YouTube can mean something different to everyone. It’s a place that:
- You can watch cat videos.
- Watch others lead extraordinary lives.
- It’s a vast database of how to videos.
- People can perform on.
What do they all have in common? Video. There are 2 billion users on the site with the key age range being 18-34 year olds. That is a prime demographic but, how can you utilise the platform? Over the next few articles I’m going to write about crucial things to be aware of on the site. They will be split across three aspects: Watch Time, Controversy and the fallout of it, and finally Generating Revenue.
What is YouTube?
Started in 2005 YouTube is a video sharing platform owned by Google and is by far the largest in the digital landscape. Users can upload, watch and share content whilst also interacting directly with the creators and the communities around them. There are multiple branches of the site such as YouTube Music, YouTube Kids and YouTube Gaming to cater to the different audiences and creators on the platform.
Clicks = Success
Back in the early days of YouTube in order to be successful you had to get clicks on the video. That is how you got such classics such as Charlie bit my finger and Chocolate Rain, short bursts of content that grabbed the users attention. Over time people exploited the system and would put clickbaity thumbnail images or titles (often of scantily clad women) in order to entice clicks.
One drawback of this kind of model is that it led to users either manipulating the system to prank others or for their own benefit. If they didn’t have footage from a film then they could talk about it and it would be a win. This caused viewers to jump from one video to the next and the algorithim saw them as successes. As a result users often felt frustrated and would leave the site.
Watch Time
This obviously didn’t sit well with the higher ups at YouTube. In 2012 they made the big change from clicks to watch time. Now a user had to watch longer than a few seconds for the view to be registered and the longer they watched the more successful your video was.
In the early 2010’s the site saw a boom in Gaming, vlog and how to content since they were naturally longer. A study in 2019 found that the average video length in 2018 was 11.7 minutes. It gets longer or shorter depending on the kind of content you’re producing. Gaming is at the higher end with videos lasting for 24.7 while music lasted 6.8.
If you want to be successful on YouTube cater your format to length but, the key thing is to make quality content. Audiences know when effort is being put into a product. If they see that the creator they like is passionate and putting effort into their work they are far more likely to follow you.
That is where I’ll leave it for today but if you want to see when the next two parts come out keep an eye out on our blog!
