I recently had the absolute privilege to sit down and speak with Vlog Boss Amy Schmittauer about creating videos, and her new book Vlog Like a Boss: How to Kill it Online with Video Blogging.
You can listen to the interview here.
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I have to admit, when we started speaking, I had to hold in my inner fan girl. Amy is one of a few people who I faithfully follow online, watch her videos, and learn so much from her content.
And now she has a book out!
Have you ever (or maybe you have one right now) had a bucket list or a dream to-do list of things you wanted to achieve?
Or maybe you have a list of people you would love to interview or feature in your magazine. Well, for me, I have a list of people who I would absolutely love to be on my podcast. Now, these people are huge influencers, and to me, the list seemed almost silly because the names on it seemed out of reach.
But have you ever realized the power of writing stuff down? It helps make it happen. For real. Because Amy was one of those names I wrote down. So when she agreed to be on The Social Launch podcast, I was super excited… until I was super nervous.
But not only did Amy ‘act like a real person’ (because she is), but she was super cool when I had a tech issue, and also gave me so many great pieces of advice. Here are some of the things I learned from the vlog boss herself.
Create a Community
Of course creating killer content helps, but Amy engages and interacts with her community. She shows up consistently and gives her community the content they want. She knows what subjects her audience wants to learn about and so that is the content she delivers.
When someone comments on one of her videos, she responds. She asks questions to her viewers when she posts a new video.
She also runs some fun challenges for her community, to encourage them to create videos. #VEDA (which stands for vlog every day in April/ August) is a popular challenge, where people sign up to vlog for the entire month of April/ August. It’s a fun way to challenge yourself to create videos, plus it gets some views on your videos because you use the VEDA hashtag. It’s one way Amy creates a community and helps encourage you to create a video.
Be Authentic
When you watch Amy on her videos, and then you speak with her in person, she is who she appears to be. She isn’t pretending to be someone else; she is authentically her. She incorporates pieces of her life into her videos, like her BFF (best fur friend) Lucy, her love of her hometown of Columbus, and her fiance and Aftermarq partner, Vincenzo.
You get to learn from her videos, but you also get to learn more about her, which makes you feel a connection to her, which is what creating video, doing Instagram Stories, and being on social media is all about.
Launch Like a Boss
Wow. Amy did so many cool things to gear people up for her book launch, and any business could incorporate this kind of promotion into a launch of their own product.
Promotions Amy did during her pre- book launch:
- giveaways (free chapter to read)
- interviews on (what appeared to be) hundreds of podcasts and live video shows
- advanced books for reviews
- bonus gifts for pre-ordering the book
- vlogged every day for 30 days leading up to the book release
- collaboration
- used Thunderclap
One thing Amy did during her pre-launch was to offer a free chapter to anyone who wanted to get a sneak peak into her book.
She also offered advanced digital copies so that interested people could read it, and then if they liked it, give a review on Amazon. Being able to read her book ahead of time did two things. First, I felt awesome and special that I got to read it before other people. Second, it got her one amazing review on Amazon before the book even launched. How’s that for a win-win.
Amy did an amazing job of creating hype around the book, added value by offering bonuses to pre-order the book, and really did a tonne of added work to promote her book. That’s probably why there is the caption ‘best seller’ beside her book before it officially launched.
Be nice
Seriously. This might sound silly, but Amy was so very nice and kind, and she genuinely cares about the people who watch her videos and consume her content. She’s genuinely a nice person, even to a small little podcaster in Sudbury, Ontario, Canada. Having a huge amount of listeners didn’t matter to her, she just cared that I cared about her and her book, and that was enough for her. Sharing that kindness to me made me feel truly connected to her and her community.
Now I want to pass that kindness onto you! Leave a comment below for a chance to win a free copy of Amy’s book Vlog Like a Boss: How to Kill it Online with Video Blogging.
Let me tell you, it is a fantastic book, and even if you aren’t a fan of giveaways (that’s strange, but whatever) check out her book. For anyone wanting to up their video game, this is a must-read.
