As I mentioned in a video earlier this week, one of our plans for this year is to expand our output on short-form video platforms. These include YouTube Shorts, TikTok, Instagram, and possibly Facebook Reels, as well as X, Bluesky and Mastodon (if I ever master that particular platform). In each case, the aim is to get a concise, punchy message out in a format of under 90 seconds, and often under a minute.

Thomas, James, and I worked on this yesterday, and, as we all predicted, it took us much longer to get to the point of recording than it did to record the actual shorts. That is because our aim is not to increase our workload too much. These videos are therefore being made on an iPhone (ProMax 17, bought for the job), with a microphone system (Hollyland Lark Max 2) that plugs straight into it, whilst using much simpler editing techniques than we use for the full-length videos we have been producing for the last 21 months.

The first of the five we recorded will go out later today, and if I get time (as we are out as a family for the day), I will post it here. Our research suggests that midday is an optimal time for publishing these videos, but experience will tell us whether that is actually the case.

My main reason for writing, however, is to ask that if you are on any of these platforms, you might look out for them, with a particular emphasis on TikTok and Instagram. On both, I am @RichardJMurphy, as I also am on X and Bluesky. If you can like, share, or otherwise promote these videos, it would help us reach a much wider audience, and your support would be greatly appreciated.

I also have one other appeal for help. Scheduling all of this can be very time-consuming unless it is automated. The standard software for this, Hootsuite, seems massively over-specified and rather expensive for our purposes. If anyone has recommendations for an alternative video and social media scheduling programme that they have used and can recommend, I would be keen to hear from you.

Thanks.

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