speak better, how to edit better, how to structure better.

At the same time, explaining to others how to do things correctly is as difficult as explaining how to play the piano. You need your own practice.

But in order for the neural network of the brain to learn, feedback is needed. And it’s not the number of views. There, the numbers are strongly interfered by the randomness of recommendation systems. The main source of feedback is the retention rate.

You open the analytics and see what time viewers stopped watching. And you try to understand why. And so with every video. Well, okay, not with everyone, but once a week such a squat should be done. You just give the brain this information, it somehow uses it when recording the next videos. It is not even necessary to draw any informed conclusions. Although they will not be superfluous either.

So I initially gave up the titles in the beginning of the video. Then he stopped speaking the first few seconds of the theme of the video. Began to make a tighter installation and throw out water. Removed almost all effects, memes, additional pictures, zoom changes. I started making the videos looped, so that it was more difficult to understand where the beginning was and where the end was. Better understood what topics the audience is interested in. It became better to choose tags and a title. All this is not intuitive at first and goes against popular advice from the Internet.

And all these steps may not work for you. Only regular teaching for months with retention studies will work.

Quality of filming

On the one hand, I’ve come a long way in improving video and audio quality. On the other hand, shitty platforms wanted it. I rather do it for myself because I used to work in advertising production.

In fact, the following set is enough:

• Almost any modern phone and tripod for it. To capture the talking head well, place the phone at the height of the talking head.

• Free CupCut program for installation. It’s as simple as a cork, but it has a lot of possibilities.

• The built-in microphone in the phone is enough. CupCut has a noise reduction feature. Just speak louder.

• You don’t need professional lighting. Stand by the window during the day – the beautiful light is ready.

• A minimal corolla can also be made in CupCut. You can also create subtitles automatically. They are needed.

Actually, I do as I described above. Additionally, I bought a pair of lamps that stand behind the back. They help to quickly recognize my videos in the feed. Still began to worry more with the flower corolla in DaVince Resolve, but it’s for the soul.

Content

I have absolutely no idea how it works. Videos that I considered to be scumbags flew by, and videos with excellent content collected crumbs.

In general, I switched to the following logic: you don’t need to analyze a separate clip, you need to look at a pack of clips. If out of ten rollers, one flies off – that’s all right, you have to continue.

And, of course, you need to stick to the topic. So that the viewer is like: “Oh! This is the dude talking about the brain” or “Oh! It’s a lawyer’ or ‘Oh, it’s a cemetery surveyor’.

First, it is easier for algorithms. Secondly, this is the only way to form a core audience that will watch you regularly. And thereby increase retention.

The last point is especially important. Retention isn’t just about whether a video is good or bad, it’s about how many fans you have who will watch just because it’s you. Regardless of the topic. Retention of popular bloggers is always higher than that of newbies. Regardless of the quality of the content.

Postscript

In general, millions of views do not change the quality of life. They do not add joy. They don’t do it for the rich. The brain instantly adapts to large numbers as a new norm. It is pointless to chase views.

But the process itself is quite pleasant. You shoot, then edit, then look at the numbers, analyze, draw conclusions. It’s a thrill, like playing in a casino. Hits the same dopamine points. You can worry about it.

And you practice speaking, you practice structuring your thoughts, you stop being afraid of the camera. These are all skills that spill over into other aspects of life. Useful. Somehow. The plan to shoot videos for a year is still valid. Only four months have passed. As a result, I will write what came out of it.

If you need any links, write in the comments. It is useless to promote accounts with the help of such articles. Recommender systems ignore external traffic. More precisely, they treat it negatively and reduce organic reach.

And the last. At the very beginning, it is very important to allow yourself to shoot poorly. It is bad to speak. To look stupid, ugly, inappropriate. It all gets better in the process. It is difficult to approach this race ready. But the desire to be ready immediately is the main reason why it is so difficult for us to try new things.