YouTube is a video and search platform with different goals other than social media channels. YouTube focuses on search through impression share.
Suppose you know how to use the tools YouTube offers to manage your channel and protect it from copyright infringement. That knowledge will better position you to grow your reach as you create robust videos, appear in more Google searches, amplify your message on YouTube and protect your organization from copyright infringement.
Creativity and searchability drive page views, which allows you to interact with your audience. These elements, combined with metadata, testing and evaluation, support channel management. The following tips will help you towards achieving a more successful channel.
Be creative.
Create a robust 2-3 sentence description of the video you're uploading and write a few more sentences describing your channel. Add links to related videos, tag other collaborators and guests, add relevant hashtags, links to social media channels and a link to subscribe. This metadata will help the YouTube algorithm push your videos to your audience.
Be searchable.
To publicize your videos, cross-promote on other platforms, link to your channel wherever you can (like other websites, forums, newsletters, blogs or magazines) and allow embedding so others can help distribute your content by using the embed URL that comes with each video.
Interact with the audience.
Use video descriptions and banners to encourage users to like and subscribe, turn on commenting (delete comments or block users if and when that becomes necessary, in accordance with policy directives in DODI 5400.17), group content by theme using playlists and ask questions, solicit ideas, give shout outs and respond to comments. Have a clear content management policy and report hateful or offensive comments.
Create a brand style guide.
Units should consider using a brand style guide to ensure videos are easily recognizable. Your audience should be able to recognize your videos from the way they look and connect them with your channel.
Map your audience and messaging.
YouTube builds audience profiles based on your content's topic sector and how specialized the topics are within that sector. Audiences interested in niche videos will see more specialized content than those interested in more broad, entertaining videos. To reach your intended audience within your sector, first determine the scope of your message and position your content accordingly. Channel owners position their audience based on the metadata for published videos and the performance of those videos. The YouTube algorithm tests these characteristics and then brings the audience to the content; it doesn’t push videos out to audiences.
Train the algorithm with your content.
When you're just launching your channel, your audience profile will be small. You can grow it by continuing to publish good content and training the YouTube algorithm to identify your target audience. According to ChannelMakers, every time you publish content, you train the algorithm. "Each piece of content you publish trains the algorithm in three ways: it shares content on a topic wherever you're targeting, it shows the algorithm the audience's reasons for watching your content and it shows how they like to consume your content." (ChannelMakers, 2022)
Implement a testing phase.
Testing phases ensure that published content is impactful and reaching the intended audience. Consider whether or not the audience appreciates more generalized content versus specificity. Creativity is great and needed on a platform with such huge and varied content—but you should constantly assess against what your audience preferences and video performances look like.
Focus on growth.
Once you have established a strategy, it's appropriate to incorporate a growth phase where you focus on building your audience. This is a good opportunity to push generic, flashy, more creative content. From there, cultivate and maintain that core audience by testing more specific content and see how it resonates with them, while maintaining growth. Once you have a core following, look to expanding beyond your established audience and content borders.
Consider copyright infringement!
When adding music to videos, think about who owns the rights. YouTube can detect copyright infringement and remove violating content. This supports creativity on the platform by detecting copyright infringement and thereby protecting the rights of content creators. The platform will generate a fingerprint, run it through their content ID database, scan for copyrighted material and block, track or monetize fan videos. Report any violations if you see them.
Avoid copyright strikes!
Check the music track's associated policy directly from your channel. Access hundreds of music tracks and sound effects for free from YouTube's library.
How The YouTube Algorithm Works in 2022 by ChannelMakers offers a thorough explanation of how to develop content that will resonate within the 2022 version of YouTube's algorithm.