Rene’s Top Five on YouTube: February 15, 2024 Edition
Feb 15, 2024 – [[read-time]] minute read
🛻 Ludwig live: Last Thursday, everyone’s favorite streaming mogul, Ludwig, came to visit us at YouTube HQ, and was kind enough to share his feedback on all things live. Yes, including his most recent wish list! Having been at YouTube for just over 18 months now, I can tell you: nothing is as impactful as hearing directly from creators, whether it’s one or a few in person, or the millions on social and in-product every day. Gaming remains one of the biggest categories on YouTube, and streaming one of the most impactful formats on the platform — especially now that it’s just expanded to vertical live in the Shorts feed — and it’s something many of us care very deeply about, especially people like Jeffrey and Santi from YouTube’s gaming team. While at HQ, Lud also took the time to film a collab with YouTube CEO Neal Mohan. Can’t wait for it to drop!
🗽Colin & Samir Q&A: Monday and Tuesday, I speed-ran New York City. Why? Because @YouTubeCreators just launched on Instagram and, to celebrate, we hosted a live Q&A with Angelica Song and Colin & Samir! Thanks to the snow, the streets and markets had a real quiet and cozy vibe, perfect for a warm, friendly chat with the creator community. A lot of questions focused on the creator/audience connection, making content people will love, staying passionate, and building something sustainable. Huge thanks to Colin, Samir, Angelica and the YouTube Creator team — and if you’re on Instagram, make sure you give @YouTubeCreators a follow, there’s so much goodness still to come!
📲Mobile Uploads: This is not a drill! I repeat, this is not a drill! Creators can now upload long form and Shorts directly from the YouTube Studio app on Android or iOS. For long form, you can also choose your monetization options as part of the upload flow. For Shorts, it’s probably still best to use the main YouTube app for upload, since that gives you all the extra camera features if you want to make any additions. If you need to tweak a lot of settings, Desktop should still be your go-to, because of the many customization options. But if you’re on-the-go, being able to upload quickly and cleanly from your gallery while mobile is just beyond terrific. Check out Creator Insider for more!
🙋Q&A: Do saved vertical live streams show up in the Shorts feed? Do vertical live streams count towards Shorts or long-form monetization requirements? So many vertical live questions! To answer them: Vertical lives are only discoverable in the Shorts feed while they’re actually live. Once you save them as public, they’re treated exactly like any other live (horizontal) and can be discovered via recommendations on home, suggested videos, and search. Watch time accrued through saved vertical live streams is also treated like a regular live stream and long-form videos. (Shorts use views, not watch time, for eligibility.)
📈 Tip of the Week: (Wherein I actually sneakily answer one last vertical live question!) Yes, there will be a traffic source for the Shorts feed in YouTube analytics so you can see how many viewers you gained from that discovery point! Since viewers can also find your vertical live on your channel page, in their sub-feed (if subscribed) and on the home page via recommendations, you might be curious just how many views you got from the feed when deciding how and where you want to go live, so it’s there for you!
Now back to the contenting!