The Journey to an Engaged Audience
Building an engaged audience on YouTube isn’t exactly as simple as uploading a few videos and watching your subscriber count instantly climb into the millions. If it was, you wouldn’t be reading this eBook right now.
Building that audience is actually more like an elusive journey to a prized destination. Different people take different paths to get there with unique twists and turns along the way. Sometimes the journey is grueling, difficult, and frustrating. And, honestly, some people never make it. Although they may persist for years, the path they follow does not ultimately lead to their destination, so they travel in circles, beating the same broken path over and over again.
While no one can give you an exact map that will replicate a successful arrival at your destination every time, in this ebook I hope to give you the tools you need to begin creating your own map.
I’ll help you define your destination, develop a strategic path that will lead you there, and point you to resources that will help you navigate the territory through which you travel: this land of YouTube.
So let’s get started.
Building an engaged audience on YouTube isn’t exactly as simple as uploading a few videos and watching your subscriber count instantly climb into the millions. If it was, you wouldn’t be reading this eBook right now.
Building that audience is actually more like an elusive journey to a prized destination. Different people take different paths to get there with unique twists and turns along the way. Sometimes the journey is grueling, difficult, and frustrating. And, honestly, some people never make it. Although they may persist for years, the path they follow does not ultimately lead to their destination, so they travel in circles, beating the same broken path over and over again.
While no one can give you an exact map that will replicate a successful arrival at your destination every time, in this ebook I hope to give you the tools you need to begin creating your own map.
I’ll help you define your destination, develop a strategic path that will lead you there, and point you to resources that will help you navigate the territory through which you travel: this land of YouTube.
So let’s get started.
The Territory In 2006 When I got started with online video in 2006, very few people were thinking intentionally about what they were doing with online video. There were no goals or objectives other then to have fun. No money was exchanging hands, no one was competing for views, and "subscribing" wasn't even a thing yet. Online video was a hobby motivated solely by personal satisfaction.
Back then, if you were a video creator, usually you shared your videos only with family members and friends, often by emailing them a link because, at that time, who else would watch your videos? And even if you had a video that might have wider appeal, few people really wanted it to spread too far. At that time you still didn't even use your real name on the Internet for fear of being kidnapped by creepers and sold on the streets of some lawless country. The Territory Today But now all that has changed. Today video creators have to fight for years just to get a few seconds of attention.
The web is saturated with a few day's worth of video content being uploaded every minute. This abundance of content is causing viewers to now ask different questions about your content than they asked several years ago. Now viewers are asking questions like: ■ Why should I watch this video? ■ Is this video worth my time? ■ Why should I care about the person in this video? You Need a Path Gone are the days of just casually making videos with no clear plan. That worked just fine in the beginning, but not anymore. Now people approach your content with more questions, expectations, and skepticism than ever before. It's common for new viewers to only give you a few seconds to address those questions in their mind before they move on to someone else’s video.
Unfortunately, if they leave your video with an unfavorable opinion, you rarely get another opportunity to change their mind. With all the competition for eyeballs, they have plenty of other content to keep them busy for the next several years. There’s no need to give you a second chance.
You need to have a plan for the kind of viewers you want to attract, how to attract them, and why they should convert into engaged subscribers. Without a clear strategy, your video content will continue to accomplish nothing at all at a record pace. Why a Path? Cutting through all the noise very rarely happens accidentally anymore. Combine a plan with dedication, hard work, time, and persistence, and it's the only proven way of building an audience online. You can go for the one in a million shot of having a viral video, but even that usually doesn't get you as far as the former qualities will. Most of the popular YouTubers never had a viral hit that propelled them to fame, stardom, and riches. It was slow growth over time. Thankfully, unlike a viral video, a path is the only thing you can really control. What is a Strategic Path? A strategic path is basically a video strategy. It’s a plan that helps you accomplish what it is you're hoping to achieve with your online video efforts.
Think of your path on a treasure map. Right now you're at sea, but where you really want to be is on an island digging at a spot marked with big red X. Unfortunately, your map is missing the dotted line that leads you to that X, so you have to make one. That dotted line is the role your video strategy plays.
What might your big red X be? It could be almost anything really. ■ To build an audience. ■ Drive traffic to your website. ■ Increase product sales. ■ Establish yourself as a thought leader in your industry. ■ Raise awareness about a cause or charity. ■ To entertain. ■ Teach and educate people. How To Blaze that Path It's impossible for someone to come to you and honestly say, "You want to make money from online videos? Well, here's how you do it!" They might have some tips and ideas or even a pre-packaged strategy for you, but no cookie cutter approach will ever work as well as the one you develop yourself.
Why? Because when you invest into the process of creating a strategy, you take ownership of it. It's your baby. It's personal. It energizes you. It drives you. When aspects of the strategy seem like they're not working, you know how to fix it. And when you start to see the results pay off, your excitement level rivals that of a shovel clinking against a buried treasure chest.
Expectations for your Path Instead of me telling you what your strategic video path should be, I want to ask you a series of questions that will help you develop a strategy that's personal just for you and your destination. The video strategy you develop as a result of this should be so specific for you that it fits like a hand in a glove.
A couple notes before we dive into this, though.
First, don't rush through this process. It's not a race. There’s no stopwatch pushing you through this eBook. The longer and deeper you think through the upcoming questions, the better your strategy will be. If you take your time, you'll have a clearer map and will understand the path to your destination much more clearly. Don't just skim through some of these questions and think to yourself, "Oh yeah, I see what he's doing here," and move on. That will do nothing more than waste your time.
Second, don't expect to nail down your strategic path your first time through it. Personally, I don't think I've even completely nailed down my own strategy. It's always shifting as I learn more, have new experiences, and discover things along the way. To further complicate it, there will always be changes and developments to YouTube that will require that you alter your path, as well, just as unexpected obstacles force treasure seekers to alter their course.
