Happy New Year dear beautiful NeedleWork Community!
It’s been awhile since I’ve done a post like this with the community account. I felt it was way past due and with the start of a new year perfect timing for a little motivation.
We’ve talked about this before and on several occasions have encouraged the community to add more life and spice to their publications.
Do you realize how many other platforms have bloggers and vloggers that do tutorials? You can search so many different sites now to look up how to’s and diys of just about anything.
What’s special about Hive are the connections we have here. When I’m looking up tutorials from other sites I’m mainly just trying to figure out how something is done or made. When I’m here, I’m looking for a bit more than just the step by step part.
Since I have made connections here I love hearing the background or the story that surrounds a post. I’m always searching for those sentences and paragraphs that share a little more about the author and goes a little deeper into why this person is sharing the tutorial. This helps to get to know that person better and further relate to their content.
What inspired it? How did they learn it? Why do they love this project?
When an author shares the heart of their work and goes beyond just listing the steps and supply list, they are able to draw you in and excite your interest even more. Getting on a more personal level with your readers helps captivate them and gives them more appreciation for the work you do.
The question to ask yourself is
Do I Stand Out?
If the answer is no then the next question might be
How Can I Accomplish This?
The title of this post expresses how I feel sometimes when scrolling through the needlework feed and open up another tutorial. This is not to offend or upset anyone I’m just simply being honest and upfront as I always am.
When I read posts that start with generic greetings, briefly tells you what they are making and then immediately jumps right into the supplies and tutorial I am instantly underwhelmed.
Don’t get me wrong the tutorial could still be great and interesting and I will still support it. The point is that it failed to captivate me because it didn’t give any heart. The author missed the opportunity to pull me in further by giving me that background or making me feel as if I am right there experiencing it with them…emotions, settings and all.
Some people may think this type of write up is good enough and doesn’t need any more substance but I can guarantee you that most of these posts don’t stand out. If your goal is to just publish mediocre content that stays on the surface and doesn’t engross your reader then continue on with how you’ve been doing things.
You can even do a quick comparison and see that authors who put more sustenance and feeling into their articles get better support through comments and upvotes. It’s apparent that more thought and effort goes into these types of posts. Anyone can do a tutorial but there are clearly those that go the extra mile to create a more personal experience overall which levels up their content.
Today I am challenging our community and all who do any type of tutorials and diys to put more effort into your write-ups.
Instead of quickly jumping into the process how about setting the atmosphere with some background by telling us what made you interested in this project. Reach down and share some of your thoughts and ideas that brought you to making this post. Share your heart with us and any story that would help us relate or appreciate your work more.
The background doesn’t have to be emotional but could be a funny story that led you to this point. You can even tell us about friends and family members that are involved with what you’re sharing. Anything that makes your post more human friendly and less of a robotic feel helps.
A lot of posts I read feel as if they were rushed just to get you through the tutorial. It’s a sense of disconnection which makes it hard to capture and hold the attention of the reader.
After the completion of your project/tutorial please share with us how you felt about the process and if you encountered any struggles. Talk about why this particular project was worth your time or how it has benefited you. You can even explain why you think we would love it and how it would benefit us.
In short, leave with a more detailed closure sharing a little more about your final thoughts of the whole process and why you wanted to share it with us.
Believe me, ending in this way would have much more of an impact than just saying
I hoped you liked it. Bye!
I think this stems from me being here for so long and constantly seeing the same types of verbiage and writing styles. They all start to look alike and have that same ambience which is what personally causes me to look for something that goes above and beyond.
Let me reiterate that I still read, support and appreciate your efforts to share your projects with us. There are many tutorials that have taught me new things and diys that I have tried from your posts. What I am saying is let’s began surpassing expectations and reach new horizons with our audience.
Let’s find new and exciting ways to delight and attract our readers to the things we share here on Hive! Let’s make Hive the go to for diys and how to’s by standing out in how we do things! Challenge yourself to be above average!
I hope this has encouraged and motivated you as these were my intentions. I know each of us can add more life to our publications giving a fuller experience for our viewers making them want to come back for more! 😉