Hey everyone, Dana here!
I have had this video topic on my “would like to film” list for a pretty long time,
and recently I saw a video from fellow YouTuber and fellow American living abroad,
Patricia B in France, where she talked about being a YouTuber in France versus the U.S. and I
was like, fine.
I have had this video idea on my list for a while, I’m doing it now.
And I was like oooh! this is such an interesting topic, I would love to hear about other people’s experiences.
So I’ve also reached out to a bunch of other YouTubers living in different places around
the world, and I’ve asked them if they’d like to make a video about their experiences
and the differences they’ve noticed filming or being a YouTuber in different countries.
Some of the YouTubers who have already said they’d like to make a video and take part
in this include Sonnie from Sonnie Travels, Andrea from Andrea Heckler, Lena from Lenaturnsgreen,
Patricia who I mentioned before, she also plans to upload a video on the topic to her
French language channel, Kathi from Käthes Reise will be talking about it on Instagram
I believe. Maybe hopefully more!
You can find some links down in the description box below.
I, and yeah... Look for the hashtag Vlog Around The World.
I can't wait to see these other videos.
The first YouTuber and/or filming difference that I’d like to mention for this video
is filming with other people.
I’ve done a few video collaborations with Cari and Janusz over on the Easy German YouTube
channel where we go out on the street and we interview people in German, and I’ve gotta say,
it can sometimes be a bit of a challenge to get people to talk to you on camera here
in Germany.
So yeah, the first one is: I’ve noticed that people in Germany in general just aren’t
as interested in being on camera as Americans generally are.
In fact, I would go so far as to say the feelings are often on the total opposite ends of the spectrum.
In the U.S., if you turn on a camera, it’s often like a people magnet, an American magnet.
In the U.S. people will often run towards the camera.
Oh! Oh! There’s someone filming, let’s go check it out, maybe I can be on camera.
Many Americans love being on camera.
It was absolutely no problem for me to get my parents in some videos with me.
And in fact when I started filming more in 2014 my dad was asking like,
can I be in a video, can I be in the video? Whereas in Germany...nah.
In Germany people are often much more wary about being on camera.
Why are you filming? What are you filming?
Instead of: Why are you filming? What are you filming?
Next up: bureaucracy.
I’m guessing you’re probably not really all that surprised to hear that there’s
a lot of bureaucracy surrounding being a YouTuber here in Germany, lots of red tape.
Now, I’m not a lawyer, so if you’re looking for legal advice on this topic, do not get
it from this video, go to a lawyer. Not a lawyer.
Just to name a bit of the red tape here in Germany: there's the Impressumspflicht, which requires,
among other things, for you make your business address publicly available.
You have to have a Gewerbe License, a commercial license.
If you do live streams on a regular schedule, then possibly a broadcasting license could
be required, which could possibly come with a pretty big fee.
Especially when Stefan and I first started making videos on a regular basis here in Germany,
it really felt to me like every time I blinked there was a another bit of bureaucracy or
another rule that we needed to figure out, another red tape hoop to jump through.
And this brings me to Werbung.
In Germany there’s also the whole Werbung thing.
Again, not a lawyer, so don’t get your Werbung information from this video, go talk to your Landesmedienanstalt.
Maybe you’ve noticed it, YouTubers in Germany like me writing Werbung on videos, Instagram, Facebook.
Okay, so first I think it really has to be said, I do respect the thought process and
reasoning behind this.
I think it’s definitely important to have transparency in advertising. One hundred percent.
I definitely do not think it’s good if someone is like, oooh this yogurt tastes delicious,
but they were paid to say that and nobody knows that they were paid.
So yeah, transparency is important.
But I think as it is right now with writing the word Werbung or Anzeige on all different
kinds of posts, it’s not really creating transparency, it’s just creating confusion.
For the purpose of this video, let’s talk about a nice little chart made available on
the website of the Landesmedienanstalt Nordrhein Westfalen.
I’ll link to it down in the description box below so you can check it out there if
you’d like to.
