Use THESE tips for YouTube
A session I attended at Video Marketing World 2022 (Septemberish 2022) was freaking life changing amazing, was Let’s Crush The YouTube Algorithm with Speaker and YouTuber Cody Wanner.
Guys-I have shared many moments with my friends, clients, colleagues about how awesome VMW was this year (my first year attending) and will recap several session in blog posts on my website so ahem, let me share my hot takes from Cody’s talk. I am starting with his session because it was chalk full of tips you can walk away from RIGHT NOW to make your YT efforts stronger.
I am opening up MY personal session notes that I took while in the audience. Forgive my candid misspellings, ya’ll know how it is when you are sitting in a session furiously taking notes. I have cleaned it up a bit but also wanted to stay true to my note taking etiquette in the moment. Hehe. My insights are italicized.
So *clap* lets *clap* GOOOOO!
CODY WANNER
LET’S CRUSH THE YOUTUBE ALGORITHM Recap Notes by Yours Truly, Sarah Crilley
First of all, the crushing the YT algorithm is important.
Why?
Crilley here throws virtual arms in the air
Take those videos you have put blood, sweat and tears into creating and giving them a fighting chance to get views. Real views. This IMO is such a perfect topic for this conference and I am pumped.
Now to the speech content:
Cody- Shares his story. Who is this guy, why do we care and why do we trust him? He decided to be a full time youtuber. Works with Scott owner with Video Marketing World. He had less than a minute to run through each point so we are on the fast track baby! I like that he works with Scott, that’s encouraging to have a speaker that is part of the conference team.
Here’s his YT channel to stalk and watch all his content: 8 Things All Creators Struggle With
27. Opening Hook, thumbnail. Make your thumbnails POP. Youtube can read emotion- so thats where crazy “youtube” face comes in. The crazier the emotion the higher change YT will reward that.
DISCLAIMER: Above video clip filmed with my iphone during VMW by yours truly Sarah Crilley and all original content spoken by speaker Cody. So inspired by this guy. Please enjoy.
26. Micro hooks, if you give a mouse a cookie analogy. Whoa. This was a very strong point. Small hooks or problems to illustrate in the video early on that lead to solutions but *gasp* lead to more problems. Solve the problem and explain now theres another challenge or layer. This will hook your audience for the duration of the video. Longer view times.
25. Outperforming thumbnails, look at similar videos that have been created FIRST, go to top performing videos and go to the channel. See if the view matches the view count on their channel and study it. Why did that video take off?
Side note: You can pay for views on YouTube we all know this.
24. A story in a frame: “Then and Now”
23. Give them something to look at, gifs and memes. Stock video. These tend to perform better than a basic talking head video.
22. Make them laugh. Giphy.com there is a GIF for every situation. Getyarn.io is something you have not heard. Searchable movie clips. Super good engagement grabber! Gold tip Cody, thanks!
21. Familiarity. Nobody knows you yet. So for that reason.. Introduce yourself or have a commonality with the audience SUCH as adding a famous person to the video.
MY Question, here is do you have to credit the image when you use that such as adding a photo of Oprah. I’d like to avoid any images that aren’t royalty free. Maybe you can but I am assuming this is a risk. Personally I like this tip but always credit your source in the upperhand corner: Source: Website or News Outlet or Name of person.
20. Contrarian ideas, Passive income is terrible, never sell to a prospect on YouTube. Vanity metrics do matter alot. Never sell to a prospect on YouTube. People want to understand what you mean. This can be on a thumbnail and have a different title or subject line of the title. What is different that you can create intrigue.
19. Dive right in. If you are confident on the title and thumbnail and THAT can be the hook. Point # 1 as a hook and don’t intro the video. Most people will skip ahead >> the ten second mark. At the zero second, go to the crazy most exciting moment extremely interesting. First 20 seconds.
18. Respect viewer’s time. Cut the ums and ands, cut the fluff that doesn’t provide value. There is so much content on YouTube and senses are in tune if this person will waste their time. Don’t be too selly, cut through the noise. You will build trust and rise above the rest. Amen.
17. Twenty two minute magic. Meaning, the average video with most watchtime is 22 minutes. Inteeeeeeeresting.
16. Show them something incomplete on the thumbnail. “Before the fall” on a fail video kind of thing. I like this.
15. Your take on a person. Fame jacking. If you can give your expert take on something of a famous person authors, target demo is following. Love this. This ties into current buzz and helps the audience sip some tea you just spilled.
14. Also TREND jacking. What’s going on in the news. Your hot take market updates, such as quiet quitting. Use Tik tok topics as an inspo and baseline of whats trending and what “everyone” is talking about.
13. 5th grade tactical, as an expert and making a video you may not know how much of an expert you are and you may have a hard time understanding how complex or not complex to be. Always explain as simple to talking to a 5th grader.
12. Never compete on production value. All video platforms shouldn’t be competing with commercials but with other content creators. It’s authentic, focus primarily on the value of the content.
11. Strategy and easy wins. Look for the low hanging fruit. “You could make that video in your sleep you have a slightly different take” is the best way to start.
10. Imperfect action. You can’t wait for the content and weather to be perfect, if you wait until all that is done it is defeating. Get it 80%. Yall. I feel this. I am such a perfectionist and have tons of almost complete videos that I have not published or posted because…. grrrrrr…. IMO its not ddone yet. But alas, they sit in my imovie or premiere drafts not finished and collecting ‘digital dust’… eeeeeek. Embarrassed to say but perhaps YOU can relate.
9. Consistency and persistence. Graph of posting since feb 2018 and then channel pops off 6 months later. OK, how inspiring is this. A few creators had shared their video didn’t TAKE OFF for months… ok ok so patience is key.
3. Text call outs to slam your points home on the video screen.
2. React to duets or popular content directly like tik tok
Drumroll….. finally…..Test test test. Especially when starting out. See what your people are responding to. It’s all practice and an experiment.
Are you going to use these tips? Any thoughts? Comment below or email me hellosarahcrilley@gmail.com I want to know! Seriously.
Also, I am taking Cody’s advice, This blog post is 80% done. I haven’t added any videos or photos like I love love love to BUT as I sit typing away at Summer Moon Coffee Shop in Keller TX sipping my 16oz frozen chai, spiced chai mind you, with 2 shots of espresso (the dirty chai) I am giving myself a silent cheers and saying LETS PUBLISH THIS NOW!!! We going live! I will come back to this post and add to it but for now lets grace the digital world with this awesome content. Great job Cody. I AM INSPIRED BY YOU sir.
Thanks for reading ya’ll.
XO Make it a great day and take on the world, YOU got this!
:-P
Sarah Crilley
