Rene’s Top Five on YouTube: August 31, 2023 Edition

⚠️ Huge update to Community Guidelines! No, not the policies themselves or the three-strikes-and-you're-out system — those are still exactly the same — but the warning system is about to be way better. Over the next several weeks, YouTube will be switching from one blanket warning per channel to separate warnings for each policy type. But wait, there’s more! Instead of getting a warning and having it stay on your channel forever, like a giant neon anxiety flash box, you’ll be able to complete an educational policy training course and, if there are no further issues around the same policy, have that warning removed from your channel. And yes, old warnings too! For way, way more information, check out the YouTube Blog post, YouTube Creators walk-through, and my Creator Insider interview with YouTube VP Jennifer Flannery O’Connor.

🚀 Related links are coming early! The team knew how much creators wanted the ability to link from their Shorts to other public and unlisted Shorts, live and long-form videos on their channels, so they double-timed it to get the desktop version ready. How early? NOW early! You’ll know that you have the feature on your channel when you see the new Related Videos picker in the right sidebar on the Details Tab (where you’d expect to see End Cards for long-form videos). It won’t work on upload yet — you have to add them in YouTube Studio afterwards — but it’s quick, easy to do and works great to connect your Shorts back to any of your other content. In the near-ish future, you should be able to see analytics on which related links are driving views back from your Shorts. Yeah, lots more to come!

🏆 The 2023 Streamy Awards took place last weekend. Congrats to all the winners! And massive shout out to Michelle Khare for telling it how it is — Challenge Accepted got made because "the only barrier to entry was the upload button". It’s not just Michelle or the MrBeast Games either. There are so many channels and so much content on YouTube that doesn’t just rival the best of traditional media but absolutely laps it. Hurry up and nominate Michelle for an Emmy already — there’s already such an incredibly deep, rich lineup forming behind her!

🩺 Earlier this week, I sat down with the always insightful, immaculately coiffed Doctor Mike to talk about what it's like being a health creator on YouTube, challenges in dealing with medical misinformation, and YouTube's recent steps to tackle cancer treatment misinfo. Check out the full video on the Creator Liaison channel!

💬 Pssssst… one more thing! We’re trying an experiment… (Come closer!) We’ve been using the @YouTubeLiaison account on X-formerly-known-as-Twitter for a few years now, but literally everyone knows that’s not the only place creators hang. In fact…it’s a place some creators don’t hang at all. That’s why last year, we added an @YouTubeLiaison account to YouTube, so I could, you know, comment directly on the platform as well. This year, we’re testing one step further with @YouTubeLiaison accounts on Instagram and Threads, and TikTok, including sharing incredible experiences like Make-A-Wish (more on that amazing day in a future blog!) It’s very early days and those accounts are super bare bones for now but I really want to be where creators are, so let me know. Go to where you hang and @reply to me or leave a comment. I’d love to chat wherever it makes the most sense to you!