Season 1, Episode 1: Online Presence (with guest host Natasha Billson)

Lucy & Laura are joined by the incredibly insightful Natasha Billson to delve into the importance of having an online presence as a freelance historian

From professional websites to business Instagram accounts, this episode was an in-depth look at the importance of social media when building a portfolio career in history and how to tread the murky waters of online engagement...

A massive thank you to our wonderful guest Tash, you can find her on….

YouTube: @ BehindTheTrowel
IG: @ tash_archeo
Twitter: @Tash_Archeo 

If you have any questions for Tash, please reach out at: 

behindthetrowel@gmail.com

And of course to hire her, contact her at: 

natasha@heritagemedia.uk

As for us you can find us on:

Twitter: @HistBizAGuide
Instagram: @historybusinessaguide

For Laura:

Twitter: & @laurafitzach
IG:   @seekthehistoric
Tik Tok: @seekthehistoric

For Lucy:

Twitter: @lucyjanesantos_ 
IG: @lucyjanesantos_   
YouTube: @lucyjanesantos_

Until next time!

Chapters

• 0:18 Welcome and Introductions
• 7:48 Challenges to setting up as a freelancer
• 9:50 Audiences
• 13:09 Overwhelm in content creation
• 13:28 Content plans and equipment
• 18:51 The hook
• 20:34 Best platforms for historians
• 25:44 Networking and reaching audiences
• 35:02 Dealing with criticism
• 37:38 Maintaining your privacy
• 45:44 Monetisation
• 47:55 Different types of filming – television vs online
• 57:41 The Business Clinic
• 1:05:32 Natasha’s Dream Remote Office
• 1:06:32 Wrapping up the episode

Transcript

Lucy Jane Santos

Welcome to History business, a guide to being a historian for hire. This is a new podcast that's taking an honest look at building a freelance or portfolio career in the field of history.

So I suppose we should introduce ourselves first. My name is Lucy and I'm a historical consultant, researcher, writer, and presenter, which is rather of a mouthful, and I specialise in 20th century history, especially the history of health, beauty and leisure. Now this week I have been working on some historical research for the organisation Queer Norfolk and I've been tracking down some archives of a very interesting and really elusive woman. I have also been reading Horizons: a Global History of Science by James Poskett.

Laura Fitzachary

And I'm Laura. I'm a historian and museum educator turned historical consultant, writer. Also a researcher and presenter specialising in mediaeval art and museum studies. But then later, of course, 18th century social history, and in particular the history of fashion. This week I'm also working away on the influence of Irish women but what role they had on the world of fashion, whilst also researching clothing found in the bogs of Ireland for the National Museum and I've been reading Fierce Appetites by Elizabeth Boyle. It is fantastic.

Laura Fitzachary

In this week's episode of History Business, we will be delving into everything from professional websites to business Instagram accounts and taking an in-depth look at the importance of social media when building a portfolio career in history. So, who better to join us than Natasha Bilson?

You might know her, though, of course, as Tash_Archaeo, public archaeologist, TV presenter, podcaster and content creator known for commercial archaeology, and was involved in the Great British Dig: History in your back garden, which airs on More4 and Channel 4, her YouTube channel behind the trial shares fun and engaging content related to archaeology and history. It is a fantastic resource

Creative Director of Heritage Media Group UK Tasha also provides a bridge between heritage organisations and individuals with social media management, video production and training. Welcome to the show, Natasha.

Natasha Billson

Thank you. I love the introduction. Might need to take that and put it on my pages – it’s great.

Laura Fitzachary

I can send that recording separately if you like, and we can be like and then you come on the screen, no problem at.

Natasha Billson

All. No, thank you so much for having me. I can't wait to dive into the business of trying and making it in history. 

Laura Fitzachary

Of course. I mean, I suppose, kind of from our own backgrounds, you know, I've been doing recently a lot of short form content, those short snippets of information. And that's been really challenging on the old editing skills because I come from podcaster world. So, I'll talk and talk and talk and talk.

So these kind of small snippets are a little bit harder for me to do, but it's much more challenging and it's great because usually I would associate it with promotion. You know, you would create these short videos to bring in visitors to come and hear a much longer talk and much longer chat on a specific topic.

So into into history, land, particularly to landmarks and but then you kind of have to question you know, what about the audience who don't want an hour long lecture who don't want to come on a talk?

And it's a little bit trickier. I suppose our content. So we'll be talking about that later. Hopefully, Tasha, if you don't mind.

Natasha Billson

Oh, I don't mind. And I have been watching. I've been observing your socials. I have been enjoying them. I'm like, cool.

Laura Fitzachary

It was decorative armour, I think recently. So steel clothing, why not?

Lucy Jane Santos

And I suppose I'm the complete opposite, because I've been working on long form content for online talks, so I've been doing a lot of online talks with various organisations. Mostly in the United States, but also in other countries too. This has been really intensive research and providing not an hour, but 90 minutes long talks. So if you don't want your hour talk I've got you for 90 minutes and the people have to listen to me for that long. It's been, I think, really useful about getting different audiences. It's very different from the short form that you both specialise in I guess one of the things I've been really thinking about and -again would love to speak to Tash about this later -is how to transform some of that incredibly long form content into the short form and really make the most of it and reach those other audiences.

Natasha Billson

Feel like I need my notebook. One moment.

Laura Fitzachary

Check. Get your nicest, get your nicest notebook ready for the camera? Yeah.

Lucy Jane Santos

I do have a nice one Yeah, the yellow notebook.

Laura Fitzachary

Some ohh that is a lovely notebook.

Lucy Jane Santos

So, Tash, it'd be really good to hear how you started off in the history business.

Natasha Billson

I have a background in commercial archaeology. As we mentioned before, and whilst there I was a commercial field archaeologist, I noticed that there was a gap in public communication. They’d only have certain events where commercial units will go and run these community events or they go and do a talk at a local place and that was it.

And I really wanted them to do social media posts and every single company I worked at, I used to hound and be like, look, can I please create this? Can I do this? Can we share some content?

So I had that sort of them. They didn't have the resources to do it.

I started making social media content as a way to engage with anyone and everyone that would listen. I was. I was hoping to find and reach people who might have heard about archaeology, but didn't know what it was and that's how my video started was Behind the Trowel. So once I had a full time job, I had Behind the Trowel as a platform.

Initially, the whole point of it was it was called Behind the Trowel – sifting out the dirt for researchers and their experiences, and the idea was to give them a platform to talk about what they did. In a free and accessible fun way. And that's where the interviews come along. Now the business aspect came along, really in 2022. So I've only been it's like literally been like a year now. I've put all my my eggs into this basket, and the idea is to help commercial units number one to to really engage with the public.