Think of this dotted path on your map as an adventure. Embrace the journey even if it means changing course a few times. Usually those course changes turn out for the better when they're intentional and rooted in the lessons you're learning. That's why it's important to understand the process of blazing a strategic path instead of just adopting someone else's cookie cutter strategy and “how to” tips. While those are valuable, if you understand the process, you can easily modify it as you grow and as the territory changes.
Third, if you get to the end of this and don't feel like you have a strategic path that is clear and focused, that's ok. Start moving in the direction that makes the most sense based on what you do understand. Your vision for the future will often become clearer as you move forward.
6 Steps to Mapping Your Path
There’s no magic formula to mapping your path. I’ll attempt to give you some questions that will help set you in the right direction, but give yourself the freedom to solidify a lot of this as you move forward. Step 1: Identify the X Start by thinking about the destination of where you want to be if your video efforts are successful. What defines “success” for you? What’s the X on your map?
It’s important to have a clear idea of where the destination is before you can map out a path to get there.
Some examples of X might be: ■ To become a stand-up comic on Comedy Central. ■ To raise awareness about my non-profit organization. ■ To land a record deal for my band. ■ To have my own clothing line for sale in New York City. ■ To teach people how to better care for their dogs. ■ To give hope to those who are struggling with depression. ■ To direct my own film for a major motion picture studio in Hollywood. There really is no right or wrong destination here.
However, I would encourage you not to think of success in terms of metrics. For example, an X of, “Getting 1 million subscribers on YouTube,” “Making an income of $100,000 per year,” or, “Tripling the sales of my product,” isn’t really a destination as much as it is a symptom. It’s a reflection of how well you’re accomplishing step five, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves. ■ What’s your vision for where you want to go with your YouTube channel? ■ What do you want to happen as a result of your efforts on YouTube? ■ Thinking of success outside of metrics, what is “success” for your channel? Use this space to write down as many answers as you can to those questions. Seriously, get them all out.
Step 2: Why Do You Want X? Be Honest with Yourself This might sound weird at first, but after you’ve determined what you want to accomplish, it’s important to know why you want it. Being honest about your motives will influence each of the following phases in very fundamental ways.
The combination of what (of step one) and why (of step two) is what will make you unique and help you stand out in the crowded YouTube world. When both the what and why are communicated together in your videos, it becomes a powerful attraction for viewers.
Most people have never identified why they do certain things or why they invest their energy the way they do. So when a random viewer sees someone (like you!) who knows why they do what they do and can clearly see the bigger vision behind it, that’s compelling, even inspiring. Even people who otherwise would never be interested in what you do on your YouTube channel are now intrigued. An Example of X I have been posting family vlogs on my family’s YouTube channel at YouTube.com/godrox since 2006. It started back when my wife and I were dating, continued through our engagement, marriage, kids, and now, as of this writing, we’ve published over 700 videos to that channel that tell our family’s story.
Why? Because we think we’re God’s gift to humanity? Because deep down we’re insecure and need affirmation from people we’ve never met? Because we want to be famous?
No. This is why:
“We believe life is meant to be shared and, in doing so, we hope our family’s story influences the trajectory of broken family stories in the world around us.”
Can you see both the what and the why in that statement?
For the teenage girl who’s dad left when she was a baby, we’re telling her, “Hey, the story you know is not the only story there is.” Or, for the young boy whose divorced parents robbed him of the opportunity to observe a loving marriage relationship, we’re saying, “Your future marriage doesn’t have to end the way your parents’ did. You can live a different story.”
Every time we hear from someone about how our family vlogs have impacted their perspective of life, marriage, and family, it energizes us!
Recently a newlywed told us, “I’m struggling in my marriage, but heard what you and your wife said about learning to love each other well. I showed that video to my husband, we talked about it, and now we have hope again!” Or the college kid who comments saying, “Since watching your vlogs, I’ve noticed that I’ve raised my
Think of your path on a treasure map. Right now you're at sea, but where you really want to be is on an island digging at a spot marked with big red X. Unfortunately, your map is missing the dotted line that leads you to that X, so you have to make one. That dotted line is the role your video strategy plays.
What might your big red X be? It could be almost anything really. ■ To build an audience. ■ Drive traffic to your website. ■ Increase product sales. ■ Establish yourself as a thought leader in your industry. ■ Raise awareness about a cause or charity. ■ To entertain. ■ Teach and educate people. How To Blaze that Path It's impossible for someone to come to you and honestly say, "You want to make money from online videos? Well, here's how you do it!" They might have some tips and ideas or even a pre-packaged strategy for you, but no cookie cutter approach will ever work as well as the one you develop yourself.
Why? Because when you invest into the process of creating a strategy, you take ownership of it. It's your baby. It's personal. It energizes you. It drives you. When aspects of the strategy seem like they're not working, you know how to fix it. And when you start to see the results pay off, your excitement level rivals that of a shovel clinking against a buried treasure chest.
Expectations for your Path Instead of me telling you what your strategic video path should be, I want to ask you a series of questions that will help you develop a strategy that's personal just for you and your destination. The video strategy you develop as a result of this should be so specific for you that it fits like a hand in a glove.
A couple notes before we dive into this, though.
First, don't rush through this process. It's not a race. There’s no stopwatch pushing you through this eBook. The longer and deeper you think through the upcoming questions, the better your strategy will be. If you take your time, you'll have a clearer map and will understand the path to your destination much more clearly. Don't just skim through some of these questions and think to yourself, "Oh yeah, I see what he's doing here," and move on. That will do nothing more than waste your time.
