There are many families sharing their lifestyles and experiences on YouTube, the same as there are many families doing the same through heartfelt blogs and other social media accounts. Which platform you engage with most of all will depend on your style and preference, but of course, dipping into them all a little can only help your reach.
Perhaps you have a wonderful family blog and are looking to reach out a little, or maybe you’ve had some Instagram success and wish to expand that engagement into viewership. There are many reasons to try and put your family adventures onto YouTube. First, you may enjoy a fair amount of advertisement revenue from it, and family content tends to be quite marketer-friendly.
In addition, you may also gain sponsorships, collaborations with other creators, or perhaps just a steady stream of traffic to your blog. But while those are nice benefits, it’s not hard to see that video-making with your family can be great fun! It shows your children the joy of creatively making projects together, while also being proud of who you are and what you get up to.
However, success and insight doesn’t come overnight, least of all on YouTube, a pretty saturated environment. Let’s offer some guidance and assistance to point you in the right direction:
First Of All, Safety
You get to define what this looks like for your family. In general, it’s good to keep information about your family relatively limited – you might discuss the state or city you live near, but not the exact town or area.
Additionally, you might give real or false names for your children just to keep them safe, but not tell your surname. You may not even include your children in videos, but happily in your photos on your blog. It all depends on what your level of comfort is. Just be mindful that some video editing software allows you to blur faces now if you’d prefer a happy middle ground.
What’s the risk here? Well, it depends. Generally, nothing will happen. But with the internet, you can never be certain. It’s also best to assume that once something is uploaded, it’s there forever. So try to think about what your children will be happy with. Perhaps you can avoid showing images of them on the beach for obvious reasons.
We’re not making specific and targeted recommendations of you here of course, this is your channel and your family. But we’d recommend just coming to an agreement with your partner and sticking to it.
Think About Your Brand & Direction
It’s good to think about what introductory direction you hope to explore on your YouTube channel. This helps you stay focused and help narrow down the wide “family” umbrella a little more.
For instance, do you have a variety channel? Perhaps you’ll pick and mix. But from the beginning, you may wish to focus solely on family cooking videos, heading on adventures, talking about schooling, or perhaps a special focus such as raising a child with autism and the lessons that come along with this.
You might also open up about challenges or unique perspectives you have. What makes your family unique, and what might work best for content? Perhaps you have a lovely family where both parents (yourself and your partner) are of quite different ethnic backgrounds, and showing where cultures clash and combine with a good sense of humour could be a wonderful theme. Or, perhaps you all just love Disney, and enjoy documenting your visits each year. A strong theme sets you apart from others and makes your content more likely to be seen.
Understand The Algorithmic Game
It’s important to be mindful that while putting out good content is often enough, sometimes you need a little push to be seen. A helpful YouTube Title Generator can be a fantastic means of inspiring clicks (known as clickbait) while also offering a good description of what your video is about.
Hashtagging in your video description can also help with discoverability. A good thumbnail with a simple caption will also make your video seem more appealing to most. The algorithmic game also leans in your favor if you post consistently, such as once a week or once every two weeks. YouTube tends to prefer you engaging with their in-built services too, such as adding end cards and chapters in your video (simple enough in the creator studio), and auto-translation compatibility.
Of course, this should be something you enjoy. It’s about having a great time with your family and publishing work you’re proud of, not necessarily churning out content with your family as the products. So if you’re not enjoying it, take a break, you don’t have to feel puppeteered by the algorithm.
Connect With Other Creators!
Any family blog owner will be able to tell you that there are many other wonderful bloggers in their area or niche, and that in itself can give them the inspiration to keep going. You might find friends to go on trips with or collaborate with should you not be afraid to reach out. Though of course, be mindful of who you connect with, and if making content together, be sure they know your safety rules.
As the friendship grows they might have something to teach you, such as how to edit your intros more capably, or better cross-reference your blog posts with the videos you create. Perhaps you’ll have some insight to share as a blogger that a strict video maker might not have, such as how to put a script together and consolidate information so viewers don’t stop watching your video due to boredom.
With this advice, we hope you can more easily build your family YouTube channel, clear in your direction and focus. It might take a little while to find your style, but at the very least, it provides you more and more justifications to go out and have wonderful trips, or explore new topics with your children.
We wish you the best in your efforts!