5 Ways Creators Can Find What They Actually Want to Watch Online
Designer Natalia Chaparro has lived and work on three continents. Images c/o Naomi Piercey.
Sponsored Content brought to you by Echocast and written by designer Natalia Chaparro.
I’ve been a designer for my entire career, and I’ve worked in New York, Germany, and now South America. It’s always incredible to visit different places that offer a fresh perspective and new ways of looking at the world. That’s why I like to watch videos online to see pockets of the world I’m not able to visit, learn how to build my skill set, and even research new industries I work in.
While there are great videos out there, I feel more distracted than ever trying to find what I really want to watch. For context, there are 800 million videos on YouTube, with another 3.7 million being uploaded each day. I needed a better way to find the videos I wanted to watch, and that’s part of what led me to join Echocast, the video platform where you can have more control over your YouTube experience and find, focus on, and share the videos that most resonate with your interests.
In addition to making traditional playlists, you are invited to make “Sifts,” a dynamic feed that pulls in specific filtered content from multiple channels that you select. Once you create them, Sifts work for you. They go out and find the videos that match your interests, and bypass the plain vanilla recommendations you otherwise see.
Based on my experience, here are five ways you can benefit from using Sifts in your creative life.
1. Learn from the Experts
People often talk about a “best practice”, but in the creative world that should really be “best practices”—plural. We often pull ideas not from just a single person, but from many. And for good reason. If we limit ourselves to hearing from a single artist, then we just see their process. If we can learn from a range of artists, however, we’ll have more ideas and insights to add to our toolbox. That speaks to the power of Sifts. You are not limited by following a single person. You can curate all of your favorite creators to develop Sifts based on your interests and featuring only the people you actually want to follow.
Sifts can pull together multiple channels, giving you multiple content sources in a single, topical list.
2. Build Your Skillset
Some of us are generalists who like to work in different fields and know a little bit about everything. (That keeps life interesting!) As we move from project to project, then, it can help to have resources on the new skills you need to learn and implement in your projects, such as how to draw well or learn photography. Or even how to better use creative products. Sifts are a great avenue to curate channels on the new skills you need and want to learn today.
Watch the demo to explore Sifts.
3. Quickly Research New Industries
While we have our creative strengths, we can often find ourselves working in new industries. This means we have to get up to speed on those markets–and quickly. In a previous era, that could mean a Google search. But search these days is unpredictable and you’re often served up results that are best for that business, and not necessarily your work. Instead, you can create a Sift that focuses on the industry you are diving into so you can educate yourself on the most important conversations in it. Even better, Sifts update in real-time. As new videos come online, you’ll automatically receive them without having to do more searching.
4. Develop Important Business Strategies
As creative people, we’re always making stuff. It’s what we love to do. That means we might not be as proficient on how to market ourselves and sell our work. So you can create a Sift featuring people who have expert perspectives on, say, sales tactics, or marketing efforts. This allows you to build up your business skills, in addition to your creative ones.
5. Artistic Joy and Entertainment
Sometimes after a day packed with creativity, you just want to log off or work. With Sifts, you can fill your time with videos that surprise and delight and take you as far away from your day-to-day as you’d liked. Like, into the world of herbalism, which is a favorite of mine. I enjoy learning from other herbalists who show different techniques and recipes to create plant medicine. Also, love watching the process of some people collecting flowers, pressing them, and turning them into art pieces. I didn’t know this topic could bring me so much happiness, but it does. It’s creative. It’s fun.
And that’s what Sifts provide–the ability to explore what you like and to follow what you love. Start learning new skills on echocast today.
If you’d like to read more from Creative Factor, find our latest stories here. Or looking to tell your brand story? Introducing Creative Factor’s Storytelling Studio.