In January 2020, I was tasked to develop ELFT’s digital platform on YouTube.

Video is a powerful tool for organisations and individuals to:

1.    engage with their audiences

2.    build a brand

3.    create a loyal community.

ELFT has had its channel on YouTube since 2013 year and amassed 392 subscribers and 82.1K total views.

However, like many community and mental NHS Trusts, creating a strong presence on YouTube is not as straight-forward in comparison to acute Trusts such as Guys and St Thomas and Moorfields Eye Hospital, whose subscriber count are in the thousands. Trusts such as NELFT, Barnet, Enfield and Haringey and even Greater Manchester Mental Health NHS Trust have a subscriber base in the low hundreds.

The work done during the past year to rectify this has made leaps and bounds. ELFT subscriber count has increased more than 200% (currently at 1,103 subscribers) and 216.8K total views. Other engagement metrics such as likes, shares and comments have seen favourable increases.

This would not have been made possible without the following components:

1.    Clear and simple planning – we made sure not to over-exert ourseleves, especially during the early phase, but steady increase production when ready to do so.

2.    Investment in budget and training – video production equipment and training staff to use video editing software is very important.

3.   Consistency – sticking to a regular video publishing schedule is important to help instil loyalty. Regular videos such as #ELFTVideoNews has enabled us to post on a regular basis.

4.    Flexibility – We are able to tweak the style and production of ELFT Videos News to help cater for issues such as COVID.

5.   Have fun – creating videos should be an enjoyable process.

So, what’s next?

The sky’s the limit! ELFT has recently been accepted on YouTube’s partnership programme which opens up a treasure chest of opportunities such as fundraising and copyright protection.