This chart gives a pretty great detailed breakdown of when Werbung should be written on social media.
It has a few different sections for when you definitely have to write Werbung, which for
example include in the chart, if you got paid actual money for the post or the
mention, if you got something for free or cheaper for posting or mentioning about it,
affiliate links, discount codes. As far as I'm concerned, that’s all pretty clear.
But then there are a few sections in the chart where it starts to get a little unclear for me.
For example the section in the chart on posting or mentioning on social media, among other
things, about like a product, a brand, a region, a freaking region even, like Berlin or the
east coast of the United States, an event.
The chart says if you mention or post about these things on social media, you know, just
because you feel like it, nobody paid you or asked you to talk about it, you just wanted
to post about it, so you did, you don’t have to write Werbung.
Unless, unless, specifies the chart, “zu positive Darstellung.”
In English I guess that would be, like, too positive of a presentation.
If it’s “too positive of a presentation” then you would have to write Werbung, even
if you weren’t paid or asked to make the post.
But there’s no explanation on the chart for what that means. Too positive of a presentation.
I don’t know.
I’m American, I always talk about things in a really positive way, so what does that
mean for me.
This oh watch out too positive of a presentation also shows up again in the chart when talking
about one’s own products or linking to them, or linking or tagging your friends.
Usually says the chart, no Werbung necessary...unless zu positive Darstellung, too positive of a
presentation.
And yeah, because I’m an American and I often talk quite positively about things a
lot of the time, you’ll often see Werbung even if I didn’t get paid or asked to post
about something.
For example, when talking about my book.
You see, Werbung up there now because I’m not just going to say that my book is good. Pfff, that would be boring.
I’m going to say that I think my book is amazing. Hilarious. Super duper funny.
It's my personal opinion that this book is the best book...dare I say it?...ever.
Because I’m a super duper expressive person.
For me, American Dana, good is great, great is fantastic, and fantastic is the best one ever.
So Werbung. Or Werbung. Whichever side I put it on.
I’m not saying that I’m not grateful for this information, this chart.
I am.
I’m definitely grateful for the information the Landesmedienanstalt Nordrhein Westfalen
has put online, because some Landesmedienanstalten have really uninformative and quite confusing
websites.
Bavaria I’m looking at you, please update your website design.
Or even better, please Germany in general, update the rules for the world of social media.
Because transparency in advertising is really important.
But writing Werbung or Anzeige on all sorts of different things, I think it's just leading
to confusion.
Oh, and quick disclaimer here: this is not a Werbung for the Landesmedienanstalt of Nordrhein
Westfalen or for the region of Nordrhein Westfalen in general.
Nobody paid me or asked me to talk about this, and I don’t think that I gave too positive
of a presentation either.
I would say that I was relatively neutral in my presentation, so not a Werbung.
Another YouTube difference between Germany and the U.S. has to do with money.
In the U.S. advertising is more popular in general.
Companies in the U.S. are willing to pay more for ads in general than companies in Germany are.
What does this mean for YouTubers?
It means that views coming from the U.S. have the potential to earn YouTubers more revenue
than views coming from Germany or any other country that spends less on the ads in front,
during or after YouTube videos.
So to summarize, in Germany there are way more rules for starting and having a YouTube
channel, people are more cautious about being on camera or they don't want to be on camera
at all, there's the confusing Werbung rules, and you earn less money from the ads playing
on the video. Yay. I still love you Germany and I wouldn’t want to have it any other way.
So my question for you is: what differences have you noticed between YouTube in general,
being a YouTuber, filming in Germany, the U.S. or any other country in the world?
Please let me know in the comments below.
Thanks so much for watching and a huge shout-out and thank you so much to everyone who is taking
part in the vlog around the world videos.
I cannot wait to hear about the different experiences with filming and being a YouTuber
in different countries around the world.
If you want to make a video on this topic, don't forget to use the hashtag #VlogAroundTheWorld.
You can also follow me on Instagram down there.
My Instagram stories are in Denglish-German.
And I guess that's it. Until next time, auf Wiedersehen!