Rene’s Top Five on YouTube: August 24, 2023 Edition
Aug 24, 2023 – minute read
Hello creators! I’m Rene Ritchie, your YouTube Liaison, and when I’m not helping the platform better empathize with creators, and creators better understand the platform, I’m scouring the internet so I can bring you all the biggest and most impactful stories. So, let’s get to them!
🩳 Todd Sherman, who heads up the Shorts team at YouTube, was kind enough to sit down with me and answer some of the biggest questions coming from creators: Is the Shorts algorithm the same as long-form and should we still be thinking audience first? What exactly counts as a view on the Shorts feed? Just how short should a Short be? What’s up with custom thumbnails? Do hashtags still matter? Is Shorts cannibalization a thing? Why do some Shorts spike and then drop off? All this and more coming your way hot and fresh on Creator Insider!
🚀 YouTube will be adding a new way to link from your Shorts to your long-form videos, live streams, or other Shorts — both public and unlisted! After upload, you’ll be able to go into the Editor in YouTube Studio and add a related link, just like you would an end screen. You’ll also be able to change or remove that link at any time. The link will show up right on the Short, just like it does with Remixes, which means your audience will only ever be one tap away from more of your content. Think linking a teaser Short to a long-form deep-dive, part one of a Short to part two, a hotter-than-hot take from your podcast guest to the full interview, a highlight clip of your new product to the unlisted sales pitch… There’s so much potential here, I can’t wait to see how creators use them!
🤖 Well over a decade ago, YouTube revolutionized distribution for creative professionals. Today, any creator can upload a video and reach an audience previously only accessible with a movie studio or TV networks. At some point soon-ish, AI is poised to do the same thing for production — put the power of an ILM or Weta in the palm of every creator’s hand — but changes of this scale and significance are often as turbulent and terrifying as they are transformative. At YouTube, we experience all of it in real time. It’s with that in mind that our CEO, Neal Mohan, took to the blog and wrote about our principles for partnering with the music industry on AI technology: That AI is here, and we will embrace it responsibly together with our music partners; that AI is ushering in a new age of creative expression, but it must include appropriate protections and unlock opportunities for music partners who decide to participate; and that we've built an industry-leading trust and safety organization and content policies and we will scale those to meet the challenges of AI. Creators are going to be a pivotal part of this conversation as well, so go read the whole thing on the YouTube Blog
🗂️ Some channels upload a lot… like a lot a lot. That can push other videos down in the sub feed or make creators feel like we have to post just as much to stay on top! To help with this, YouTube is running an experiment where channels with multiple current uploads will have them all bundled together on a shelf. That way, viewers can explore everything for that channel if they want to, but still see what else is recent and available from their subscriptions. Of course, the vast majority of viewers watch from the Home page (including those who are subscribed) but for those of us who still love and use our feed, this should make it even easier to use. (Pro tip: To see how many of your viewers actually click through from the sub feed, go to YouTube Analytics > Traffic Sources > Show More > Browse features > Subscriptions). And for more on the bundling experiment, see Creator Insider!
🙋 Our #CreatorAdvice series got electric this week with the often shocking ElectroBOOM, the niche-breaking Swell Entertainment, the slap-tastic Louis Weisz, editor Audrey Ember, and Real Engineering! Check out the whole series on the YouTube Liaison channel and hit subscribe so you don’t miss what’s next!