“You’re such a great storyteller,” he said. “Why don’t you do short videos instead of these long articles that no one reads?”
Ouch.
That might be true for his generation, I told myself, but I wasn’t about to lower my standards. I am a writer. I love the process of crafting words into stories. I would leave the frivolous stuff to the youngsters.
And yet…
The more time passed, the more his comment haunted me. After all, I was consuming far more video than text each day — and I was at the other end of the age brackets. I had plenty of experience with video from my corporate life, but I had always assumed that doing it properly required a significant investment of time, equipment, and technical expertise. Writing articles felt easier. Safer. Faster.
I was wrong.
On a trip to Germany last Easter, I began experimenting with Instagram’s built-in video editor. It turned out to be feature-rich and easy to use. I could create short videos and stitch them together in minutes — often on the same day. That kind of turnaround almost never happens with my writing when I’m travelling. Blog posts usually have to wait until I get home.
Around the same time, I read about the changing demographics of TikTok. Its fastest-growing audience was people over forty-five. This follows a time-honoured pattern: older generations follow where teenagers lead, often in such numbers that the young abandon the platform altogether. (I’m looking at you, Facebook.) Mature users were enjoying TikTok’s algorithm and format, but there was a noticeable lack of thoughtful, grown-up cultural content for them to consume.
I saw a market niche calling for my skills.
So, in June last year, I got serious about TikTok. (Everything is cross-posted to Instagram and Facebook, but TikTok delivers by far the strongest engagement.) I committed to posting several times a week, tracked my metrics, set targets, and treated the whole thing as an experiment. Could an older woman, talking thoughtfully about history, travel, and culture, make headway in a space I had long dismissed as the home of silly dances and make-up tutorials?
I was wrong.
On a trip to Germany last Easter, I began experimenting with Instagram’s built-in video editor. It turned out to be feature-rich and easy to use. I could create short videos and stitch them together in minutes — often on the same day. That kind of turnaround almost never happens with my writing when I’m travelling. Blog posts usually have to wait until I get home.
Around the same time, I read about the changing demographics of TikTok. Its fastest-growing audience was people over forty-five. This follows a time-honoured pattern: older generations follow where teenagers lead, often in such numbers that the young abandon the platform altogether. (I’m looking at you, Facebook.) Mature users were enjoying TikTok’s algorithm and format, but there was a noticeable lack of thoughtful, grown-up cultural content for them to consume.
I saw a market niche calling for my skills.
So, in June last year, I got serious about TikTok. (Everything is cross-posted to Instagram and Facebook, but TikTok delivers by far the strongest engagement.) I committed to posting several times a week, tracked my metrics, set targets, and treated the whole thing as an experiment. Could an older woman, talking thoughtfully about history, travel, and culture, make headway in a space I had long dismissed as the home of silly dances and make-up tutorials?
The answer, dear reader, is a resounding yes.
In less than a year, I am approaching 25,000 followers, with an engagement rate of 8.3% — roughly double the TikTok average, and a stat that would once have earned me a very healthy bonus in the corporate world. My average views sit at around 33,000. That figure is skewed by a handful of viral hits, but even my median — just over 2,000 views — is respectable. And the bigger the account grows, the faster that growth accelerates.
Sadly, my blog’s performance can’t compare.
After seventeen years, and a substantial body of work that includes some of the best stuff I think I’ve ever written, I have 34 followers. Even a high-performing article rarely reaches 1,000 readers. Engagement is minimal. (That may partly be the fault of an ageing blogging platform.) I am telling the same stories, in the same voice, with the same care — but the writing largely disappears into the ether, while the videos reach the world.
It seems my nephew was right.
In less than a year, I am approaching 25,000 followers, with an engagement rate of 8.3% — roughly double the TikTok average, and a stat that would once have earned me a very healthy bonus in the corporate world. My average views sit at around 33,000. That figure is skewed by a handful of viral hits, but even my median — just over 2,000 views — is respectable. And the bigger the account grows, the faster that growth accelerates.
Sadly, my blog’s performance can’t compare.
After seventeen years, and a substantial body of work that includes some of the best stuff I think I’ve ever written, I have 34 followers. Even a high-performing article rarely reaches 1,000 readers. Engagement is minimal. (That may partly be the fault of an ageing blogging platform.) I am telling the same stories, in the same voice, with the same care — but the writing largely disappears into the ether, while the videos reach the world.
It seems my nephew was right.
What’s interesting is that none of this contradicts what I learned at journalism school, or the advice I’ve given executives for decades. Good storytelling still cuts through. An engaging, authentic presenter still matters. You still need to hook people early, keep the pace brisk, and check your facts. If you make a mistake on TikTok, someone will point it out — though I’ve found the community far kinder than I expected.
Classic news judgement still applies: go for what is new, distinctive, and relevant. When you’re covering well-trodden tourist paths, that means offering a fresh perspective or drawing attention to details others may have missed.
And — perhaps most importantly — I am having fun.
If I’m honest, writing blog posts has sometimes begun to feel more like a chore than a joy, made worse by the disappointment of knowing that only a handful of people will ever read something I’ve crafted with care. I will continue to write here — if only because this blog is a remarkably useful record of my life, and I value having that archive. I will also experiment with using AI to turn video stories into text more efficiently.
But the reality is clear.
My future is visual.
I hope you’ll follow me there.
Classic news judgement still applies: go for what is new, distinctive, and relevant. When you’re covering well-trodden tourist paths, that means offering a fresh perspective or drawing attention to details others may have missed.
And — perhaps most importantly — I am having fun.
If I’m honest, writing blog posts has sometimes begun to feel more like a chore than a joy, made worse by the disappointment of knowing that only a handful of people will ever read something I’ve crafted with care. I will continue to write here — if only because this blog is a remarkably useful record of my life, and I value having that archive. I will also experiment with using AI to turn video stories into text more efficiently.
But the reality is clear.
My future is visual.
I hope you’ll follow me there.
1 comment:
Times change but good stories live on. Keep up with the videos. Short and informative. Always a winner!
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