Because I have the skill set where I've been able to develop how to - to work on camera processes off camera, I've developed all those skills over the past. What's really since 2016, I've developed TV work skills and I want to help other archaeologists and historians do that, and that's how the business kind of came along.

It's from realising there was a gap in the market and we need to push for more online content.

Laura Fitzachary

Yes. So I think that actually like Natasha, you're perfect then for for being able to bridge that gap and working quite well then.

So any museum institutions listening or any historical landmarks or people who are working for those large institutions listening, that this is a big part of how you're going to transform who comes into your building. And of course, uh, a greater reach that audience. So the likes of Natasha and of course, we'll have all of her socials at the end so you can get in communication with her at the end of the episode.

Laura Fitzachary

Have you found any challenges from moving away from working with other people to setting up as a freelancer. 

Natasha Billson

Oh my goodness. So many challenges. Where to begin? I kind of made a few mistakes and I hope you whoever's listening to this and want to do the same thing don’t do what I did. 

So I created a limited company. I became VAT registered. But these are the two things you don't do when you become a freelancer.

But I was like, yeah, I'm establishing a company. VAT. But  there was another reason behind it. I was tendering for a project that was basically mine and I had to have these requirements. And then it fell through. So now I have a tonne of paperwork, extra bills to pay to the accountants for really no need at all.

You need to be VAT after you earn £80,000 a year, so don't do that if you want to be limited, be limited and yeah, don't do what I did. Don't do it.

Lucy Jane Santos

I mean, I suppose there is.

Natasha Billson

So do it.

Lucy Jane Santos

You know when you start a new business, you want to feel like you're legit. And one of the ways that you can make yourself feel like you're legit is registered for VAT. I mean, you know, that's a big bad business. But yeah, because it does come with with the cost, both monetary and time, in terms of paperwork.

Natasha Billson

I do have a large, you know, a large array of equipment that's in the studio and so we need it. And we did get the money back for that at least, but overall it's not worth it.  It's not worth it. What you have to do.

Lucy Jane Santos

Again, really great advice and I'm hoping everyone is really making notes on that one.

Natasha Billson

Yeah, I'm literally shaking my head. Everyone who's listening, I am shaking my head right now because I can't believe what I did.

Laura Fitzachary

We can definitely confirm that is happening, but I think it's really good though, to have those, to have that experience of, I suppose, of what not to do as well, which is the reason why we why we created this show in the first place was to kind of help anybody who is and I think that, we were also kind of wondering and I know Lucy, you're wondering, you know, always hear this conversation about the word audience like.

Who are you buying this video production to create these videos for? Like who is the audience? And we always hear that when if you're freelancing or if you're starting on creating an online presence or creating a freelance business that relies on having a strong online presence. But then does the audience or the need of having an audience dictate the authenticity of your content?

Natasha Billson

So when businesses have reached out for consultancy and they're like, you know, what do we do? The first thing I’ve them is: what is what are your outcomes for making social media? What do you want to gain? And generally they already have their target audience in mind and they have already what they want as a direct result of social media. So if you have a museum, they want you, probably to come to exhibition or to check out something that's going on with the museum.

If it's an archaeological company, they probably just they have to fill in the quota and and share about what's happening in, in a dig nearby. Which will also give them like a good presence online for SEO and search engine optimization.

People might hire them in the future. So that that will dictate the type of content you produce online.

Museums generally have a really wide target audience. They want anyone there to come along. If it's school half term, they want the school kids and the parents to see the content. 

Generally speaking, who's using social media? Hopefully not children under the age of 13. Especially if it's video versus like a blog post, I want to talk more about visual posts here, so photos, memes.

Oh my goodness memes are one of the best ways to market something. Humour is such a good way to teach individuals and spread something that you're doing.

It's like Starbucks, right? Starbucks purposely misspell people's names, so they share their photos online. That's that's publicising like that it's free marketing.

So when you think of. I think overall you have to keep the integrity of your brand. No matter what you do, so you can't let that jeopardise your authenticity when it comes to marketing your content to a certain target audience. It's very difficult to reach the target you want anyway on social media. Very difficult. You will see from the stats. When you're looking, actually, each particular social media app has their own analytics. You can use that. You can see the gender, the age, the location of where these individuals are.

You can't control that no matter what you do. Sometimes. You might have people that are in America watching content more than people in the UK, but your museums based in the UK. See. So it's very, very difficult to manipulate those results. So stay true to your brand, make content that you're happy with and you're proud of.

Laura Fitzachary

Oh, such fantastic tips because it's absolutely right. I think that that authenticity and that having your own voice kind of makes it evergreen. I've heard that word being knocked about a little bit, but almost like timeless so that your work is isn’t Or one one anniversary or one week of history, or one particular element that it's Evergreen that you know it can be listened to.

And with a digital footprint, you know, it's it's there's it's a level of permanence to it. It's not going through.

Natasha Billson

Exactly. It really is not going anywhere. It really is like digital legacies now are literally the legacies. Like you can't delete that once it's online, it's online.

Laura Fitzachary

Yep, that's it.

Lucy Jane Santos

So it sounds, I mean you've listed a few things there and I mean, as someone who's not very social minded in general, yet alone online. It feels quite exhausting all of these things that you have to do, so that was gonna be one of my thoughts here was: is it overwhelming? It sounds like it could potentially lead to being very overwhelming. Creating all of this content and creating it on such a regular basis as well.

Do you think? I mean, first of all, is it overwhelming? Is it as overwhelming as it sounds? But is there any tips? And do you think that scheduling for instance might be something that would would would help with this? I'm really looking for help myself here on this one.

Natasha Billson

It is overwhelming. It really is and that's where content plans come into effect. If you don't have a content plan, it's really difficult to to manage that with everything else you're doing.

So if we use an example of, you want to create a social media account for yourself a personal account, because with, with with museums, institutions, companies. It's bit different. They have someone hired to do that. So I think if we use an example of a personal level might be a bit easier. So let's say my accounts. I use my social media accounts as advertising of what I can do if someone hires me, right? Is this a nice example of what I could do for somebody else. That that could be them that I'm filming and editing. It doesn't to be my face. It could be anyone or I could be somewhere else. So I always have that in mind when I'm creating content but there comes a point where you need to gain the skills and create positive habits to help you get to the level where I am today. Where I can I can create a video on the day I can create a script or a rough guideline of what I would like to my video to be and then I can film it. I can edit, I can publish it all in one day. For most people, that would take them a week, which is fine. It can take them a month. That's OK. I've been doing it for a really long time, so I'm able to do that now. But to get to that stage, you must have a content plan now. A content plan can include everything from You know you can have one day for research. And one day for filming. One day for editing or two days for editing, and then one day to publish.

