Don’t get carried away by the title of the blog, I am certainly no influencer, not by a long stretch but I wanted to grab your attention😊. When I had the career turning point of being part of the Emerging Voices for Global Health (EV4GH) Programme in 2014, I took to blogging and absolutely loved it. Starting off with IHP blogs, I soon began to write opinion pieces for youth groups, newspapers in South Africa and even commentaries for journals. Unfortunately, life happened and as much as I am an avid writer and love putting pen to paper, no matter how much I tried, I got too busy to be able to slot this in.

Turning to my vlogging journey now, the topic of this blog. I actually started vlogging to capture all of my travels in the hope of one day being a travel influencer (sigh, obviously that hasn’t happened yet, haha). Anyway, I was at this blissful hotel with my sister in Vilanculos, Mozambique, where I whipped out my phone, put it on selfie mode, I still remember I had these huge red sunglasses (don’t judge me I love fashion and shades) and as I gazed at the turquoise waters, I started “Travel Guru, I am coming in from… the blue waters, this hotel…”, so I am actually more of a travel vlogger than a vlogger in global health. I usually and avidly shoot 1-2 minute videos for my loyal and amazing Instagram audience.

Due to my rather hectic schedule, instead of blogging, I started to shoot 1-2 minute videos to share all of the exciting updates and projects I would come across or work on in global health.

Feel free to take a look at some of the recent vlogs from past years:

• During the recent Seventy-ninth United Nations General Assembly (UNGA79), I was mulling about how I have come full circle from calling out tokenism as a young person, to now being entrusted with the platform to shape actual sessions

• Last year, I had the exciting opportunity to work closely with the Working for Health team, specifically supporting the Fifth Global Forum on Human Resources for Health, see highlights here.

• And a while back, I was part of a wonderful implementing team; we were conceptualizing the Her Voice Fund programme where HIV Ambassadors would be responsible for supporting grants at a local level. To my surprise the funder actually placed the vlog on their website 😊!

How to get started

So here are some insights into how to get started with a vlogging journey:

-You do need a smart phone with relatively good video and lighting quality.

-It’s simple, use selfie mode on your camera, you can use a selfie stick (the angle is way better, although one keeps misplacing these and they are slightly outdated), else you can shoot this regular style with your arm out and look into the camera.

-This may sound obvious but make sure the camera is steady and that you are speaking loudly and clearly enough and that the lighting is good.

-You can amp up your fashion if you’d like, I find good colors of lipstick and fashionable sunglasses go a long way, but don’t overdo it. Haha!

– If you shoot your vlog in a public place e.g. a street, be prepared for people looking strangely at you. Don’t pay any attention to this, else you will never vlog.

– To keep up with humans’ evolved attention span and also the platforms you post on, keep to 1 minute video, else 2 minutes max. You can post these vlogs on almost any social media platform. If you want to do longer vlogs then YouTube is another option, and so is podcasting.

– I would definitely advise avoiding jargon, think of 2-3 main messages you would like to get across; and get to the point quickly.

– Try to be as authentic and real as possible, the audience needs to connect with you.

– Finally, do try to post the vlogs in real time.

It’s literally as easy as that. Good luck EVs and the broader global health community, enjoy Nagasaki for me! I have FOMO (aka, fear of missing out) that I will not be there!

*This blog is in a personal capacity, and written as a contribution as an EV alumni, it is not representative of any organization.