Strategy for building a decent Youtube following?

[7thLetter]

What's a good strategy for building a Youtube following?

How I currently think about it:

In the beginning, put out a bunch of specific content, quantity over quality. Once you start to have a bit of a following, then that's when you start to focus more on the quality of the videos. You could also even look into promoting your channel somehow through sharing it on social media, advertising, etc. Also keywords, title, thumbnail is important as well.

Good strategy? How would you do it? 

[Ampresus]

I feel like creativity + authenticity gets really rewarded on YouTube. Especially creativity. I don’t know why people have this obsession with thumbnails and titles. I have seen videos with terrible thumbnails get so many views, even if those YouTubers didn’t have a huge following in the first.

Praying that someday the algorithm will favor you is also something. Getting into other people’s recommendations is probably a lot more effective than promoting yourself on social media.
 

[Sahil Pandit]

@7thLetter @Ampresus Hey guys, i work as a social media manager for a Professional eSports Player so i may have some insights to share with you guys.

The niche you choose needs to resonate with you. Why? Because eventually you want to corner the niche so that you can be "the guy" in that area of the market. It's a good idea like you said to make content around 1 specific topic for a while, this helps people understand why they would come to your channel.

Some general but important tips: Good lighting, good editing, good content (good message) These will help pull you along as well as posting consistently. 

Here is an example of what i do: I was invited to go with my friend to help him record a VLOG at a $703,000 Madden tournament. Now, most Madden Players would feel extremely shy on camera.. but that's precisely my friend's advantage. He was willing to push his comfort zone and record with me. So after 5 days of being at the event, we were able to shoot over 30GB of video that we could chop up into different series for YouTube. Does that kinda make sense?

Feel free to ask more questions and i'll try to help.

[Michael569]

You have to find your own micro-nisch. If you go very broad such as having a "motorcycle channel" or having a "men's health channel" you won't get lot of view cause there are channels stealing all the views already. Those markets are oversaturated on youtube. 

Think about something extremely specific and specialised. Such as "how to be a good beekeeper in southeastern Bulgaria during Summer"...that's a silly example but you get the idea. 

[fridjonk]

Lighting and video quality on point. 

Stay active on all social media, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, posting often each week - but not too often. 

Never give up. 

Expect it to take some time, even though you're posting every week. The following will double and double and double slowly over time. 

Find your competitors, see what they are doing and what YOU can do BETTER. Really brainstorm that stuff. 

Listen to feedback. 

And most importantly, make sure the content is high quality. 

 

 

Edited February 3, 2020 by fridjonk

[willen1995]

Make something highly unique, nische and extremely valuable for a small audience. You wont make it if you try to go for quantity these days. Check out Seth Godin.

[RendHeaven]

I'm not a youtuber myself (yet... hehe) so my imput is not an informed one, but I honestly believe that "quantity over quality in the beginning" as you've illustrated is a myth.

Now, don't spend an year on your first video just to get 5 views because it makes no sense to do that, but certainly don't make bad quality content on purpose for the sake of pumping out more stuff.

I see this all the time, small channels with a hundred uploads and all the videos are frankly "throwaway" videos. The vid that was shot a year ago is lost in the nether because not only did the audience not care... neither did the creator.

Make something you will be proud of keeping up on your channel in 1 year's time.