Here’s 7 tips for growing your YouTube channel. Scroll down to watch the video as well.
- Content for the People
- Recurring Content
- Brand Matters
- Be Social – Say Hi
- Optimize For Search
- Look at Successful YouTubers
- Encourage and Reward Engagement
Let’s get into it!
1) Content for the People
Consistency like Money Ball – Don’t swing for the fences, trying to hit home runs, just get on base. The on-base percentage being high is like having consistent content. Building content for your audience is really important. Content for the people, not for the views.
It takes more time, but nothing that happens overnight will last. Make the effort to build a channel like a Catalog of content, your subscribers should have the opportunity to “get more of you” because of the depth of your content. Don’t let them run out of great videos to watch.
2) Recurring Content
While the schedule of what you produce is important for consistency, having a strong rotation of mini features is important. Recurring characters or gags is something people look forward to and may just watch for. YouTuber Lily Singh does a great job with her “parents reaction” videos that are constantly being asked for in comments. She dresses up as her parents and reviews things that are obviously a culture gap between millennials and their parents.
Jimmy Fallon has done an awesome job with this on The Tonight Show. Our favs are the Thank You Notes on Fridays. You can see on the Tonight Show Channel that each of these recurring segments has its own playlist. Casey Neistat‘s Q&A on Tuesdays gives a regularly scheduled time for audience interaction (in front of his massive audience). He also has a cool intro to the Q&A… but has gotten rid of the Mail Time intro (thoughts? feedback?).
3) Branding Matters
Building a brand is so much more than just a logo (or brand mark). Everything you produce is part of your brand. Keep as much as possible in line; the way you talk, story lines, text choice, topics, etc., a viewer should recognize any one of your videos after watching a few seconds. They will recognize your style. As I’m developing my style, I’m realizing that some of what I like to watch doesn’t fit with my brand, or I’m not technically able to pull it off. Stick to your own brand. It will develop over time and stay authentic if you keep being your true self.
4) Be Social – Say Hi
YouTube is social. Too many people forget that YouTube is a social network. The messaging system between users is a prime example of how there is so much more than just video. Be willing to engage. Take the initiative to create more than just a video with an audience; build a community. It starts by saying hi.
5) Optimize for Search
Your video should be timeless content; it doesn’t expire like the news, and you still have relevant information that can be enjoyed in the future. This is Timeless content. Long-tail SEO totally applies to your videos as well. You would like your videos to gain traction over time, as it takes time for search engines to recognize your content and see how it fits with relevant search terms.
Do everything you can to write out what’s relevant about your video while staying concise. This blog post is a good example of that. All of this could have been in the description of the video (technically), but that would be a waste. Stick to a short and accurate, concise description that matches the video content and the tags you add. You are going for quality score; people who find your video get what you’re promoting with the title and description. That is, after all, the reason they clicked to view it.
6) Look at successful YouTubers
The attraction of fans to successful YouTube channels is a combination of the 5 tips above. There are a couple of things they all do in their videos. These things are the “nuts & bolts” or tactics you can incorporate into your videos.
- Grab attention in the first 3 – 5 seconds… long introductions have never worked. Be polite, don’t make your audience wait for content (they have probably just watched a commercial anyway)
- Go back and watch your favorite videos again. Look at some of the things they do. The type of camera shots, locations they shoot at, how they set up their camera (to catch the best angle of your face), etc.
- Do what’s in your skill set. It’s more important to keep making videos and practicing than trying to refine or develop a skill and avoid publishing.
- There is so much magic about daily videos. Every channel has increased subscribers after changing their publishing to be every single day. No exceptions.
7) Encourage and Reward Engagement
At first, I thought this was only for big-time YouTubers. But then this Ingrid Nilson video reminded me that shoutouts and interaction are priceless! Casey Neistat’s mail time is a great example. The shoutout that people (and companies) get is also priceless. Gaining the exposure is super awesome, AND it’s extra content for your channel.
Summary
To wrap up, I wanted to encourage you to make great videos from start to finish. Work on keeping people engaged until the last second. Part of YouTube’s rankings is based on view time. Both total time and percentage complete. Everything Google does is based on the quality of experience that the user gets. For video, it’s enjoying every last second of the content you produce.