P a g e | 1 1 P a g e | 2 YouTube Shorts, hereafter referred to as Shorts, are
P a g e | 1 1 P a g e | 2 YouTube Shorts, hereafter referred to as Shorts, are YouTube’s answer to the popularity of TikTok and other short-form video content platforms. What makes YouTube different from existing platforms is that it gets significantly more traffic, has a much larger user base, a much wider range of users, and these short-form videos can still appear in YouTube and Google search, as well as other YouTube features, like any other video on their platform. That means that you can not only reach a larger, existing viewer base, but you can use Shorts reach them in addition to the standard promotion that YouTube provides its content creators. So, you don’t have to twerk in order to grow on YouTube Shorts! Yay! While Shorts are relatively new to US users, it’s been in a nation-wide testing phase for nearly a year in India where it was put up against platforms like TikTok and Instagram. Shorts were first introduced to YouTube consultants in September of 2020, where they explained how the algorithms work, what the goals of the platform are, how to create Shorts, and some of the future features that they plan to implement. This guide is here to help you take advantage of Shorts. It contains the following: P a g e | 3 Misc. Important Info Before diving into the rest of the content, I would like to apologize for any and all short related jokes. I know they’re not funny, but I’m going through a tough time right now. A SHORT GUIDE TO YOUTUBE SHORTS - TRISTON GOODWIN 1 How to create and upload a YouTube Short How YouTube promotes Shorts (the Shorts Algorithm) Shorts have a few basic requirements: The video must be vertical The video must be between 15 and 60 seconds long, though we have seen examples of shorter videos being picked up in the Shorts Shelf Due to the nature of these videos, you have 1-3 seconds to capture the viewer’s attention Videos that are visually engaging tend to perform best on the Shelf Remember that Shorts are only promoted through the mobile app. It is possible to watch the videos on a desktop or gaming console, but 99% of your traffic will be mobile phones. So, when you edit your videos, make sure that all the P a g e | 4 elements are easy to see on smaller screens, are bright, and that audio is clear and easy to understand. You would not believe the percentage of people that watch these videos while on the toilet I make two kinds of Shorts videos, edited gameplay clips or funny or impressive moments, and promotional videos. For the promotional videos, I typically use a vertical video template from a platform like Envato and edit them using Adobe Premiere or After Effects. These make for some really cool and visual- ly engaging videos that I use for sponsors, affiliates, or simply to promote other videos. These are pretty easy to make and simple in their structure. For gameplay videos, you really have two options. You can either crop the sides of the video and focus entirely on the part that you want the viewer to see (this can be broken up with jump cuts to the different aspects of the video that the viewer needs to see). Or you can keep the entire video, shrink it down so that it horizontally fits the vertical space, and then do something to fill in the blank spaces. An enlarged and blurred duplicate of the video, subti- tles, or other elements could take up those spaces. The downside to this second approach is that the end video, the part the viewer P a g e | 5 actually watches, is very small and it can be difficult for the user to pick out important elements or remain engaged with the content. There is no perfect option. I will say that my videos that follow the crop approach perform signifi- cantly better than the latter option. In order to fully understand the algorithm, it is wise to understand what it was designed to do. YouTube doesn’t like the idea of losing future content creators to other platforms. So, it’s trying to entice TikTokers and their ilk to come and try YouTube Shorts. Now, many of these creators aren’t going to have a large following on YouTube, assuming they have any at all. So, the algorithm needs to promote new and small channels just like it would a larger channel. That means that you should just get as much exposure through YouTube Shorts as PewDiePie, for example. However, there’s still an obnoxious amount of spam and junk content on YouTube. This is where the traditional algorithm takes charge and filters out P a g e | 6 An interesting note to make here is that the algorithm behind TikTok seems to work the same way and greatly favor those two metrics. So, if a video does well on You- Tube, it should do well on TikTok, and vice versa. So, I would highly recommend creating an account and cross- posting your content there, in addition to any other platforms you are pursuing. poor performing videos based on hundreds, thousands, of data points. It’s really cool. A Short is less than 60 seconds long and doesn’t have, nor does it provide, as much data as a 15-minute-long video. So, the algorithm needs to be simplified. Views to completion are simply that, it’s when someone watches a video all the way through. This tells the algorithm that the viewer was interested in the entirety of the content and enjoyed it enough to watch all of it. Considering the traditionally low retention time and even lower attention span of those that consume this type of short-form content, getting someone to sit still and watch a video for an entire minute is quite the feat. The second metric, positive engagement, refers to likes, comments, new subscribers, and the one that seems to bear the most weight, shares. 3 A SHORT GUIDE TO YOUTUBE SHORTS - TRISTON GOODWIN Views to Completion, and Positive Engagement The Shorts algorithm is based on two primary metrics: P a g e | 7 Introduction: I have noticed a direct correlation between the number of shares a video receives and its overall promotion within the Short Shelf (impressions and views). Now that we know what the Shorts algorithm wants, it’s time to talk about how we deliver. My best performing videos break down into three segments: An emotionally charged introduction The main content of the Short A call to action to watch another video An emotionally charged closing Humans like emotions and it’s easier to connect with and engage them when we can spark some sort of emotional, serotonin/dopamine response in their brains right away. The easiest way to do this is either with humor or by showing them something pretty. Best Practices P a g e | 8 You can, also, trigger this response with something that sparks their curiosity. If they ask a ques- tion at the beginning of a video, there’s a good chance that they’ll stick around to find out what the answer is. So, crafting your videos, Short or otherwise, the first thing that we do is emotionally engage and hook the user using one of these techniques. Another way that you can think of it is to find some way to reward the user for watching the video all the way through and teasing that reward at the beginning. One additional note: because YouTube is very much a visual platform, and Shorts especially so (just look at TikTok - don’t see many large channels with blank screens, do ya?), the “show them something pretty” approach includes high quality imagery or graphics. That could mean a well lit face, pleasing colors, animations, and so on. A second additional note: you’re not limited to just one of these emotional triggers. You can layer them and combine them in order to better optimize for viewer retention. So, put something pretty, that’s well lit and easy to see, and make it do something funny with some tasteful and non-intru- sive animations to call out specific parts of the intro. P a g e | 9 Main Content: You have 3 seconds to convince someone to watch your video. Don’t be slow. The bulk of the video should build upon whatever the introduction introduced (note to self: buy a thesaurus). It’s pretty straight forward. Once we’ve triggered that initial happy-hormone release, we need to keep it flowing throughout the rest of the video. Remember, you only have 60 seconds to tell your story, so edit, cut, and reduce your video to be as short as possible while focusing on and highlighting the key points to the content. The same concepts of visual attractiveness applies here as it does in the introduction. We want the viewer to easily see and uploads/Marketing/ youtube-shorts-guide.pdf
Documents similaires










-
48
-
0
-
0
Licence et utilisation
Gratuit pour un usage personnel Attribution requise- Détails
- Publié le Dec 01, 2022
- Catégorie Marketing
- Langue French
- Taille du fichier 0.4352MB