It has now been five days since I launched A Swedish Fika, and I will try to collect some thoughts about this time. I will try to look at what has happened, both good and not soo good, in parts. First I will talk about the audio podcast, secondly the video podcast and the YouTube channel, and finally this website and social media.
The audio podcast
This was the one that launched first and the part that I have the least experience with. I have really no idea how to measure success or not when it comes to downloads and other statistics so this is very much going off feelings.
I had expected some of my close friends to log in and listen to the audio podcast, just to be supportive, but when I look at my statistics day 1 had seven downloads and I don’t think that is just friends, someone must have seen me posting something, either here or on social media and decided to give it a try. Never would I have guessed that 7 people would listen to my first episode.
As of right now, after four days, I have a total of 15 downloads, and I am blown away. I know that that is not much in comparison with established podcasts, but I have done one humble little try of making a podcast before, without learning a lot beforehand, which after 2 years with 10 episodes has a total of 403 downloads,
I am surprised to have gotten 15 downloads in 4 days.
I have changed my schedule a little bit and will from now on drop new episodes on Mondays, which I think is a much better day for me personally and for eventual listeners, but only time will tell.
But this is about more than numbers, lets talk about the reactions I have gotten from my friends. They have been very positive, both when it comes to content and the sound quality, which makes me very happy. And in a few weeks, I think the sound quality will be even better since I have invested in a better microphone.
It is also about my feelings, about how nervous I was before launching, and how I was questioning a lot of the decisions I have made. Now that the launch is over, and the way it was received was positive, I am filled with hope and inspiration to go on. If I will keep on getting 15 people to listen to what I have to say about Sweden and Swedes each week I can keep on doing this forever.
The video podcast
The premiere on YouTube was something that worried me less. After all, I have been on YouTube for two years and feel more at home here. I know what to expect and how very slow the growth can be for a new channel, especially a podcast when you are not a “famous YouTuber”.
But also here did it exceed my expectations. The video version of episode #1 has been watched 12 times. I know that most of those views, as so often is the case with YouTube, are just maybe the first 30 seconds or so, but I still have a total watch time of 1.3 hours on that specific video.
What has been more interesting is that for the first time since YouTube announced that they are adding shorts, I have actually started making them on this channel. And if you don’t know what shorts are, they are vertical videos under 60 sec. that can be presented on YouTube’s short shelf. The metrics for these videos are quite different than regular videos on demand and I have not really taken the time to study it yet, but they have been doing well (in my eyes).
My shorts are stand-alone from the regular episodes of the podcast. What I do is I present the audience with a Swedish expression, translate it verbatim, which usually gets very weird, and then give you an English expression with a similar meaning, or an explanation to what it means. I am trying to upload one of these shorts every day during the week (weekends will be off) and it has been really fun. which leads me to the next section
This website and social media
The shorts I am making for the YouTube channel made me decide to start a TikTok account for A Swedish Fika. I know that this is not the type of content you think of when you first hear the word TikTok, but I am promising you, there is so much more to that platform than silly dances and duets, even if those can be really entertaining. I have right now 9 short videos on TikTok, 7 of which are identical to the Swedish expressions on YouTube, and together they have around 2500 views and 10 followers.
When it comes to other social media platforms I am trying to keep up with Facebook, but Instagram and Twitter have been really neglected, and I am afraid they will be for another period of time.
This website on the other hand starts to feel more complete. Now that my episodes will start coming out on a regular schedule I will also have a set posting schedule for my blog posts. On the day of a new episode, I have my show notes, on Tuesdays, I will talk about the upcoming episode, and Thursdays will be like this more of an evaluation.
I am getting more traction here as well which is inspiring, and I feel really inspired. I have started using different polls on the front page of the website which is so much fun, and adding the episodes, both audio and video on here as well.