Second, don't expect to nail down your strategic path your first time through it. Personally, I don't think I've even completely nailed down my own strategy. It's always shifting as I learn more, have new experiences, and discover things along the way. To further complicate it, there will always be changes and developments to YouTube that will require that you alter your path, as well, just as unexpected obstacles force treasure seekers to alter their course.
Think of this dotted path on your map as an adventure. Embrace the journey even if it means changing course a few times. Usually those course changes turn out for the better when they're intentional and rooted in the lessons you're learning. That's why it's important to understand the process of blazing a strategic path instead of just adopting someone else's cookie cutter strategy and “how to” tips. While those are valuable, if you understand the process, you can easily modify it as you grow and as the territory changes.
Third, if you get to the end of this and don't feel like you have a strategic path that is clear and focused, that's ok. Start moving in the direction that makes the most sense based on what you do understand. Your vision for the future will often become clearer as you move forward.
6 Steps to Mapping Your Path
There’s no magic formula to mapping your path. I’ll attempt to give you some questions that will help set you in the right direction, but give yourself the freedom to solidify a lot of this as you move forward. Step 1: Identify the X Start by thinking about the destination of where you want to be if your video efforts are successful. What defines “success” for you? What’s the X on your map?
It’s important to have a clear idea of where the destination is before you can map out a path to get there.
Some examples of X might be: ■ To become a stand-up comic on Comedy Central. ■ To raise awareness about my non-profit organization. ■ To land a record deal for my band. ■ To have my own clothing line for sale in New York City. ■ To teach people how to better care for their dogs. ■ To give hope to those who are struggling with depression. ■ To direct my own film for a major motion picture studio in Hollywood. There really is no right or wrong destination here.
However, I would encourage you not to think of success in terms of metrics. For example, an X of, “Getting 1 million subscribers on YouTube,” “Making an income of $100,000 per year,” or, “Tripling the sales of my product,” isn’t really a destination as much as it is a symptom. It’s a reflection of how well you’re accomplishing step five, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves. ■ What’s your vision for where you want to go with your YouTube channel? ■ What do you want to happen as a result of your efforts on YouTube? ■ Thinking of success outside of metrics, what is “success” for your channel? Use this space to write down as many answers as you can to those questions. Seriously, get them all out.
Step 2: Why Do You Want X? Be Honest with Yourself This might sound weird at first, but after you’ve determined what you want to accomplish, it’s important to know why you want it. Being honest about your motives will influence each of the following phases in very fundamental ways.
The combination of what (of step one) and why (of step two) is what will make you unique and help you stand out in the crowded YouTube world. When both the what and why are communicated together in your videos, it becomes a powerful attraction for viewers.
Why? Because we think we’re God’s gift to humanity? Because deep down we’re insecure and need affirmation from people we’ve never met? Because we want to be famous?
No. This is why:
“We believe life is meant to be shared and, in doing so, we hope our family’s story influences the trajectory of broken family stories in the world around us.”
Can you see both the what and the why in that statement?
For the teenage girl who’s dad left when she was a baby, we’re telling her, “Hey, the story you know is not the only story there is.” Or, for the young boy whose divorced parents robbed him of the opportunity to observe a loving marriage relationship, we’re saying, “Your future marriage doesn’t have to end the way your parents’ did. You can live a different story.”
Every time we hear from someone about how our family vlogs have impacted their perspective of life, marriage, and family, it energizes us!
Recently a newlywed told us, “I’m struggling in my marriage, but heard what you and your wife said about learning to love each other well. I showed that video to my husband, we talked about it, and now we have hope again!” Or the college kid who comments saying, “Since watching your vlogs, I’ve noticed that I’ve raised my
standards for who I date and will marry one day.” That’s why we do this. Those stories motivate us. That’s the drive that compels us to share our family openly on YouTube.
Now, a few minutes ago if the only thing I had told you was that my family has a vlog channel, you probably would either be very confused why we would do such a thing, or you would subconsciously draw your own conclusions about why we do it. But how does knowing our why change what you think about our efforts on YouTube? You still may not be interested in family vlogs, but at least knowing the bigger vision of our channel makes our videos a bit more compelling to you than a random family vlog channel otherwise would’ve been, right?
It’s important to realize that people will immediately make subconscious assumptions about your why, and often they’ll be negative ones. “Oh, they just wanna be like the Shaytards.” Or, “They must think they have a really cool family.” Or even, “Wow, 700 videos? They have a lot of free time.”
Before you can communicate your why, you first have to be intimately in touch with what that is yourself.
So, dig down deep and be honest with yourself: What is driving you? What’s motivating you to get to that big red X?
It’s totally up to you to determine what your driving motivation is and where you want it to take you. Just be honest about it.
If you don’t like what you come up with, don’t try to sugarcoat it or come up with a more compelling why that people will more likely rally behind. Strive for authenticity, not popularity. (Ironically, authentic people end up being more popular anyway, but if you strive for authenticity for that reason, you’re totally missing the point.) Dream of a Bigger X Let me encourage you to not to think of your motivation in terms of money or popularity. There are far easier ways to make money and become famous than to build a YouTube channel. Take both those things off the table, dig a little deeper, and answer the question, “Why do I desire to be popular? Why am I driven by money? What is it that I believe about myself and about those things that motivates me?”
I know this is probably one of the easiest steps to skim over because we all want the easy, practical stuff that doesn't require a lot of thought and can be implemented quickly, but this is the most important step. Without it, your path will look very different and you’ll risk blending into the crowd on YouTube. Resource: To learn more about the importance of answering the why question for your business or YouTube channel, watch this talk by one of the guys who owns the storytelling company, Epipheo. It's 40 minutes long, but is definitely worth your time if you want to fully understand this and get it right
Now, a few minutes ago if the only thing I had told you was that my family has a vlog channel, you probably would either be very confused why we would do such a thing, or you would subconsciously draw your own conclusions about why we do it. But how does knowing our why change what you think about our efforts on YouTube? You still may not be interested in family vlogs, but at least knowing the bigger vision of our channel makes our videos a bit more compelling to you than a random family vlog channel otherwise would’ve been, right?
