It’s a fact: we love sharing on social media. The average time spent on social platforms stands at 135 minutes daily. But when it comes to work-related matters, we’re not as willing to share.
As artist Austin Kleon (author of “Show Your Work”) says, many of us are trained to guard our projects and to reveal them after completion, never before.
In psychology, positioning yourself the way you want to be seen is called self-presentation. Any TV commercial shows us that companies adopt this approach in branding. But a startup founder could stand to lose by not sharing his or her process — for example, valuable and free feedback from others might never be heard.
Small Business Trends connected with entrepreneur Chris Weiher to find out if there are benefits to watching projects in realtime.
Livestreaming Community for Creative Professionals
Weiher is the founder of WatchMeWork.com, a livestreaming community for creative professionals to cowork and share their process with one another. He is also the owner of CLEAVER Creative, a video production company serving Chicago-based businesses.
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Small Business Trends: Many startups begin from a personal need the founder had. Is that true for your startup?
Chris Weiher: Yes, I was used to working in an office where I could see other professionals and missed that when I began freelancing. I was learning Adobe Illustrator and frustrated that I just couldn’t walk into a room and ‘watch someone work’ in it.
You can get something different out of watching someone’s whole process as opposed to watching a tutorial. A tutorial can teach you specifics, but by watching someone’s process, you can learn things you would never even think to search for.
Small Business Trends: What worlds have opened up to you thanks to your users? Which disciplines are active on your platform, and which one is streamed the most?
Chris Weiher: I’m not an illustrator so it’s been interesting to see that art form be one of the most-streamed work. I think it’s taken off faster than other kinds of work as it’s so fun to watch. The most active disciplines are digital illustration, programming, 3D design and game design.
Small Business Trends: How has your push-to-talk feature made the UX better on WatchMeWork.com? And the backend tech of your platform is Ruby On Rails and Google Hangouts On Air? How did you become aware of Ruby On Rails? It’s not exactly a household name.
Chris Weiher: Push-to-talk allows users to talk instantly via voice rather than chat, or as opposed to having to use a third party app. I was made aware of Ruby On Rails through the Startup Weekend in Chicago and through my first developer who was a graduate of Dev Bootcamp in Chicago.
Small Business Trends: I’m a little shocked when I hear anyone say we might see businesses favoring livestreaming over pre-recorded video in the near future. Can you elaborate?
Chris Weiher: One thing that’s interesting about livestreaming is it’s actually a lot easier to do compared to creating a video. Yet people are a lot more afraid of it and nervous to try it. I think as more people try it, it’s possible that more people will become livestreamers than video-makers.
Small Business Trends: How should people get in touch with you?
Chris Weiher: Email us at [email protected]
Images: Chris Weiher
This is part of the Small Business Trends Livestreamed Livelihoods interview series featuring sessions with today’s movers and shakers in the livestreaming world.