My cat is coming to the room sorry.

So you had this content plan and then you know that could be one week, one video, one week. That's a really good way to start. If you have a full time job and you only have one or two days off, say to yourself, ok, Saturday I'm going to try and research and film on the same day if possible. I have all day to do it. I can do this in my room. Especially now with TikTok style you have green screen style which means you don't actually have to go to the place to film and there are a lot of different apps online, you know, phone apps that are free to use. Constantly being developed.

What you can do is you can literally try by filming at home first, get the confidence of being on camera. This is really the first thing you need to do is get the confidence to be on camera. If you want to be on camera or practise your editing. Again there's lots of free resources online for video editing. Or you can pay for example Adobe or Final Cut Pro.

I personally use Adobe Premier Pro because yeah, I've used that forever, so that's what I use. But you can use Final Cut and there's other again free apps from your phone to do it.

You don't need a camera to do anything, just get a nice microphone.

But iPhones and the newest Samsungs – any of the new latest phones, they're they're really good. So if you set that as a challenge to, to give yourself one week to make a video. Decide how long you want it to be as well, that's really key. Do you want it to be short form or long form content? Social media is changing a lot now, so you have something .. the short form content is regarded as 60 seconds. And that's what I would recommend you do. If you wanna do short form. If it's a 60 second video, you can put, you can repurpose that one video onto YouTube shorts, Instagram reels, Facebook reels. You've got your TikTok. And you can even put on Twitter. And LinkedIn actually LinkedIn as well now is very good for posting videos. They're pushing video content, but it depends on your niche really.

So you can repurpose 60 seconds. However, there's a little bit more now with the algorithm. TikTok is pushing content that is over one minute long. But there's a way around that – you could create like a little outro scene. That's just a little bit longer so it's just there in the background as outro with your social media handles or the resources that you use to create that video.

And you can make it over one minute. It could be just over a minute and you can replace some TikTok and then they will push the algorithm and push your video a bit more. Also note that you can actually go up to 90 seconds on Instagram reels. And you can go, really, I think now it's up to 10 minutes on TikTok.

If you want to Instagram itself, you can post it for just like 45 minutes long, but don't it's not the place anymore to do that. YouTube is the place where long for the content now, but again that's horizontal form. If you want to do vertical stick to TikTok. TikTok is the social media platform. If you're starting out, that's the platform you should be looking at first and foremost, because its growing.

Laura Fitzachary

Insane. And it's great. It's, I suppose. What’s interesting about it,  and you just mentioned it there, that it's starting to kind of become a little bit of a competitor with YouTube like it's starting to elongate its videos and then there was that kind of question of well, you know you need a hook because really people’s… when they're when they're first watching something, not going to be interested if they see all it's 3-4 minutes long, they lose their attention span quite quick.

So this idea of having a very interesting hook will be able to reel them in - in order to get them to watch your longer video.

Do you think that like a hook is really necessary to open it quite quick -in terms of your videos, to make sure that you draw the audience in?

Natasha Billson

I mean the 1st three seconds are the most important part of the video, then it's up to 10 seconds. After the after they pass the 10 second mark, they probably want to continue listening or watching.

So really it's in those first few seconds that you really have to get their attention span, which is so difficult to do because you want to stay true to your brand and what your style you want.

Like now and then I'll throw something at the beginning, but I want to say true to myself, I'm not gonna. I don't like Tiktok style. I don't like that style. so I will just make my curated videos. I will go to the place and I will film and that's how I want to be perceived online because that's what I feel comfortable doing and I love doing it that way.

Other people, however, are happy -they can go straight to the shock value, you know, but you are right, it's  trying to create that hook. That's the only way you're going to get people to watch your content now and anything that happens on TikTok. That trend will then be followed through on Instagram and YouTube. It all is all from TikTok now, TikTok is is the centre of all social media.

And all other social media apps are copying it. Reels came from from TikTok. YouTube shorts came because of Tiktok.

It is continuously changing. The way we view content is made for mobile phone now, which Tiktok pushed. So now that all other social media platforms are becoming adaptable because of that.

Lucy Jane Santos

Is there one that is particularly suitable for historians or for historians who's trying to either get the message out there or the message about their own business out there if they're offering something to museums or visitor attractions, for instance.

Natasha Billson

If you're selling a product, TikTok is actually quite good now. They have some called TikTok Shop and TikTok is pushing TikTok. Shop. So if you have a product to sell, they are pushing for you to sell on their platform instead of eBay instead of Amazon.

So I literally had a survey yesterday asking me about about Tiktok Shop and I knew that they were pushing this already because I go to a lot of content creator conferences. I'm very fortunate to be amongst a lot of people who have like millions of followers, so they invite me to these things because they like my content.

They are always like Tash, man, you gotta change your style. I'm like no, don't want it. I don't wanna do it do.

It you know, I don't wanna have the shock value but. If I had the shock value or talked about aliens, you know how aliens or whatever, then of course my, the, the channel be much bigger.

So in terms of companies or people or freelancers, it depends what you are trying to sell. I would say people love reading on the screen, so you could be doing something whatever your task is. If you're creating a book, if you're creating cups, merchandise, whatever. If you're showing your day-to-day work, you're just at a computer or doing research or you're in the lab, all of this you can just record.

You delete the audio you put on a trending audio. Whatever is on that app, and you just right on the screen what you're doing, what your thoughts are, services you can offer. You can start like this. This is a TikTok style video which works very well. People are happy to just read not many people listen now.

By the way, this is another key thing. Most people are reading the videos before they actually tap on it.

Like, think about what you guys are doing on your phones. Are you actually listening or are you reading first if there's captions embedded in in the in the video?

For me, I am reading. So now I will tap on it if I'm interested.

Yeah, our brains have been rewired a lot, especially since TikTok since post COVID social media it it's  completely changed the way we get information, how we retain information. We're very short memory span now. So you want to be memorable and you want people to follow you. You need people to hit that follow button.

Yeah. You have your hook and you have your call to action and you wanna make sure that it's clear where they can contact you on your page.

Be repetitive with the type of content. Wherever you're selling, make sure you make videos about that all the time so people could then associate that with you.

And you want to show examples of what you can do for brands on your social media platforms.

Lucy Jane Santos

And do you specifically say that on so, would you specifically say, hey, I'm recording this to show you what I'm capable of or is it all sort of inferred from the context of it?

Natasha Billson

Inferred I would say. So you would add an ending like: Hi, 

I don't know if you've noticed people who literally do crafts. Individuals who do some sort of craft industry. They're always saying this is me and my small business. And it's a voiceover.

This is me doing this. My small business. This is me packing the boxes. I'm all by myself or this is a small team. We do everything in house. We using sustainable materials. They always mention in their videos. Just subconsciously you're thinking about them.