It’s important to realize that people will immediately make subconscious assumptions about your why, and often they’ll be negative ones. “Oh, they just wanna be like the Shaytards.” Or, “They must think they have a really cool family.” Or even, “Wow, 700 videos? They have a lot of free time.”
Before you can communicate your why, you first have to be intimately in touch with what that is yourself.
So, dig down deep and be honest with yourself: What is driving you? What’s motivating you to get to that big red X?
It’s totally up to you to determine what your driving motivation is and where you want it to take you. Just be honest about it.
If you don’t like what you come up with, don’t try to sugarcoat it or come up with a more compelling why that people will more likely rally behind. Strive for authenticity, not popularity. (Ironically, authentic people end up being more popular anyway, but if you strive for authenticity for that reason, you’re totally missing the point.) Dream of a Bigger X Let me encourage you to not to think of your motivation in terms of money or popularity. There are far easier ways to make money and become famous than to build a YouTube channel. Take both those things off the table, dig a little deeper, and answer the question, “Why do I desire to be popular? Why am I driven by money? What is it that I believe about myself and about those things that motivates me?”
I know this is probably one of the easiest steps to skim over because we all want the easy, practical stuff that doesn't require a lot of thought and can be implemented quickly, but this is the most important step. Without it, your path will look very different and you’ll risk blending into the crowd on YouTube. Resource: To learn more about the importance of answering the why question for your business or YouTube channel, watch this talk by one of the guys who owns the storytelling company, Epipheo. It's 40 minutes long, but is definitely worth your time if you want to fully understand this and get it right
Step 3: Bring the X Into Focus Make it Clear and Concise Now that you’ve written down all your answers to what you want and why you want it, the hard part is bringing focus to all of it in terms of a simple, clear, easy to understand destination.
No one wants a big and ambiguous destination, right? When you get in your car, you usually have a specific destination in mind, not a general one. When was the last time you said, “Hmm... I feel like driving to the state of Rhode Island today.”
In fact, when you get into your car to drive somewhere, not only do you have a destination in mind, but you have a motivation for going there. Your motivation is just as important as your destination. Otherwise, you never would’ve hopped in your car to go somewhere in the first place.
There’s a couple ways you can synthesize all your thoughts into a specific destination. Pick whichever method you feel will work best for you, or do something totally different. However you feel you can best boil it all down to a simple and clear X, that’s all that matters. ■ You could place numbers next to each X and motivation you listed and prioritize them from most important to least important. What do the top ones have in common? ■ Pick an idea or two that are most important to you and cross off the ones that either overlap or don’t really fit. (Think Sesame Street, “One of these things is not like the others...”) ■ Ask a few people who know you well to give input. Ask them to vote on items in your list that they see vibing with you the best. Pursue the items that get the most votes.
The goal is to be able to have a clear idea of success in mind and to be able to communicate it clearly and succinctly. Without it, it will be easy for your YouTube channel to lose focus both for you and your potential audience.
Write down the simple and succinct statement of your X here:
The X for Video Creators The X for the Video Creators YouTube channel is:
“To help digital leaders effectively communicate their message through online video so it changes the lives of those who hear it.”
Can you pick out the what and the why in that statement?
This ebook is a part of that X for me. I don’t want to just help you figure out how to get more views on YouTube. That’s lame. Views should be the means to a greater end, not the end in and of themselves.
Instead, I want to help you do something much bigger than that. I want to help you figure out how to change people’s lives and make the world a better place through a medium that is perfectly positioned to do just that.
Step 4: What your Strategy Must Be
A Big-Picture Look at Your Territory Perhaps one of the biggest and most common mistakes video creators make when they start developing a strategic path for YouTube is misunderstanding how YouTube works. It’s easy to assume YouTube is similar to television and that what works on TV should work on YouTube. Many of us have no other point of reference for anything other than what we know on TV, so that’s where we start when crafting our own video content.
It’s hard to reach the X on your map if you don’t know how to navigate the environment you’ll have to journey through to get there, so let me propose a different lens for navigating this YouTube space. The Fall of Old Media Over the past several years there’s been an interesting shift in how we consume content. Without getting into all the details, statistics, and research which are outside the scope of this ebook, I think we can suffice it to just look at our own media consumption habits.
Why do you watch TV? Common answers revolve around entertainment, relaxation, to learn something new, things like that.
Why do you read a book? Why do you listen to the radio? Maybe to be entertained? Maybe to relax, or to educate yourself? Often for similar reasons for watching TV.
These are all forms of old media and we consume them for similar reasons.
But the next generation is growing up with a different set of values than the generations that preceded them. The 12-17 and 18-29 year old demographics are still consuming content, but for reasons that old media cannot address.
Over the past several years this has led to revolutionary new approaches to not only how music and books are created and consumed, but to how video content is created and consumed, as well.
In March 2013, PEW Research revealed that, from 2006-2012, 18-29 year olds who “regularly watch TV” is down by 14%.
In October 2012, Nielsen said that overall, television audiences are getting older. There is no decline in TV viewing among people over 50 years old, but they reported a 15% loss of TV viewership among the younger demographic.
Furthermore, according to the Wall Street Journal, FOX and CBS are seeing a decline in that demographic with a drop of about 25%. They reported that even MTV’s viewership has declined by 41% and Comedy Central by 27%.
To put it in perspective, according to Nielsen, in Q4 2012, 12-17 year olds watched 21 hours per week of TV compared to people who are 50+ watched 45 hours of TV per week.
