It was June 2019, I was already settling well in my role as a social video script writer for Pulse Ghana when certain structural changes had been made, and George Salia asked if I would like to manage Pulse Ghana’s YouTube channel as part of my JD.
If you know me then you know, despite my anxiety and a pinch of imposter syndrome, I am always up for a challenge especially one that promises to be an interesting ride, and so I said Yes!
The mail from Noel Hutchison read “I am very happy to announce our new YouTube Managers across RADP, (now we are Pulse of course) they will balance this new responsibility along with their current tasks”. I was excited. I had no Youtube experience, but I was excited.
And so it began. At the time I became the YouTube manager for Pulse Ghana we had about 59K subscribers. (plus or minus).
My first task was to optimise old videos that had been uploaded on YT over the month; optimising here means, Thumbnails, Youtube SEO, description, monetisation etc. I was to do this while still uploading videos on Youtube and performing my role as a video scriptwriter.
I had to clean up the page, work on copyright claims etc. If I say it wasn’t hard work I would be lying. When the mail read “balance” it should have been CAPITALISED. There were times there was just too much on my plate, to be honest. I was getting home late yet going to work early just to get a hang of combining YT with my scriptwriting role- without any prior Youtube experience. I tried going through the Youtube certified courses, I failed both times. (I have come this far without it, imagine what I would be able to do with it. The plan is to try and get it off my list this year.)
It wasn’t an easy road: emails, meetings, a lot of changes, then change to the changes; whoever was my emotional support at that time thank you for your work.
By February 2020, my role in Pulse was now Scriptwriter, Copy Writer and YouTube Manager. It sounds like work for three people doesn’t it? Covid made it a lot easier if I should be honest. The personal struggles, work struggles, mental health issues, being home during the Lockdown made it easier.
By June 2020 we had added about +30.5K subscribers to our channel, which means we were around 80K subs and I started my personal “Get to 100K subs in 2020” campaign. Just something to keep my fire burning.
By 9th October 2020, we made it! A HUNDRED THOUSAND subscribers. I was excited. I still am. I wasn’t satisfied, I wanted the verification on Youtube, I wanted the award. I started working on it, communicating with Youtube.
26th October 2020 Pulse Ghana got verified on YouTube. I began the process for the awards in December, I told him (my director) we would get it soon. He wasn’t so sure. I remember him saying it would take a long time. ‘lol’.
23rd December 2020 we confirmed our Silver Play Button with YouTube and the countdown began.
6th January 2021, the mail from YouTube read “Pulse Ghana get ready to meet your Silver Award.” The award arrived on the 8th, and we unboxed it on the 10th.
Is it possible to be over-excited? If it is, then that is me.
I am excited because of the work, I know I put in, I am excited because even though Pulse Ghana on YouTube is not owned by me as someone kindly brought to my attention when I was jubilating; it is ‘MY’ channel. Yes, it is Pulse Ghana’s Channel, but for the time being, I am ‘her’ guardian (because the channel identifies as she).😏
This is long, if you have gotten here, thank you for reading up to this point. If you haven’t yet subscribed to our YouTube Channel you should. Watch our videos, most of them would be videos I scripted anyway 😂. Like, Share and do not forget to leave a comment and start a conversation with me.
Congratulations to Pulse Ghana. Especially the video team and the content team. It is after all your exciting content that has got people hitting the subscriber button on YouTube.
Cheers to achieving more milestones.