When I started writing about creating content for YouTube, it was only meant to be a one-off piece. I never expected to be posting a series of articles both about PS Vita YouTube content and wider YouTube creation tips. So here I am now with the fourth instalment in our guide to being a YouTube Content Creator…
Viewer Engagement – Part Two
Previously we discussed ways to engage with your viewers, and making sure that you always respond in a positive way to any comments you receive on your videos. As I said before, even anyone trolling your video is something to be welcomed as it’s all considered to be engagements by YouTube which helps elevate your video in their algorithms. But how do you get people to like and comment in the first place?
Obviously people will like videos if they really enjoy them or comment if they have questions or disagree with a point you are making. But if you want them to interact, the best way to do it is to ASK them. A short mention in your video asking for comments, to like the video or to subscribe to the channel can work wonders. If you can add on-screen graphics then even better. We started this recently at the end of all our videos as you can see in the one below and it’s worked wonders!
Community Is Everything
Another feature that YouTube offers that is often overlooked is the Community tab on the main site. You can use this to post text updates, photos and even polls to chat with your viewers without having to post video content. It’s a simple and effective way to get feedback, run ideas past them for future content and keep them engaged between videos. I have to admit that we’re only just starting to use this ourselves as a YouTube Content Creator, but hopefully this will make an impact in the long term.
Bigger Is Better?
One thing that’s always important to do where YouTube is concerned is to keep up with the current trends when it comes to their algorithms. As you know, once you’ve finished watching a video a selection of recommendations are presented to you. These are based on a number of factors, partly on the content you’ve just watched but you can help your own videos feature there…
As well as increasing engagement with your viewers through gaining more likes and comments, we have to understand that despite being a free service for creators, YouTube is still driven by profit. They make this through advertising and the more they can place on videos the better for them. As such, it’s now become clear that they are giving greater priority on promoting longer videos – those where they can run more adverts.
This isn’t always ideal such as unboxings or game reviews. But if you do have the potential for longer content – even if it’s just 15 minutes or so then try to do so. You should notice better performance than your average videos.
Licenses Matter
One thing that’s important to us as a YouTube Content Creator is to make sure we’re covered properly with everything that we feature on the channel. In other words, pretty much everything that you see and hear in our videos has been either created ourselves, is covered under “fair use” terms or more importantly has been officially licensed.
We’ve entered into a wide range of license agreements to cover the content that we feature. In some cases, it’s been nothing more than seeking permission to feature a single piece of music or a background image for our green screen. Other images and video clips have come from royalty free sites such as Pexels where creators have made their work freely available. Then, at the other end of the spectrum, is content where we have purchased a licence.
While this hasn’t been cheap in some cases, we feel that it’s made such a huge difference to our existing and future content that it’s been worth every penny. Some has included licenses for hundreds of pieces of music, others for a single sound effect or video clip. But we think the results have been worth every penny. The video below, for example, uses no fewer than four different pieces and we think that it’s all the better for it!
YouTube Copyright Quirks
But for all the good licenses do, it’s not without it’s problems. Something we’ve seen in recent months is a quirk concerning YouTube’s automated copyright check system. When you upload a video its AI system runs a check for any copyright infringements to see if you have any unlicensed music. If anything is found you’re usually given options to remove it, mute the offending part of your video, or challenge it under a number of reasons.
Some reasons are understandable (“fair use”, having a license etc), but there’s a key problem with this system. When a copyright notice is issued, some tracks are allowed but you’re just not allowed to monetise your video. In those cases the copyright holder does so and can place adverts on your video. This is fine but what if the AI makes a mistake and the sound in question isn’t in your video?
YouTube doesn’t make provision for this to be challenged leaving users with videos that others can profit from unfairly. Others have called this out but there seems to be no movement from YouTube at present.
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Well that’s it for this time. We’d love to hear your thought and if you have any suggestions or useful tips please get in touch and we can feature some of the best if we do another chapter in this series!
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