Rene’s Top Five on YouTube: November 23, 2023 Edition
Nov 23, 2023 – [[read-time]] minute read
It’s Thanksgiving at YouTube HQ this week, so rather than my usual roundup of weekly news, I’m going to take a break from the YouTube, X/Twitter, Insta-Threads and instead count down the things I’m most grateful for as a creator, YouTuber, and the Liaison between!
🗂️ The dedicated Shorts tab now rolling out for YouTube Creator Studio on the desktop. Yeah, ok, this one is a little newsy, but stay with me for a sec! There’s been a Shorts tab in the mobile YT Studio app for a while but getting it on desktop has been such a frequent request that it’s terrific to see it finally hitting the browsers as well. It speaks to a larger effort the Studio and Channel Pages teams have been putting in this year — really sweeping up and better organizing basically everything for multi-format creators. Sure, we can still do videos on one channel, Shorts on another, Podcasts or Lives on a third or fourth if we really want to, but thanks to all the new delineation and analytics, we can also neatly, cleanly do them all on the same channel if we think they’ll appeal to the same audience — amplify the value we’re giving them.
📺 I’m beyond grateful for all the creators I’ve had a chance to sit down and talk YouTube with over the last year. Peter McKinnon, Hayden Hillier-Smith and Jordan Orme on The Editing Podcast, Sean Cannell, Luria Petrruci on Live Streaming Pros, Shelly Saves the Day, Colin & Samir, and MrBeast! Also, the incredible YouTubers I’ve been able to chat with on Creator Insider! Sarah Ali on Gen AI tools, Jennifer Flannery-O’Connor on policy courses, Todd Sherman on the Shorts algorithm, Todd Beaupré on the long-form algorithm, David Rosenstein on Creator Music, and Matt Halprin on Community Guidelines. The amount of information and transparency we’ve been able to all share together has been just beyond amazing, and there’s lots more to come!
🙏 I’m profoundly thankful for @TeamYouTube on social and Creator Support in Studio. The sheer scale of creator issues they deal with on a daily, never mind weekly basis is flabberghasting to the nth degree. I went to them often as a full-time creator and I still go to them now on the regular inside YouTube. Superheroes, all of you! Likewise, YouTube Creators, who manage to communicate often complex product announcements and updates in such clear and concise ways, like the new Simplified Ad Controls, the expanded YouTube Partner Program, the now-in-beta YouTube Create app, Podcasts on YouTube, and so much more! Also, quick shout out to the creators who are always showing up to help other creators. In addition to Sean, Luria, Shelly, Colin, and Samir mentioned above, thank you to Nick Nimmin, Roberto Blake, Daniel Batal, Muaaz, Liron Segev, Erin on Demand, Vyyyper, and Judah who not only post and stream, but joined us for Made on YouTube to get all the updates directly!
🤳 Special thanks everyone who’s graciously taken the time to join in on our Creator Advice series on the YouTube Liaison Channel. I can’t believe how many we have up already and how many more we still have coming your way as well! Same also goes for all the creators who jumped on the YouTube Blog’s In a Pickle and Between Two Creators series — sincerely appreciate you all taking the time to share with YouTube and all our fellow creators!
📈 Tip of the Week: Going back to Studio, I’m incredibly grateful for the Audience tab in Analytics. Just like racking up multiple hit albums or blockbuster movies year after year is incredibly hard, so is getting banger video after banger video in perpetuity. Viewer interest moves and changes, and creators who want to stay relevant and successful over the long term have to move and change with it. Continual reinvention! And for that, the Audience Tab is like a cheat sheet. “Videos growing your audience” is a great way to figure out the type of content the audience is coming to you for. That way you can not only make more of the same, as well as follow-ups, to keep them watching. In other words, go from singles to series, one-off watches to full-on binge sessions. “What your audience watches” (along with the Research Tab!) are also terrific for figuring out any gaps in your content you may want to address in your own unique way. Advanced Analytics has also started breaking views down by new and returning users, so we can get a better sense of our core vs. casual audiences. Sublime!
Now get with the contenting — after the thanks-giving!