What is it about the younger generation that might cause this decline to be taking place? What do they value that television isn’t or can’t provide? The Rise of New Media Maybe we can answer those questions by looking at what they’re turning to: YouTube.
ComScore reported that in April 2011 the average time spent viewing online video was 15 hours. A year later, in April 2012, the average amount of time spent watching online video was 21.8 hours, up 68%. And it continues to climb!
The top ranked program on network television in July 2012 was The Baseball All-Star Game on FOX, which drew 10.9 million viewers. By comparison, the July 2012 YouTube partner data from comScore Video Metrix reveals that: ■ VEVO drew 43.9 million viewers ■ Machinima captured 25.3 million viewers ■ Warner Music had 24.9 million viewers ■ Maker Studios had 20.4 million viewers ■ FullScreen had 17.3 million viewers
Comparatively, the top ranked program on cable television in July 2012, the Home Run Derby on ESPN, drew 6.9 million viewers. In the online video world, July 2012 YouTube partner data from comScore Video Metrix reveals that: ■ BroadbandTV drew 9.8 million viewers ■ Alloy had 7.7 million viewers ■ Big Frame had 7.4 million viewers ■ MOVIECLIPS had 7.2 million viewers In other words, there are nine YouTube Partner channels with larger audiences than the top ranked program on cable TV. Additionally, there are five YouTube Partner channels with larger audiences than the top ranked program on network TV.
Video consumption is clearly shifting, but why?
Why does video content that performs well on TV perform so poorly on YouTube? Why can YouTube give millions of dollars to celebrities like Shaquille O’Neil, Tony Hawk, Madonna, and others to start their own YouTube channels only to have failing viewership? Why do these people attract millions of viewers on TV, but only a few thousand online? Why do some YouTubers like Phillip DeFranco and Jenna Marbles attract a larger audience every day with a webcam than the most popular TV shows do with a whole production crew?
It can be summarized by understanding the subtle, yet important differences between old media and new media on YouTube.
No one wants a big and ambiguous destination, right? When you get in your car, you usually have a specific destination in mind, not a general one. When was the last time you said, “Hmm... I feel like driving to the state of Rhode Island today.”
In fact, when you get into your car to drive somewhere, not only do you have a destination in mind, but you have a motivation for going there. Your motivation is just as important as your destination. Otherwise, you never would’ve hopped in your car to go somewhere in the first place.
There’s a couple ways you can synthesize all your thoughts into a specific destination. Pick whichever method you feel will work best for you, or do something totally different. However you feel you can best boil it all down to a simple and clear X, that’s all that matters. ■ You could place numbers next to each X and motivation you listed and prioritize them from most important to least important. What do the top ones have in common? ■ Pick an idea or two that are most important to you and cross off the ones that either overlap or don’t really fit. (Think Sesame Street, “One of these things is not like the others...”) ■ Ask a few people who know you well to give input. Ask them to vote on items in your list that they see vibing with you the best. Pursue the items that get the most votes.
The goal is to be able to have a clear idea of success in mind and to be able to communicate it clearly and succinctly. Without it, it will be easy for your YouTube channel to lose focus both for you and your potential audience.
Write down the simple and succinct statement of your X here:
The X for Video Creators The X for the Video Creators YouTube channel is:
“To help digital leaders effectively communicate their message through online video so it changes the lives of those who hear it.”
Can you pick out the what and the why in that statement?
This ebook is a part of that X for me. I don’t want to just help you figure out how to get more views on YouTube. That’s lame. Views should be the means to a greater end, not the end in and of themselves.
Instead, I want to help you do something much bigger than that. I want to help you figure out how to change people’s lives and make the world a better place through a medium that is perfectly positioned to do just that.
Step 4: What your Strategy Must Be
A Big-Picture Look at Your Territory Perhaps one of the biggest and most common mistakes video creators make when they start developing a strategic path for YouTube is misunderstanding how YouTube works. It’s easy to assume YouTube is similar to television and that what works on TV should work on YouTube. Many of us have no other point of reference for anything other than what we know on TV, so that’s where we start when crafting our own video content.
It’s hard to reach the X on your map if you don’t know how to navigate the environment you’ll have to journey through to get there, so let me propose a different lens for navigating this YouTube space. The Fall of Old Media Over the past several years there’s been an interesting shift in how we consume content. Without getting into all the details, statistics, and research which are outside the scope of this ebook, I think we can suffice it to just look at our own media consumption habits.
Why do you watch TV? Common answers revolve around entertainment, relaxation, to learn something new, things like that.
Why do you read a book? Why do you listen to the radio? Maybe to be entertained? Maybe to relax, or to educate yourself? Often for similar reasons for watching TV.
These are all forms of old media and we consume them for similar reasons.
But the next generation is growing up with a different set of values than the generations that preceded them. The 12-17 and 18-29 year old demographics are still consuming content, but for reasons that old media cannot address.
Over the past several years this has led to revolutionary new approaches to not only how music and books are created and consumed, but to how video content is created and consumed, as well.
In March 2013, PEW Research revealed that, from 2006-2012, 18-29 year olds who “regularly watch TV” is down by 14%.
In October 2012, Nielsen said that overall, television audiences are getting older. There is no decline in TV viewing among people over 50 years old, but they reported a 15% loss of TV viewership among the younger demographic.
Furthermore, according to the Wall Street Journal, FOX and CBS are seeing a decline in that demographic with a drop of about 25%. They reported that even MTV’s viewership has declined by 41% and Comedy Central by 27%.
To put it in perspective, according to Nielsen, in Q4 2012, 12-17 year olds watched 21 hours per week of TV compared to people who are 50+ watched 45 hours of TV per week.
What is it about the younger generation that might cause this decline to be taking place? What do they value that television isn’t or can’t provide? The Rise of New Media Maybe we can answer those questions by looking at what they’re turning to: YouTube.
