Ways To Share Who You Are Online Without Blogging
I love blogging, don't get me wrong, but for fellow creatives or people of the world who want to share themselves, their work, their personal brand, and who they are through the wonderful medium of the web but don't have the time (or the interest) in starting and running a blog I think it's hard sometimes to utilise the many options available to us. The thing is, if you don't want to blog but you still want to share who you are and find your tribe and potential clients online there is hope as there are so many other creative platforms out there where you can utilise your voice and creative vision.
Medium
Medium is an awesome option is you have stories you want to tell and ideas you want to share without having to run your own online space. Described as a place for "everyone's stories and ideas", it embraces the idea that people create better things together. If you want to collaborate with others, you can share your post in draft for others to edit and give feedback on - though of course you're free to just write away and share as you please. It's simple, minimalist, visually strong, and a great way to connect with others as people can leave notes on your posts which are a great way to start conversations and build connections. People can follow you to keep up to date with recent stories and posts, and it's a great place to share thoughts and ideas without being restrained by a blog or personal website. So if you have something you want to say, Medium is probably a great place for you!
Instagram is an awesome creative platform - Rebecca spoke about this more in depth on ALO recently here. For anyone wanting to connect with an audience, build online connections, or share their work or creative process, Instagram is an awesome option. For people who feel way more comfortable in the visual world more than with words, Instagram is a great place to micro-blog by sharing photos alongside short text that encourages engagement with your audience. If you're a working creative, you can share your process, behind the scenes, and recent work in the hopes of then attracting your ideal clients.
VSCO
Pretty similar to Instagram in the sense that VSCO is a place to share photographs and visuals, I personally prefer it as a platform sometimes as it isn't overrun with selfies and humble brags like Instagram can be at times. For any photographers, either professional or just as a hobby, it's a great place to share your work and photos and I shared a few of my favourite VSCO grids a few weeks back on ALO here. An exciting thing in the works is VSCO Journals, a tool for anyone to share long form content alongside their VSCO visuals. It's still in private beta but you can see some examples here, and I think in the future once it's open to everyone it will be a really exciting new way to share content online.
Twitter is probably my favourite social media platform, it's a great way to connect with others and you can include visuals and videos alongside your tweets which makes it the best of both worlds. If you do create stories through Medium, or in the future VSCO Journals, you can then share it all from your Twitter account alongside any Instagram updates as well. You can keep up with people in your industry, friends, and peers and make connections with like minded and awesome people - and share updates from your life too. Twitter is also an awesome place to share the things you're enjoying online - whether it be blog posts, articles, or videos - and also your work as well.
Podcasts
Podcasts are an awesome way to share ideas, advice, and connect with the right audience for you. I'm actually working with some filmmakers at the moment as a creative consultant and they've chosen Podcasts as their medium to connect with their audience and ideal clients and I think it's an awesome way to share ideas and start conversations. Some creative podcasts worth checking out are The Accidental Creative and After The Jump and if you're wanting to do your own SoundCloud is probably a good place to host them!
Do you use any of these platforms?
Jen
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