And remember like because of how short these videos have to be, sometimes you have to be repetitive in the video you gotta kind of put in a little subtle hints every so often.

So if you can find an association visually. Maybe even like some sort of audio that you always associate as well with your with your content. This will make people more likely to think of you first.

Laura Fitzachary

So it is being the person that people think of when they think that they need something, whether it's a soap or historical consultant or a researcher or some online presence management as well. It’s being that person.

Natasha Billson

The thing is, though, a lot of museums and other institutions, they're they're still not using social media. They're not looking at social media. They're looking at, you know, Facebook, Instagram and now museums are looking at TikTok and reaching out to influencers. 

But just because someone has 100,000 followers doesn't mean that if you pay them to do it to visit your site, it doesn't mean that just by them talking about where they are today doesn't mean they can actually get the museum or the institution is gonna get something out of it afterwards. 

There's no direct, you know, you don't have a guarantee, so sometimes you actually want to contact smaller, people who have a smaller following or loyal fan base, if that makes sense. So all you need is a 1000 good followers they say, yeah, that's all you need. But even 100 people, 100 people really believe in your stuff and supports it. That's all you really need to help your brand.

Your product flourish.

Laura Fitzachary

Absolutely. Because I think that what some of the museums and landmarks don't realise that there is networks being formed behind the scenes amongst these smaller creators. Like I've only been on the platform a couple of weeks and I'm already I'm into networks, two networks of amazing historians.

But I do agree, do you think the smaller creators have much more loyal fan base than the larger ones? So Yeah, on the on the money there. 

That's like many historians creating a branch of content that is correct, that it will hopefully in some way shape or form, slow down sophistry, I know that's a bit dramatic. But I was just going to refer to the likes of fans of maybe alien abduction shows and that kind of stuff of the ancient aliens.

And they're gaining thousands of views. Some of them have, you know, millions of followers. Do you think by banding together as smaller history creators that we can slow that down in some way?

Natasha Billson

Not necessarily slow it down because the reach that these TV shows have is like you have no idea. Like we have no idea how far and wide, that type of content reaches individuals and it's a fine example of when you have an individual who knows how to tell a story. And has a power with words and has a platform. What can they do? They can influence the masses.

This is also in politics. This is in anything, right?

But for archaeologists, historians, anyone in that sort of area that this may affect when it comes to their research, it's a fine example of what we need to do.

With the actual experience, functional background, academic background, etc.

How what we need to do, we need to be better. It's actually our fault that pseudoscience, pseudohistory is so big. it's our fault. Because our information is not accessible if it is accessible, it's really hard to understand. I don't have time to be Googling every other word because you decided to make something so ambiguous that I have no idea what you're talking about.

I mean, I read. I read, I gave up reading archaeological journals at one point. I'm like, I'm bored. One I'm bored. Two- I have no idea what you're talking about. You've written this paper for someone else in the same niche as you. Yeah, because everyone has a niche within a niche with a niche.

And and that's what we need to change and that's why social media is so important. As we said, we do need to band together or at least promote each other’s content. Share each other's content do things like this you know.

Do your podcast video casts, whatever. Try to dominate the search engines.

So that's what it is, right? Keywords are associated with the pseudo science platforms because have a larger reach, there's more content made about it.

So by us making more content that will compete with it, it won't slow it down, but it'll start competing with it and pushing the true facts or the facts that have been at least analysed by multiple sources. And there's a reason why you've come up with that theory is because of. X amount of facts.

Right, for those wondering why Graham Hancock is is to do it, it's it's to do with that theory should have facts behind it, at least enough substance to come up with this theory and then publicly talk about this theory. Which is why sometimes it takes so long for archaeologist historians to come out with something because of the process 5- 6-7 years of reviews and things like that.

Lucy Jane Santos

And sometimes the shock factor is just, I mean, I'm thinking about my own work, and so I'm writing about the history of nuclear energy at the moment and nuclear is a contentious word, isn't it?

I mean, it's see, I mean even I after 10 years of studying radioactivity, as soon as I hear the word nuclear, I picture a bomb in my head.

I'm I'm thinking it right now. And I found that with my own work. It's very difficult to get past the the big bad bomb, or the sexiness or the shock value or anything like that. The people who have those lean on.

It is easier to create content when you're shocking someone, I feel rather than when you're trying to gently educate them or gently nudge them down a down a route that you want to teach.

So yeah, I can see that that I can I it's  really something that at the moment that's really, really important to me. There's lots of people who are trying to educate about the history of nuclear and the the future of nuclear as well. But again, it's so hard to get past that idea of a disaster or a bomb.

Natasha Billson

That can be the hook, right? So visually or whatever you're saying, that's the first, you know, 3 to 10 seconds of your video, you know.

So when you think of nuclear you think of this [boom]. Atomic bomb. But actually, did you know nuclear does this and then it's like [bing]. And then it's like something completely different. And that's your hook. And then hopefully people will watch it.

Lucy Jane Santos

Yeah, I think.

Natasha Billson

That's just the way we have to you…

Laura Fitzachary

Know. Yeah. Have to kind of manipulate the hook in order to to to make it is. To sell your narrative.

Your narrative, and I think that would be a huge part then of your business plan, just to kind of bring it back to us working as all of us working as historical consultant, which is in some way shape or form just ensuring that the right information is given.

That kind of that honesty that, you know, every fact has a half life and that this research may change in the future with other discoveries. But for what we know right now and as you said I suppose giving value and giving importance to that process that that us as historians have gone through and that our fellow historians go through as well.

That it's not only just research, but the correct research that you're getting.

This is actually a question I got asked a lot at conferences. I suppose branching - creating that branch between the academic jargon that we know how to, how to decode, but that how to make that accessible to the public.

Lucy Jane Santos

Do you think part of that is networking anyway, because it is. You're setting up. Your alternative academics are, you know, they've, they've banded together and agreed that they are the right people to give this information.

So is it connecting with like minded people, whether they're academics or popular historians or whatever they are, but banding together with people and thinking, you know, we're gonna make this team, and we're gonna do this and. And by banding together, you're also legitimising as well you are the the strong one. Is that something that is important when we're thinking about online creation and content?

Natasha Billson

I think what people need to, especially those who are questioning the need for social media content. Whether you make content or not, there's already content out there around the subject so.

And these individuals are making content. They could be students. They may not have studied. They're interested in the in the subject, so they enthusiasts. They might be really into the subject or they just read one news article or one random thing popped up on their feed and they've made a whole video about it.

So it doesn't. People are overthinking it. We're not. We're not writing an academic journal that’s going to be peer reviewed, it's a video that's going to go online. And it can counter arguments that are placed online or it can educate. Or it can be something fun that introduce a nice fun snapshot into the life of someone -whatever the job may be. A little introduction to the subject.