ComScore reported that in April 2011 the average time spent viewing online video was 15 hours. A year later, in April 2012, the average amount of time spent watching online video was 21.8 hours, up 68%. And it continues to climb!
The top ranked program on network television in July 2012 was The Baseball All-Star Game on FOX, which drew 10.9 million viewers. By comparison, the July 2012 YouTube partner data from comScore Video Metrix reveals that: ■ VEVO drew 43.9 million viewers ■ Machinima captured 25.3 million viewers ■ Warner Music had 24.9 million viewers ■ Maker Studios had 20.4 million viewers ■ FullScreen had 17.3 million viewers
Comparatively, the top ranked program on cable television in July 2012, the Home Run Derby on ESPN, drew 6.9 million viewers. In the online video world, July 2012 YouTube partner data from comScore Video Metrix reveals that: ■ BroadbandTV drew 9.8 million viewers ■ Alloy had 7.7 million viewers ■ Big Frame had 7.4 million viewers ■ MOVIECLIPS had 7.2 million viewers In other words, there are nine YouTube Partner channels with larger audiences than the top ranked program on cable TV. Additionally, there are five YouTube Partner channels with larger audiences than the top ranked program on network TV.
Video consumption is clearly shifting, but why?
Why does video content that performs well on TV perform so poorly on YouTube? Why can YouTube give millions of dollars to celebrities like Shaquille O’Neil, Tony Hawk, Madonna, and others to start their own YouTube channels only to have failing viewership? Why do these people attract millions of viewers on TV, but only a few thousand online? Why do some YouTubers like Phillip DeFranco and Jenna Marbles attract a larger audience every day with a webcam than the most popular TV shows do with a whole production crew?
It can be summarized by understanding the subtle, yet important differences between old media and new media on YouTube.
When you start looking at old media and new media like this, it becomes apparent that you cannot look at your online video strategy through an old media lens. In order to journey to your X using online video, you need to navigate the terrain like the new media it is.
When you think of YouTube this way, comparing it to television actually becomes the wrong comparison to make. YouTube is a social media network and thus is more like Facebook than it is television.
So the big question now is this: How would you use YouTube differently if you approached it like Facebook instead of television?
Honestly think through this question and answer it in the space below.
Step 5: What Your Strategic Path Must Do
Old Media Strategies in a New Media World Do all YouTube strategies have to fall into the new media bucket? No. There’s room for an old media approach on YouTube, and there’s many successful channels who are doing it. But when I look at those channels, the question I wonder is, “How much more effectively could they be accomplishing their why if they were taking a new media approach to their strategy?”
Successfully navigating the territory of new media really comes down to facilitating two things: connection and community. Establish Connection The first thing your strategy must do is develop a human connection between you and your viewers. Building that kind of connection can be a pretty elusive thing to do because it depends greatly on your personality, your content, and your why, but if you’re deeply aware of your motivations for why you do what you do on YouTube and begin to tap into that publicly, that’s a great place to start. It creates an emotional connection with your viewers, which will always be much stronger and more powerful than an entertainment connection. Facilitate Community The other thing your strategy must do is turn the connection your audience has with you to extend to others in your audience.
When you think of YouTube this way, comparing it to television actually becomes the wrong comparison to make. YouTube is a social media network and thus is more like Facebook than it is television.
So the big question now is this: How would you use YouTube differently if you approached it like Facebook instead of television?
Honestly think through this question and answer it in the space below.
Step 5: What Your Strategic Path Must Do
Old Media Strategies in a New Media World Do all YouTube strategies have to fall into the new media bucket? No. There’s room for an old media approach on YouTube, and there’s many successful channels who are doing it. But when I look at those channels, the question I wonder is, “How much more effectively could they be accomplishing their why if they were taking a new media approach to their strategy?”
Successfully navigating the territory of new media really comes down to facilitating two things: connection and community. Establish Connection The first thing your strategy must do is develop a human connection between you and your viewers. Building that kind of connection can be a pretty elusive thing to do because it depends greatly on your personality, your content, and your why, but if you’re deeply aware of your motivations for why you do what you do on YouTube and begin to tap into that publicly, that’s a great place to start. It creates an emotional connection with your viewers, which will always be much stronger and more powerful than an entertainment connection. Facilitate Community The other thing your strategy must do is turn the connection your audience has with you to extend to others in your audience.
The best thing I’ve seen work is to tap into existing communities (i.e. gaming, music, Hunger Games, Toby Turner, etc.). First engage in that community by joining the conversations that are happening there. Then find ways to add value to that community with the video content you create. A best case scenario is to build a positive reputation with the creator of that community and make a collaboration video with them. Just be sure when you pitch your collaboration idea to that creator that it offers value both for them and their community as well as your own.“If you don’t have a fandom, your series all but dies when the story ends, but if you give fans a way to build a community, it will live on a lot longer than the narrative, and in turn, that helps the narrative itself live on.” How To Start Building a Community Building a community is difficult when you start with absolutely no one in your audience. How do you help viewers interact when there’s no one there to interact?One of the writers of The Lizzie Bennet Diaries, Rachel Kiley, said this during an interview with Tubefilter:Consequently, when your community feels like they’re a part of something bigger, it’s also what will compel them to pull out their wallets and make a financial transaction with you. That’s why the best way to measure the strength of your community is through merchandise sales. Many smaller channels actually sell more merchandise than some of the larger channels because sometimes the smaller channels have a more solidified and intimate community than the larger ones. That’s not always the case, but it does suggest that audience size does not determine the strength of a community. Example: The Lizzie Bennet Diaries built a strong community around their content by giving their fictional characters their own social media accounts, interacting with the audience on Twitter, and giving their audience ways to connect with each other. In fact, even when The Lizzie Bennet Diaries ended, their community continued on their own initiative. Other spin-off YouTube channels were started, additional stories were shared, and interaction among it’s fan base continues even without the show.In this scenario, you’re the catalyst for something bigger among an audience of people. This is when you mobilize your audience for something bigger than just subscribing to a YouTube channel. This also boosts the emotional connection the community has with you and starts an intertwining spiral between connection and community.Think of yourself as an artist on stage at a concert hall. An audience is a crowd of people who are all directing their attention toward you. Community happens when you cause the audience’s attention to include the crowd of people around them. It’s when connections are not only happening between you and the audience, but when the audience starts to connect with each other, as well, holding you as one of the common whys that drives the engagement.Community is a term that’s thrown around pretty loosely today and is often used synonymously with “fans” or “audience.” I make a distinction between the terms.
