YouTube, it goes without saying, is very, very big. According to Similarweb.com, YouTube.com is the second most visited site in the US and globally, and most visited for arts and culture.
We’ve all seen the Logan Pauls or PewDiePies of the world rise to success on YouTube and we often equate it to some sort of mystical talent, a random act of the Google Gods.
But, like any social platform, which YouTube is, there are algorithms to understand, and once we understand it, we can use that knowledge. And it all centre around engagement and retention. Clickbaity still exists, but YouTube wants to suppress it and push good content; they rationalise good content to mean content with good watch time. Partnership is now based on these metrics; 4000 watch hours, and 1000 subscribers.
Check out down below for 7 top tips on how to achieve fame and power with nothing but a webcam and maybe some basic photshop skills.
- Establish your brand, and stick to it.
Before you begin, you have to know where you’re going. YouTube rewards content producers who produce similar content, because you become easy to sort. This is especially true for niche content. So, there’s nothing wrong with your fishing rod review channel, but if you’re going to be a fishing rod review channel, be one. Your subscribers will know what to expect, and as an added bonus YouTube will favour your content in search and recommended, since it knows what it’s recommending.
Consistent branding, especially at the beginning, is crucial for visibility, but also retention. This generally extends to all branding; be consistent with subject and style, to begin with. And be consistent with upload times; upload similar content regularly and you get indexed by YouTube better. Make it of a high standard, obviously, you want people to stick around. Always know the elevator pitch of your channel; if you don’t, your subscribers won’t, and that doesn’t drive engagement.
- Get creative with your thumbnails
YouTube has reported that 90% of the top 100 videos use custom thunbnails. It stands to reason; it’s the first thing viewers see, so make it eye catching. But remember; YouTube tracks watch time and retention. If your thumbnail is eye catching but irrelevant, viewers will click off and drive down your retention. So make it eye catching whilst still being relevant to the video. YouTube also tracks impressions versus plays; it will be interpreted as not worth promoting algorithmically if people see your thumbnail, watch it in the thumbnail, and dont watch the video that’s another pitfall. Make your thumbnail relevant, but enticing.
- Bare in mind your SEO
YouTube is still a search engine after all, so in all text elements bare this in mind. Know what your video is about, and highlight that effectively in your description, but also your script and captions if you can manage it. Anything that helps your video index better. They take into account SEO in every element of the text of your video, so give yourself that leg up by making sure you don’t forget it.
- Use your analytics
YouTube offers you free and extensive analytics suite in the creator studio. It’s incredibly useful. See when specifically viewers are clicking off, and think about why that might be. See where your main viewerbase comes from; which social platforms your strategy works best in; whether your content is being organically boosted and searched or not. The analytical gives you so much incredibly useful data, and more fool you if you dont take advantage.
- Foster a community
Why do people use any social platform? To socialise. Build a community around your brand, and then encourage it’s growth. Invite discussion, and make people feel emotionally invested in your content, to a certain extent. That drives social shares, and ensures your viewerbase remains relatively consistent, both of which feed back in to algorithm. This is why YouTube call their fanbase things; Logang, Paulers, Greg etc. It’s to drive this sense of community that pushed engagement and sharing.
- Utilise the call-to-action
A simple but effective one. The whole “Like, Comment and Subscribe” thing often gets made fun of, but it works. So long as it doesn’t seem inauthentic, a call to discuss, or a call to engage can worm really well to help engagement. Maybe a viewer wouldn’t think to comment unless invited, for instance. Ask for engagement without asking; invite your userbase to engage.
- Nothing wrong with a bit of self promotion.
Feeding into the community point, engage with communities that are built your area, and leverage that into more views. Because they are already invested in the area of interest, and because you might be a member of said community, people will be inclined to stock around. Subreddits, Slack and Discord chats, Facebook groups, even Twitter lists. These are amazing opportunities to push your content right away and hopefully kickstart your views, and it should, hopefully snowball from there. But act quickly; “freshness” a metric of how recently something has been published means there is a golden window for long term engagement. Generally, the quicker you rise, the longer you can expect to stay high in watch time.
Those are just some basic tips to help push your YouTube channel to new heights! Sure, you’re still fighting uphill, but you’ll stand a chance with these tools.
For more tips and tricks to bolster your social profile (on a similarly visual medium) check out this article on Instagram’s algorithm!