It's really tricky because you are right, as both of you have said. Some people think, oh, I should make a video about this as well. As I said, they're already making it, so why not … nothing stopping you but yourself effectively?

And don't be afraid of the Internet. At least people I feel like this is what I think, and you can literally say I am an authoritative voice on this. Here's my all my journals that I've written.

You know, and they can be like, this is what I've done. I am an expert on this and that's how some people actually introduce themselves on TikTok, for example, we have Archaeodeath, Professor Howard Williams is professor of archaeology, and he starts off with videos with: Hi. This is professor of archaeology Howard Williams here. Today I'm going to talk about this.

That's how he always has an introduction. Every video he makes, nearly every video or he'll say something the hook.

Then he'll be like Professor ... I'm going to tell you why this is right or why this is wrong.

And so sometimes just doing that is enough and you know, you know how it's.

Even in the academic world we all don't agree with each other's theories or or how we do something. It's still better to do something right, especially online where we have a lot of issues with misinformation.

But yeah, if there was a group of individuals that was like - a collaborative page, where it's like.

There could be all the professors from one university that have one account and they talking about their various subjects in this account that could work … that could be cool.

The University of Cambridge are doing a lot now online. A lot.

You should have a look at their socials, actually. It's very very interesting since since the pandemic they've put a lot into socials and they stopped a little bit in 2022 and now they're they're pushing it again. They're like they're they're ones to watch. I think they'll be quite a good case study for other universities and other museums or any other sort of institutions. Look at Cambridge, guys.

Lucy Jane Santos

I suppose that all does lead us onto the thing about dealing with criticisms -whether they're legitimate or not, or whether they're personal.

I mean, how does that work online? Do you have any tips for dealing with those insensitive or just plain rude comments?

Natasha Billson

Mine are varied. It could be from a TV show. I've been because I've been. I've been in quite a number of TV shows, so we've ones where it could be. I'm one of many, so we have like a panel show where it's based in the studio. We have like 8 experts on an episode, I’ve done quite a lot of those.

Or it could be something on location, and again, I'm the featured expert explaining something or could be leading a show like the Great British Dig.

There's no real advice I can give. It's just you have to realise it's to be put online and they're online, so whatever they say, just remember you sometimes you know it could be anyone who's saying it and you can't let it affect you. Use it as positive motivation to do what you feel is right, and especially if you're making content that you know is you is well researched, you know that for a fact or you know you've used reliable sources and don't let someone's comments affect you.

If you have to block them, block them. If you have to mute their comments mute their comments. Yeah, but remember, negative comments are very good for the algorithm because the more negative comments... Generally people who have something negative to say are more likely to say something than someone has something positive to say online. So actually it's good to keep these comments and sometimes people who know exactly who you are, like in a personal level, they're a fan of you. They will support you in those situations and people being really horrible to you and it's good for the algorithm. It's good for your videos, your photos it actually will pump it up because the engagement is higher on that.

Lucy Jane Santos

So that’s a really good point…which I hadn't thought about in that context.

Natasha Billson

Yeah, with negative comments like …the thing is also it depends what you're talking about. So sometimes be prepared. And unfortunately, you know, we're all going to get slightly different type of comments all the time. Like I get a lot of racial slurs.

So I always get that so I know how to deal with it. I mean, I've had it in person, so if anyone who you know is not a bog standard, what someone thinks a historian looks like or whatever professional is and you listen to this, remember what you get online, it is nothing to really what you get in person, so just laugh at it like you just laugh at it because it means nothing like it's fine. And it's good because the algorithm.

Laura Fitzachary

In terms of how you give so much of yourself online in order to receive these comments, you know connexion to the audience is obviously a big part because you'll have your fans then coming in to help you.

But how do you balance maintaining a sense of privacy when you become .. when you create this online presence? Because if you're, you know, your page or your presence does blow up a little bit, then people want to know more and more and more about you is there…suppose we're talking now as if we're celebrities, but you know, is there a sense of kind of any, that sense of privacy is only so much that you give away to to the listeners, to the watchers?

Natasha Billson

You know, you just reminded me, so when the… I think we're in series two of the Great British Dig and another member of the presenting team was doing something for their university work so they happened to just like they had to Google the name to find something, and they couldn't bother to go through… I’ve used, they just give the name and the university. And when they did that, they noticed that there were these pages online that it's like sort of AI created I think it's called like primal information or something it was called.

And it's like created this page about people who have been on TV or been used and things like that. And then they sent one to me and then they were like, oh, let's just Google Natasha. And they sent like screenshots of what they what they had, what had come up, when they googled my name and it was like Tasha Billson -nationality, Natasha Billson married, and then Natasha Billson- ethnicity. That was the three things. Uh, then Natasha was -age. There were three or four things that came up.

Nothing else, not like archaeology. Anything like that. And then she sent me a page of like. All this stuff that had been collated, I guess through AI from all random, you know, LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, like everything and it's created this profile of me. Some of which was true, and I was like, what the hell? What is this?

Like this is crazy. I'm not gonna seen it since she said that to me. I don't wanna look it again like I just creeped me out a little bit. Said my husband's name. They said that I was from London. It said…Well, luckily I had my age wrong because I think online on one of them I had like, I put the year different, you know, don't want to put my real date of birth on my side. One of the social media platforms and all my social platforms have different age.

Uh, so one of them, I guess, is on public information. Don't know which ones, because obviously all social media sells our information for marketing, so there we go. Be careful what you put online anyway. So all this information was about me and I was like whoa. So, unfortunately, when it comes to social media. You gotta remember. Anyway, this some sort of AI technology, extracting information and creating these profiles about you whether you like it or not.

For me, I use social edia for I think of it as a work. But obviously TikTok is a prime example of how people who are watching TikTok, they want to know who that person is. They want to follow account where they see the person, who they are. So that's why all these really talk to camera pieces do so well. And you know, people who now do makeup tutorials. They're not just doing makeup tutorials, they're talking. They're telling a story about something that's happened in that day or their opinion on something.

And those videos do better, and they, as a result, get more followers and higher engagement rates on that post because they're showing themselves. You have to decide for yourself what you're comfortable with. For me personally I try to keep it with archaeology and history and, you know, travelling, but it's all linked in with historical and archaeological sites.

I try to keep all my content to that.

Lucy Jane Santos

I suppose there's some sort of follow-up question about decision creep. I don't know if that's the right expression, but you've made a decision when you start and then suddenly you're giving a little bit more of yourself away and you don't really realise that you're doing it and suddenly you're standing outside your house with your street name next to you and you haven't realised you've done it because it's just this…it becomes part of your everyday existence. And so I I sort of guess I had a follow-up question about controlling it, not getting over enthusiastic – keeping… you talked earlier about keeping on brand but keeping your brand privacy as well.