Much of your strategic path will remain the same, but you’ll have to take it in new directions as the territory changes. This is where most of the content from Video Creators comes into play. You have most of your map drawn up. Now you just need to be knowledgable of the changing environment through which you travel.So, Now What? It’s time for the nitty gritty. You understand what you’re doing on YouTube, you believe in why you’re trying to do it, you know how to communicate it, and you’re crafting videos that achieve that end in new media territory. It’s time to start your journey!Step 6: Start Traveling Down Your PathHere’s a couple ideas for how to listen and facilitate interaction: ■ Ask your audience for their ideas, opinions, and feedback. Respond to their comments and even feature them in future videos. ■ Asking a specific question often prompts more interaction than a generic, “What do you think?” or a basic yes or no question. ■ Ask for video responses and leave thoughtful comments on them. Again, featuring video responses in your future videos will show your audience that you’re listening and are a part of the conversation. ■ Talk about the community’s conversations and accomplishments. Encourage them to continue to be a part of the efforts everyone is pursuing together. ■ Comment, like, and share other people’s videos from your community. Instead of just asking for interaction on your content, offer interaction on theirs. ■ Conduct regular Google+ Hangouts On Air where you can interact and talk LIVE with your community and where they can literally chat with each other, too. ■ Find ways to reward those who are especially loyal and supportive of your efforts. Maybe give them merchandise or shout-outs in a video, invite them to be a part of a Google+ Hangout On Air, or make special unlisted videos that you share with only them.How To Spark Interaction When you start to think of your online video efforts as a social, two-way dialogue, people are drawn to it in a way that’s unlike television where interaction is extremely limited. Making interaction a part of your channel is very important. Don’t only talk to your audience, but also listen to them.
Best-Practices of any Strategic Path A lot of the content on the Video Creators YouTube channel revolves around best-practices as well as tips, ideas, and suggestions for establishing connection, facilitating community, and spreading your message on YouTube. If you subscribe to the YouTube channel, you’ll regularly learn more about the these best-practices, but here’s several key elements to consider as you get started. ■ Call-To-Actions. In every video, tell your audience what you would like them to do after watching your video. Is it to subscribe to your channel? To respond to a question? To share it with their social networks? You can give multiple call-to-actions, but avoid giving too many. It works best to give your viewers a single, primary action to take.7. Rinse and repeat. Go back to number 3 and start again.6. Change it. What adjustments should you make to your strategy and content based on your evaluation?5. Evaluate it. Do the statistics and your intuition suggest that you’re making progress? Is your message spreading and moving forward?4. Measure your solution. What metrics will indicate that your efforts are moving toward your why? How can you put those metrics in place to track progress?3. Offer a solution. What value can you offer to help address their problem? How can you deliver that value regularly and consistently with predictability?2. Identify their problem. What’s their struggle? What walls and barriers do they keep bumping against?1. Identify your audience. Who are you trying to reach? Who would vibe with your message and your why most intimately? What’s compelling about your videos that will draw that person into your community?If you understand the foundational content I’ve discussed so far and you’re implementing it the best you can, then everything else at Video Creators will be 10x more beneficial for you. You’ll be able to better navigate online video as you journey to your destination. The videos on our YouTube channel will be more practical and, ultimately, help you reach your X much more quickly and effectively. Practical Next Steps But let’s not end an ebook about video strategy completely in the philosophical realm. Here’s some practical next steps to take as you develop a plan to spread your message on YouTube. A few simple Google searches will lead you to much more detailed information about each of these points.
s for your videos. Also focus on category placement, playlists, annotations, caption files, building inbound links, and other practices that influence how your videos rank in search so new new viewers can easily find you. ■ Community Management. As we’ve already briefly discussed, integrate into your strategy a plan for interacting with viewers, sparking valuable conversations, and building a human connection and community. ■ Valuable Content. It probably goes without saying, but a valuable message that’s communicated in a valuable way is the centerpiece of your strategic path. Without it, new viewers will quickly bounce away from your videos instead of sticking around, subscribing, and interacting. Video Schedule. There’s a reason why television content is scheduled to go live a certain times. Some of it is due to the limitations of the medium, but it’s also because it enables people to make their content a part of their weekly rhythm. Set a schedule of when you’ll post your videos each week so people know when to expect your new content and when to come looking for it. ■ Production Value. How important this is for your strategy depends on your message, who you’re trying to reach, what your competition is doing, and other such variables, but in most cases this is not as important as you think. Focus on consistency and the other elements of new media content that builds connection and community. ■ Delivery Methods. YouTube subscriptions are a great way to notify your followers of new videos, but could your target audience benefit more from an email list, an RSS feed, a video podcast, or something else? Deliver your content in ways that make the most sense for who you want to reach with your message. ■ Promotion and Discovery. Have a plan for how you intend people will find your content. There are a lot of options here, including video collaborations, paid promotion through Adwords for Video, sponsored Facebook posts, joining other people’s Google+ Hangouts, interacting on blogs, forums, social networks, and more. Be present wherever your target audience hangs out online. ■ Channel Setup and Design. Your YouTube channel makes a first-impression to every new visitor. How you design your channel experience will affect a visitor’s first impression. Carefully think through every element of your channel and set it up appropriately, including the header image, the avatar people see when you respond to comments, the playlists that are available, your channel trailer, thumbnails, and more. ■ Thumbnails. When your YouTube subscribers are skimming through their subscriptions, what makes your thumbnail stand out so it’s instantly recognizable as your video? ■ SEO Value. Learn to write good tags, description text, and title
So, What’s the Secret?
