What I learned at Youtube creator connect day.

Creator Connect

On Saturday last week, I got to go to my first Youtube event. I got to go to the Google HQ in Dublin city and I went to The Foundry, an innovation centre beside the Google headquarters, to take part in a roundtable discussion group. This was kind of a big deal for me as I get really anxious at meetings and going to new places. To go somewhere that I had never met anyone and also participate in a discussion group was a big deal for me. So wanting to push my comfort zone I signed up to go to the event. 

I wanted to share what I learned at the day. I hope this post will be helpful for anyone who, like me has started a Youtube or if you are thinking of starting one. Even if you are a more experienced Youtuber you might find some of the tips refreshes what you already know. 

The community

So, walking into a room of strangers is terrifying and awkwardly smiling at people and making conversation is daunting but I was blown away by everyone’s welcome. Some had been to a few Youtube events before and they knew each other from being in the Youtube community. I couldn’t get over how lovely everyone was. I don’t get to go to many blogger events but I will definitely be planning future Youtube ones in my calendar.

Making videos can be kinda lonely. You spend hours editing and filming and sometimes the people around you just don’t get it. It was amazing to be around like-minded people who share the same excitement and energy around creating videos and content. 

After the roundtable discussion group, we had a fun mixer where we had pizza and snacks and interacted and engaged. It was great to see the different types of Youtuber. There was gamers, fashion, travel and comedy and they all were welcoming and chatted away sharing tips and advice. 

How to grow your audience 

Our roundtable discussion topic was about growing your audience. Before the event, we had to complete the grow your audience learning lessons from the creator academy. If you’re new to Youtube like me, I highly recommend you do these lessons. I found them so helpful. 

As we were in the earlier session of the day, we got to have a q&a with Rollo Goldstaub. Rollo is a partner manager at google and sat with us for an hour after our session to answer our questions. 

SEO

Ah, the dreaded search engine optimisation. A bit of a mind field for me, however, talking about it in the group made the penny drop for me. So, in a nutshell. Your title is the most important. Use keywords relevant to your video in the title. Next important for ranking and search is the description box. Repeat your keywords here. Last but not least is your tags. Tags are third in the list of priority. Use relevant tags to further help your video showing in search. 

So for example, my floating tea cup video. I made sure my title was what people were searching for. “How to make a floating tea cup”. Then in the description box, I repeated the keywords and then I used relevant tags. 

Watch time not views

In our Q& A session with Rollo I learned that it is all about watch time, not views for ranking better in the algorithm. Watch time also means more revenue on your video too. Win Win. 

So, how do I make people watch my videos for longer?

Okay, this is what I learned about keeping eyes on your video and keeping your audience watching. Thumbnails, cards, end cards and analytics.

Thumbnails and descriptions

I learned my thumbnails were not readable on mobile! Fail for Dainty as when I looked at my analytics 42% of my videos were watched on mobile. The good thing is you can change your thumbnail on older videos. I am going to go back on my popular videos and change them. I use Canva for making my thumbnails. Make sure yours is clear, bright and not blurry. Make sure your description is not click bait for all the wrong reasons and is relevant to the video. Use the search bar on Youtube to see what people are searching for. Youtube is the second most used search engine. 

Cards and end cards

Yep, I hold my hand up, I wasn’t using cards. A card is a pretty box that comes up in your videos and you can direct your audience to one of your videos or a site. You can add them at the end of your video to direct people to your playlists, latest video or a subscribe button. You can add four cards to your video. It makes so much sense now to me to use them. I went back over my most popular videos to add them in and hopefully, I will see an increase in my watch time. 

They are really easy to add to your video. 

Analytics

I also wasn’t looking at my analytics. I was actually afraid of my analytics. However, they give you so much knowledge. You can see where people are dropping off when watching your video and you can then throw in a card to try and get them to watch another video or pop in a link or a subscribe button. It is also great for learning what your viewers want. I noticed my viewers dropped when I talked too much ( ego crushed lol ), So in future videos, I will try and be more informative. I noticed this more on my DIY videos. People want to know how to make it and less chat. My vlog videos got more retention but again if it went on too long I saw a drop-off in viewers. 

Also, a great way to see if your thumbnail or title is misleading is to check where people stop watching. So if people drop off within a few seconds, then it shows the video wasn’t what they were expecting so maybe re-look at your thumbnail and title. 

I learned not to fear my Analytics. I will be checking them more.

The most important tip I learned! Make more videos, they guys from Shifts spoke about how we shouldn’t sweat the fancy stuff and just make more videos. Don’t worry about having fancy camera equipment or lighting etc and just create the videos. Use what you have. Another tip I will be trying is writing a script and writing down a list of shots I want to get. I am dreadful at remembering to include all the info I want and for recording my intro’s and a tip I got was to write down a script. 

I hope you found this post useful. There is so much useful resources on Youtube if you want to check them out. Let me know if you are heading to a future Youtube event?
You can click here if you would like to check out my videos.
Thanks for reading.
Catherine. 

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6 Comments

  1. Karen Constantine
    March 31, 2017 / 8:03 am

    Loved this! Next time I'm coming with you so we can take over the YouTube world!

  2. James Lawson-Smith
    March 31, 2017 / 3:35 pm

    Loads of great tips and glad you had a great day. Was a pleasure to meet you and hopefully see you again soon.

  3. Catherine Carton
    March 31, 2017 / 7:28 pm

    Aw definitely pal! We will have so much fun together.

  4. Catherine Carton
    March 31, 2017 / 7:28 pm

    You too! Cant wait for the next one. x

  5. Victoria
    April 1, 2017 / 8:21 am

    Firstly – I love your YouTube videos so you're definitely doing something right! Secondly, this is really, really helpful so thank you. I've been weighing up maybe filming some recipes to go along side my posts but I've been umm-ing and ahh-ing cause I don't know if people will watch but I think after this I'll give it a go! X

  6. Catherine Carton
    April 5, 2017 / 12:33 pm

    Thanks for reading Victoria x You definitely should dip your toe in video making. You will do so well. Recipes are great videos to make and watch. I was surprised by the amount of people who watch mine. Youtube is a massive audience and you will definitely to well there. Let me know if you start a channel x

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