Natasha Billson

Definitely. So that's a prime example of …you can have a public account and a personal account. Remember that – right- you can have multiple accounts on each platform. One for the people you know and others for work purposes. I use social media in the sense of that's the work. I don't mind people seeing me with who I am. That's fine laughing, joking, making mistakes and if I mispronounce something in a video, I keep it in. I can't be bothered to edit that out. I like to film in one take. That's it. You know, if I make a mistake. I make a mistake. There you go. Sometimes the embedded captions will say something different. Now, I don't personally like to post where I am live in that moment. If I'm doing a live video, it's somewhere very, very public, like a museum or something. I will not go live. If I'm posting in my stories or TikTok and.

Think of this as TikTok actually. Actually, what people understand first is Instagram stories is like TikTok. That's how ready you have to be with TikTok and the sort of person, personable, you have to be on TikTok. If you are on Instagram stories, it's the best way to compare those two, so I don't post anything that would like with the registration plates or with anything that's too identifiable.

I just don't do that.

And I will not because it makes me feel uncomfortable with the idea of it. It's not like I have like a like millions of followers. You know, I don't have hundreds of thousands of people, but I don't like the idea of that being online.

Lucy Jane Santos

Just I guess, just to protect yourself as much as possible. You’ve already talked about how much information there is out there and how much people can glean from all the different profiles, all the different sites. You may not be sharing the same things on different sites that put them together and people can build up quite the picture, I guess.

Natasha Billson

If you're really worried about privacy? Yeah, you have to check your your videos or your photos whenever beforehand. Just check. Photoshop it, blur it out if you have to. There aer a lot of apps where you can do that for free now. But you have  constantly think about your safety when you're publishing anything online.

Unfortunately. But it was, you know, that's the the price you pay to to become public is you do have this potential of not having a private life as such.

But this was for people who are really successful. This is not gonna be for you know, for most of us.

In our sector. Yeah, it's highly unlikely we need to really think about these things as someone else who's like an actor. Yeah, right. Or even saying that though, I mean the more documentaries you do.

You never know. You never know.

Save yourself. Just save yourself the potential.

Lucy Jane Santos

And also the subjects you talk about, I mean I'm unlikely to be chased down talking about lipstick and things, but the more contentious topics you do, more things that expose a historic fallacy or something. You you, I guess, you never, never truly know.

Natasha Billson

It's very true. I remember I would love to talk more about decolonization or colonisation in general, but I guess I have the fear of how what I would take, what I say will be cut down and published somewhere else because you see that happen. Snippets are taken off people who make content online, and it's cut down and it's put into somewhere else. And the narrative has changed and it can come quite detrimental.

So it's it's very difficult.

And I always take my hats off to those individuals who can talk about certain subjects, and they're OK with the those type of possibilities. And they're putting themselves out there. Maybe they'll come a point where I feel more confident and happy to do it but you know, everyone has different, you know, baby steps.

Just remember that all very different and don't compare yourself to any other online or business owner. We all very different, different circumstances, et cetera.

Laura Fitzachary

Absolutely, absolutely great advice there. I suppose. Just really in terms then of having a big following or, I suppose, many followers to your page. If you have gotten online.

Have you ever? I don't know if you have tried to register for like TikTok creator funds or any kind of YouTube monetization has that ever been a source of income that you know of or that you take advantage of in terms of being online?

Natasha Billson

I personally don't make any money from the social media platforms. Now knowing people who do -I think there's one individual I know who has maybe about 150,000 followers on TikTok, and they get around $200.00 a month from TikTok from the Create Fund.

YouTube is a bit different. Most… Oh, but Tiktok is capped at 10,000 per month that you can get.

Now talking to other creators and other spheres, they say overall the best way to monetize is through brand deals. Not from the platform itself. Overall, YouTube has the best … is the still the best platform for making money because it's unlimited.

Of course it depends on your view, so your CPU and it depends on where the individuals who watch your content are.

Ending on that country equals X amount of money per view.

So bear that in mind.

But generally, advertisements for a product is where you're going to make your money versus the actual social media platform itself.

Laura Fitzachary

Sorry to bring it back to me.

Natasha Billson

And people can make a lot of money. No. But the thing is most…like I know people who make… let me think of the most oh, I know…people can make anything from $50.00 on YouTube to like…

I think one person they make maybe $200,000. But they have multiple channels. That's not from one channel that's from multiple channels, multiple channels.

Laura Fitzachary

So I think then just in a completely unrelated question to that then Tash is with being on social media and having an online presence, and of course being a very well known TV presenter, we've all watched you.

Which do you prefer filming? Would it be TV or filming online? And bonus question if you do prefer one or the other do you think that audiences consuming history is going in one direction there. Will online or digital history eventually supersede TV.

Natasha Billson

I just dropped the pen then… I was about to write notes.

OK. Anyway, OK. So, right, that's a really hard question.

So when you're filming for a production company, which is then going to be put on either a streaming platform, on a a network which is on TV or sometimes it goes from a network on TV to then on demand content.

When you're filming in those situations, it's very different to when you're making your own content. When you're filming as a presenter, or as a featured expert, you don't have control of the narrative. You don't have control of how it is edited. You could be talking for 45 minutes and one minute is mentioned and it's cut up or it could be 3 minute segment that's included in in their documentary.

So from that point of view, a lot of people don't like TV because they're like, oh, actually, what is going to make their edit and what's going to be cut.

You know what's going to be on the cutting floor is literally what we say. And when we're filming something, the Great British Dig is a prime example of this. That's a one week excavation. We're meeting a lot of people- the local community are involved. We're doing a lot of to camera pieces. We're there's a lot of active excavation that's been documented by the film makers.

How much of that actually makes the screen?

You could be filmed, you could be digging 5 trenches and only Three of those trenches will make the screen because it fits into the narrative in the amount of time they have to explain what's going on.

So again, a prime example. You have 5 trenches, they got different time periods, three of which have mediaeval, maybe 2, have a bit of Roman and mediaeval because of time. Let them focus on the on the mediaeval, because in a one hour show you gotta consider the adverts that's gonna. And you go consider that adverts and you're gonna have to consider every time we come back from an advert break.

For example, Channel 4, they have a format where they have to summarise what's happened before the advert break, so you're left from a 60 minute show to actually it's 47 minutes of content that you have to to highlight. To summarise a whole weeks worth of excavations. Going to have your introduction, you got to have your midway talk or your summarising everything's going on.