There’s a couple secrets to building your YouTube audience, or, more accurately, your YouTube community. The process to creating that map is this: ■ Know your destination. What do you want to do with your message on YouTube? ■ Know your motivation. Why do you want to get to that X? ■ Be able to clearly and concisely articulate your destination and why it drives you. ■ Learn to master YouTube as a social platform. This is the territory and environment through which you travel. ■ Craft it all into a strategic path for new media. ■ Continually evaluate your path and, as necessary, make course corrections to reach your X.
There’s a couple secrets to building your YouTube audience, or, more accurately, your YouTube community. The process to creating that map is this: ■ Know your destination. What do you want to do with your message on YouTube? ■ Know your motivation. Why do you want to get to that X? ■ Be able to clearly and concisely articulate your destination and why it drives you. ■ Learn to master YouTube as a social platform. This is the territory and environment through which you travel. ■ Craft it all into a strategic path for new media. ■ Continually evaluate your path and, as necessary, make course corrections to reach your X.
Taking It To The Next Level
There’s obviously a lot more depth we could explore in almost every point of this eBook, but hopefully this helps you start thinking in terms of what’s necessary to successfully spread your message on YouTube and build a community around it.
Video Creators wants to help you do that. While I may have a message to share, I believe I can multiply my contribution to the world by helping your message reach and positively impact the people who need to hear it.
There’s several ways that happens, all of which can be found at VideoCreators.com. Here’s a few to get you started: 1.30 Days to a Better YouTube Channel If you’re serious about taking your YouTube channel to the next level, check out my book, “30 Days to a Better YouTube Channel: A Practical Guide to Creating a Highly Subscribable Channel.”
Each day in the workbook includes: ■ A Task: Something you can do right now on your YouTube channel. ■ A Teaching: In-depth instruction on both the why and the how of the task. ■ Further Reading: Links to other videos and web articles that help you dive deeper into the task.
Each day is designed to take you one step closer to creating a channel that entices new viewers to subscribe, interact, and become a loyal part of your channel’s community.
There’s obviously a lot more depth we could explore in almost every point of this eBook, but hopefully this helps you start thinking in terms of what’s necessary to successfully spread your message on YouTube and build a community around it.
Video Creators wants to help you do that. While I may have a message to share, I believe I can multiply my contribution to the world by helping your message reach and positively impact the people who need to hear it.
There’s several ways that happens, all of which can be found at VideoCreators.com. Here’s a few to get you started: 1.30 Days to a Better YouTube Channel If you’re serious about taking your YouTube channel to the next level, check out my book, “30 Days to a Better YouTube Channel: A Practical Guide to Creating a Highly Subscribable Channel.”
Each day in the workbook includes: ■ A Task: Something you can do right now on your YouTube channel. ■ A Teaching: In-depth instruction on both the why and the how of the task. ■ Further Reading: Links to other videos and web articles that help you dive deeper into the task.
Each day is designed to take you one step closer to creating a channel that entices new viewers to subscribe, interact, and become a loyal part of your channel’s community.
2. My YouTube Channel Subscribe to the Video Creators YouTube channel. It’s free! Every week I post several videos to help you master the YouTube platform: ■ Tuesdays: We look at what’s new in the online video world and discuss the implications it has for us as video creators. ■ Wednesdays: We share a YouTube tip, an idea, or give advice to help you master the platform and build your community. ■ Thursdays: I publicly answer a question about YouTube or audience development as submitted by those of you in the Video Creators community. ■ Monthly: Video Creators hosts a LIVE YouTube Training in a Google+ Hangout On Air. We all interact, learn from industry leaders, do more Q&A, publicly review your YouTube channels, and more.
3. Become a Video Creators Insider! It’s Free! If you’re not already a Video Creators Insider, be sure to sign-up to get all our latest resources and exclusive content delivered straight to your Inbox for free!
I regularly send you exclusive content to help you… ■ Effectively communicate your message with online video ■ Master the YouTube platform ■ Build your community ■ Exclusive downloads, updates, and other information that are only available to Insiders Click here to become a Video Creators Insider. There’s no cost whatsoever for doing so.
Also, check out what’s available at VideoCreators.com. There’s one-on-one coaching, group cohorts, podcasts, resources, and more. Additional training resources and ebooks will be coming soon, as well. I can’t wait to share it with you all! Become a Video Creators Insider and be the first to have access to it when it’s released.
3. Become a Video Creators Insider! It’s Free! If you’re not already a Video Creators Insider, be sure to sign-up to get all our latest resources and exclusive content delivered straight to your Inbox for free!
I regularly send you exclusive content to help you… ■ Effectively communicate your message with online video ■ Master the YouTube platform ■ Build your community ■ Exclusive downloads, updates, and other information that are only available to Insiders Click here to become a Video Creators Insider. There’s no cost whatsoever for doing so.
Also, check out what’s available at VideoCreators.com. There’s one-on-one coaching, group cohorts, podcasts, resources, and more. Additional training resources and ebooks will be coming soon, as well. I can’t wait to share it with you all! Become a Video Creators Insider and be the first to have access to it when it’s released.
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