Looking at content formats
If you’ve been mulling over jumping into the YouTube world for a while, we’re pretty sure that you’ve spent a lot of time wrestling with how to produce all that content you need to keep your channel fresh and active. With YouTube, you have several options for your content strategy:
» Creation: Regularly produce your own content. You can certainly build a channel without a stitch of your own content, but if you’re going to stand out,
your viewers need to see your genuine stuff
» Curation: Mine the YouTube universe for content that complements your channel, and organize it in a logical way, using sections and playlists for the
viewer.
Think of curation in terms of what a museum does: Collect all this great art (content), and then pull it together into a themed exhibit. The YouTube playlist serves as the museum’s exhibit. That’s why museums place French Impressionist paintings together: It’s all about the viewer/visitor experience. Would you want to see an impressionist painting together with contemporary pottery? Probably not.
Channel owners generally love having their videos included in playlists, because it helps promote their channels and attracts viewers to watch their content. Done right, your curation favor will be returned many times over.
» Collaboration: You don’t have to do everything yourself! Team up with other
channel owners and create joint content. It’s a popular and eff ctive way to grow an audience and gain subscribers. A YouTube video can be associated with only one channel, so your collaboration planning should take into account content that you’ll own (create) and content that you’ll help share (collaborate).
Here are some examples of different types of content you can add to your channel:
» Episodic content: The idea here is to have recurring content that creates a
series or a body of work on a specifi topic. This is great content to produce
for your channel because it’s highly attractive to channel subscribers.
Subscribers can choose to be notifi every time you release a video.
» Short- and long-form content: Creating a mixture of short- and long-form content can help you understand the sweet spot for your viewers. YouTube
Analytics (described in Chapter 11) helps you plan better by identifying the optimal total runtime for your videos. If you’re creating 10-minute videos with short watch times, consider making an alternative video cut that is shorter to see whether watch times improve.
» Create new edits, and recycle footage: Don’t be afraid to think outside the
box when it comes to content creation. Reuse video outtakes, behind-the- scenes shots, and additional footage (called B-roll) to make new edits. Recycle your content when it makes sense for your viewers.
» Playlists: Reengage viewers with old videos in new playlists. Highlight videos that are still relevant on your channel page and in new playlists. You can
include your playlist updates in your custom channel sections to update your fans.
» Plan for mobile: Mobile viewership accounts for 70 percent of global
YouTube video consumption. Make your content easy to consume on mobile devices. Easy-to-see thumbnails and text onscreen are important for your mobile audience. Shorter titles are easier to read and understand on mobile devices as well. In Chapter 11, you can see how to use YouTube Analytics to check your channel traffi sources and understand what percentage of views are from mobile.
Just because viewers are watching video on their mobile phones doesn’t mean that they want shorter clips. Create both long- and short-form content whenever you can, and watch your channel analytics closely to develop a strategy that is right for your audience.