And you could have your conclusions in that episode. There's not a lot of time and we get accused, not accused, but we …the amount of debates we would go in with, with colleagues who are not in in the TV sector or who have not been on the show and they will say to us, why did you explain it that way? You know, why didn't you say this? Why don't you go into more detail? Natasha, I know you know what that is because I've worked with you on this site before and you were running that excavation.

And why on TV are you saying I think that is a fragment of Roman pottery. When I know you know it is. And so sometimes you have to understand that the role that you play is different to to real life.

A part of the role for the Great British Dig is to entice the viewer to to be inspired by the archaeology to be to be excited.

And then the voiceover will be explaining it in a little bit more detail then I will do a social media live stream with everyone involved to go into real depth.

In contrast, this is a very long answer… my apologies! In contrast, you have social media posts that you make for yourself. Where you can research the script. You can make the video, as long as you want it to be, you can film as many locations as you want. You can interview people if you want to interview them, you can make a beautiful cinematic shots, love landscapes, play some music, have some birds flying in the background and slow motion.

You want whatever you want you can have.

And that's because you have full control over it. If you want to edit it yourself, whatever you have complete control of how you want your content to be.

Now, with that said, will people… so I haven't actually given an answer to what I prefer because I honestly, I love both. I love both circumstances. I love working with a film crew and I love working by myself. I love being a part of the process. To research, to come up with the scripts or a plot and then to articulate that, to edit.

I love the whole process, which is actually why I started my company because I love doing it and I love interviewing other people, making them comfortable and then talk about whatever their subject is. And in contrast on TV, I'm the one that's on camera. Sometimes I get to do the research for the show. Sometimes I don't. It just depends on the TV show.

In general, I will always do my own research. Before I work on it but the production company, especially the ones where you're in a panel show they have a clear storyline. They have what we call them hits. They have their, their hits that they need for the story to work in their edit. For that whole episode. So you have to hit those lines effectively in whatever way you do, you can, you know, you might be reading a script. Some people read Teleprompter. Other people are able to to look on the paper. But OK, I'm gonna say this in my own words. Which I prefer to do. I'll ask them. OK, give me bullet points. Give me keywords that you want me to talk to mention, let's say the few words and then I will create a sentence with those keywords in it.

So yeah, I like both. It depends on the situation. Now for the public looking our social media is now, I do feel that social media is obviously being pushed more. Streaming services are pushed more, but there is still a need for platforms like Netflix and so on, Curiosity stream, etc. There's so many online platforms where people are putting their YouTube videos onto. They're like YouTube videos, YouTube, sort of documentary style videos are now on the streaming platform.

So I think there'll always still be a separation, especially now with content on your phones, on social media platforms being in vertical and on these streaming platforms are horizontal.

So I still think there'll be a separation. I'm not sure how long for.

But I mean, in the history of movie making, it's always been horizontal. They haven't changed anything, have they? I haven't heard of a movie that they've made in vertical yet. Who knows? Who knows? Maybe they'll be some filmmaker wanting to make a whole movie in vertical, and maybe that will change our perception of how we should make films in the future, but for now, at least for the next five years or so, I think we'll kind of be like this, but pushing more towards online social media, play online streaming platforms. I think content will go into those video on demand paid for services.

Laura Fitzachary

Something that probably if you want to try and I don't know, see you predict what's going to happen in terms of business is that digital history I think is emerging as its own field but will be solidified solidified as its own field. Because I don't think that online presence in social media is going anywhere. And as you said, tinkering with how TV, how productions, and even the quality of some of the of the online creations are almost. And that's kind of where I came up with the idea of that question for you, which was what will supersede because the quality of the content is almost just as good as what you will find sometimes now on TV sets. So, I think having a like a digital history field and having people who are experts in that field of how to create history, make it accessible, but also of the utmost quality that you're able to consume it on your phone via streaming service. You don't even need… You can plug it into the TV if you want. You can have it just in your hand and imagining what… How that's even going to develop how technology is going to develop in five years. And how our content and being historical consultant and online and digital historians will match that and develop with it.

I think that's. It's almost, uh, I think you mentioned AI there really briefly earlier on. And AI I think would be a huge.

Natasha Billson

It's already started. It's already it's. I mean, yeah, it's already started. It's just, it's not. It's not mainstream yet, but it will be in the next year. I think we're going to see a complete shift. So I think the cheaper and more accessible the actual resources are the materials, the equipment, the more we will see a shift. And as you said, like the more online, it will just be maybe a complete different sector, I kind of full already though there is an establishment of like public history public, you know, public historians, public archaeologists et cetera like they have degrees. I’ve seen people with PHD's and that already.

So but as you said, maybe like it'll be them who will do more of the stuff online. But then I feel like people want experts who've been researching a thing for like 50 years, they want them to talk about these things as well.

Laura Fitzachary

Yeah, I think there's a whole different branch like almost like a kind of digital researcher.I don't know if that's even that thing, but I'm trying to articulate the wording of what that little weird branch that we kind of fall into is called. Because we all have academic backgrounds. We all understand the importance of public history. Some of us even dabbled in it ourselves, and so what's that little that niche, that branch called? I think that would be that will that will what will formulate into it into its own business and become the future. And all of us having a role in that.

Lucy Jane Santos

So we're going to go on to the next section now, which is our business clinic and because of the theme of this episode today, it's going to be a business clinic for online presence.

And so we're gonna go to…Well, this is what I keep calling it - the mail bags.So we're gonna go from our first question.

Laura Fitzachary

First question on this particular sort of that we've gotten in today is…

Is there one piece of kit that I should be investing in above others or is it better just to get the best I can afford of everything 

Natasha Billson

Are they trying to make a video content? I'm assuming video content. All cameras now are great if you have a phone made in the last three years, I would say. Then just use your mobile phone. The camera quality is great. Even the audio quality should be good. But if you had to buy a few things, you can get a microphone. So first you want to get equipment. Once you have your equipment in place, you want to think about the content you want to make and create a content schedule and plan and think about how much time you want to dedicate.

Do you want it to be regular content or do you want it to be whenever you feel like it, which is going to be to to reach a certain amount of people, the audience will be greater.

So is all about engagement rates, unfortunately, just how it is. 

So create content plan, see what works for you. Start trying to make you know a video once a month, and then try to do it every fortnight.

Then try once a week and then - if you can- three times a week will be very good if you. Can get up to three times a week. Some people can make one daily.

Some creatives say it's quality, over quality. I would say it's quality over quantity. However, at the beginning when you're starting social media, you do need to push the algorithm and that is by creating or publishing as much content as possible. So sometimes if you're starting a new page, create a catalogue before you even launch, you can get the name of your account. Keep the name, hold it and prepare at least, you know, X amount of weeks worth of content so you don't feel overwhelmed because you will feel overwhelmed. You're gonna get burnt out if you don't manage your time accordingly. So think about all these steps and how it fits into your lifestyle. And then if you have need help, you can reach out if you want. If you have a particular niche and you know other creators who are also in that niche reach out to them. Most likely they're happy to have a conversation, have a chat, help you share your content on their pages, cause if its content that aligns with their platform, they're more likely to share it anyway. They might wanna do collaborations.

Honestly, it's all it takes is sliding into someone's DMS, you know, but like, hey, let's work together and they'll be like, alright, or they'll be like now I'm too busy. Fair enough. You tried. The worst thing someone can say is yes, not no. Because if someone says yes. OK, cool. I'm happy to to. To do that, let's do a podcast together. Then you actually have to do it.

You know, you know. Ohh damn it actually have to. I was hoping that, you know, the say no. Then I have an excuse to not do it, but.

You know, everyone online has been there going through the same thing, it's. Yeah, it's quite depleting. Sometimes is soul crushing doing social media, you know.

Laura Fitzachary

And then you're able to not just be stuck into a TikTok box. You’re also able to be on the TV and Instagram and YouTube and all of the other mediums and podcasts, of course.

Natasha Billson

And so yeah, it just it just depends what you what you want your outcome to be? That's what it really is. Is what's the outcome of social media? You want to be famous? Good luck. It's just really like out out there to to become an influencer like to go viral. Good luck. You know, it's the most random things that go viral. It's the shock factor or the most stupidest thing ever where you know you publish something like post something by accident. It could be your most viral video. Just.

Laura Fitzachary

And the one you put a week's work into gets like 200 views, but at least you're proud of it.

Natasha Billson

So yeah, exactly. And every platform is different, which is so bizarre as well. You could post … I post the same video across all social media platforms and on one platform will do really well. Like you know, get 10,000 views and all the rest will be like something else. Very low. It just each video is so different and I still haven't cracked. I haven't cracked the code. I don't know why one video does really well on one platform and not on the others, it's just… Yeah, the mystery.

Laura Fitzachary

A mystery. Maybe there is no code and I think then, well, we do have another question, but I think it might relate to that, don't we from other person from the mailbag?

Lucy Jane Santos

Yeah. And so we did have another question about consistency in posting and it was really about whether you had any tips and the … the query here is whether it's best to batch content or whether or just really how to keep up the momentum as well, I think that looking at the question again, I think the momentum is something that they're really thinking about here.

Natasha Billson

When it comes to batch content creating content, you should do in batches. That's really good, you know, say it you know, today's a day I'm going to film or I'm going to edit, etcetera, X amount of content and that will set me up for the week or for the next two weeks or three weeks.

But that all comes down to your content plan. How many times a week do you want to post.

And it depends on the platform you are posting on. Instagram is very different to TikTok. TikTok still goes by those three to five videos a day.

Sometimes they say, Oh no, do one video a day.

Instagram is different. Once a day, three times a week, five times a week is fine.

YouTube you can get away with YouTube, once a month, you can literally like once a month I put this video out and people are happy with. That's what they expect.

So each platform is very different. Go by your schedule and batch like … you should have a catalogue. So you batch everything I film in one day X amount of videos I was in London the other day, I think…I filmed without even trying. I filmed 15 videos.

Yeah. Now editing them is a different story. But I filmed 15 videos in one day.

And then from that I'll be able to now edit and and schedule them out. And it's actually one of my things to do this week. I need to schedule. 

So you have to do the same thing. Remember your content has to provide value. Has to be shareable and you have to be consistent in order for the first two to even be real to to make an impact on someone, you need to be consistent with your posts.

Decide once a week. That's fine because you're happy and that's what matters. Your mental health is more important than the algorithm. People will find your content when they find it. As we said earlier, digital legacy, it'll always be there, be proud of the content you put out there. Ignore the trends. Don't jump on the TikTok trends, it's so depleting. When you see every other person get thousands of followers and you get like 10 views and you put just as well even more work than the people who are joining that TikTok trend.

You know, just try and ignore the trends. That's what I'm telling myself. As you can hear from my voice, very frustrated!

Natasha Billson

That's great advice, and it does sound like you will need to take that advice as well, doesn't it?

Lucy Jane Santos

And so I think there's definitely a role for the business of an of a digital creator and a digital historian, consultant online, you know, definitely, you know, whether that is anything from Twitter, TikTok, Instagram, even Facebook, the role of the historian is not only the, you know, present online but needed in the murky waters of social media, you might.

Natasha Billson

Say you know, I'm just going to say if you have the resources you can always get a freelancer to edit your videos.

You know, hire me.

Yeah, you can hire me to do it. But there are so many people out there who do that. That's their job, they're doing this full time.

So think about that as well.

Laura Fitzachary

Of course, as we mentioned at the very start, we will be posting all of all the ways you can get in touch with Tash at the very end of the episode.

Laura Fitzachary

Before we let you go, we always ask our guests if you could choose a dream remote office where and when would it be?

Natasha Billson

How about in the future! My office will have like all these like screens and like virtual reality like screens that I could just be like I want to go to Tudor England and Tap. boom and then like it AI will create myself an outfit so I will be there and I will look like I'm in the Tudor period. So I'm going in the future.

Laura Fitzachary

Love. Brilliant. Amazing because.

Natasha Billson

Because Robots and AI technology will make me like I'm in that time period. Let's make a video about it.

Laura Fitzachary

Brilliant. Ohh, that's it. That is a dream, isn't it?

Absolutely amazing. 

It's a good one. It's a good question. That was Lucy, all Lucy. And it was amazing.

Laura Fitzachary

Thank you very, very much to our wonderful guest, Tash and you can find her on….

YouTube: @ BehindTheTrowel

IG: @ tash_archeo

Twitter: @Tash_Archeo 

Natasha Billson

Yeah. And if anyone watching this podcast who has any questions, it's to do with your personal social media accounts and your like an archaeologist or historian and you just want ask some questions. You can e-mail me at behindthetrowel@gmail.com

 If you want to hire me. e-mail me at natasha@heritagemedia.uk or at least discuss the possibilities, consultancy, video production etc.

I am all ears.

Laura Fitzachary

And as for us, you can find us on Twitter @HistBizAGuide

And for me, Laura, you can find me on 

Twitter: & @laurafitzach

Instagram:   @seekthehistoric

Tik Tok: @seekthehistoric

And of course, for Lucy, 

Twitter: @lucyjanesantos_ 

Instagram: @lucyjanesantos_   

YouTube: @lucyjanesantos_

Well, thank you so much Natasha, for joining us today for our online presence episode. You have been fantastic. So many tips and lots for everyone to think about. There. We will see you on the next episode.