YouTube Channel Improvement Notes

I have been releasing more YouTube videos recently and trying to learn how to ‘improve’ my YouTube numbers.

There are two strands to this:

• core
• periphery

The core feature that will allow success on YouTube is clearly quality content. Clearly, having watched a lot of videos, quality is a very subjective attribute, but it clearly has to revolve around providing the viewer with value.

There are an enormous amount of periphery features which support success. Unfortunately, these are easier to target than the core so it might be tempting to only target these e.g. thumbnails, channel descriptions, video descriptions, etc.

I’m learning that I have to do both.

Core video quality takes time and requires me to continually improve and experiment so that each video becomes better than the last.

Periphery, because it is fast to act on, can be done immediately.

Some periphery changes I’ve made recently.

• First few lines of “About” description

First few lines of “About” description

When you hover over a ‘name’ in a comment you see a truncated version of the “About” Description.

Edit this so that it makes sense in that context and can be used as a teaser to drive traffic to your channel.

To do this:

• leave a comment on a video
• hover over your name
• edit the About description until you are happy

You can edit the About description by:

• Goto “My channel”
• click “About”
• click the “Description” to edit it

Channel Name

I want the Channel name to be more than a “Name” I also want it to have a subtitle that explains the subject of the channel so rather than “EvilTester Videos” I have “EvilTester - Software Testing”.

I don’t know if this also feeds into SEO, although I’m assuming it does.

Thumbnail Branding

I still need to improve this, but as a short term step I’m adding a logo on each thumbnail so that it is obviously from my channel when shown in a list.

Production

I’ve just started to experiment with ChromaKey and the first ChromaKey video received a lot of positive comments.

Next Steps

I have the following items on my periphery todo list:

• Channel Header - remove links to external sites, add image of me, make simpler
• Channel “For new visitors” - need to change the text here and a different channel trailer
• Consistent thumbnail branding
• Better “About” text
• Different Intro

For the core todo list:

• Videos covering ‘popular’ topics, not just topics I want to cover
• Ask for ‘subscriptions’ more
• More overlays - lower third etc.

Recommended channels to help you improve:

• Brian G Johnson TV
• Nick Nimmin
• Derral Eves

"How Brands Grow" By Byron Sharp

Most of "How Brands Grow" by Byron Sharp. was aimed at a slightly different type of company than mine but there was still a few nuggets. And the Seven Simple Rules For Marketing presented in Chapter 12 were worth the price of admission.

You can see them in the photo but basically:

1) Reach
2) Be Easy To Buy
3) Get Noticed
4) Refresh and Build Memory Structures
5) Create and Use Distinctive Brand Assets
6) Be Consistent, yet Fresh
7) Stay Competitive, don't give a reason not to buy

I will certainly be working through this list.

The 'rules' are expanded in the book with more detail and they build on information presented in earlier chapters. This list saved the book from being average with a few notes and being sent to the charity shop and is now in the marketing section in my bookcase and I will revisit and work through the book again.

I do not do all of the above.

In practical terms, my immediate interpretation is:

1. effective tagging on social media posts, syndication of content, SEO, create more content
2. online and in normal places e.g. make sure you are listed on Amazon
3. create content where your customers read, create enough content that it does not get lost in the noise
4. Create strategic content, create tactical content that refers to the strategic hooks
5. I need to use my brand assets better
6. Keep track of your core messages
7. Keep copy up to date to refer to the most up to date versions of tools and language versions. Treat pre-sales questions as failure demand and address them in the copy.

I do not yet do all of the above.

Do you?

A post shared by Software Testing Tips & Videos (@eviltester) on Apr 23, 2017 at 8:31am PDT

For social media you feed the buffer

For most of my work life I have learned to concentrate on:

• single piece flow
• release it when done

With social media I'm having to learn a new set of strategies.

• batch creation
• single piece flow editing
• buffered release cycles
• revisit to repurpose

Never repeat a public speaking talk - until you get busy

I have only once, repeated a conference talk:

• same slides
• same content

I was at a two day conference and a keynote speaker for the second day pulled out, so I stepped in and did a talk on the second day (as well as the first).

I didn’t have time to create a new talk so I refreshed my memory of the old talk and presented that in the morning.

I didn’t enjoy it and it didn’t feel right to me, but it went down OK.

But I’ve never repeated a talk since.

I realise now that I’ve had the luxury of preparation time when getting ready for conferences, so I was able to create new talks, from scratch, and then never repeat them.

But now, I find that I’m being asked to talk, with much less notice than I’d like, and I simply don’t have time to create completely new content.

So I’m repeating talks… kind of.

I don’t:

• use exactly the same slide deck
• use the same words
• have the same talk title
• etc.

Because all audiences are different, but I’m …

• creating new titles aimed at the audience
• re-using slides
• re-using themes
• extending parts of one talk when I add the theme into another
• contracting themes when the are relevant, but not as important
• learning from previous talks and adding new information into the ‘repeat’

It feels like ‘re-purposing’ rather than re-using, but if you came to all the talks you’d certainly see similarities.

I’m hoping that:

• it doesn’t feel like a repeat
• I’m still creating content for the audience
• the ‘same’ sections improve each time

I realise that I still have a luxury of some time, so I am able to re-purpose rather than ‘repeat’. But I’ve amended my ‘never repeat a talk’ motto to ‘never repeat a talk, unless I get really busy’.

I’m hoping that one day, I’ll be able to create unique talks, with minimal preparation that still:

• entertain
• educate
• motivate
• inspire questions

…and by minimal preparation I mean - a few minutes.

But I’m not there yet.

Marketing using Instagram videos with Captions

I have been creating daily instagram videos and I’ve started to be concerned that many people will not watch them because you have to have sound and often we don’t have then when looking at instagram.

A few recent Gary Vaynerchuck instagram videos had captions on them and I found myself watching the video and following along by reading the captions. I suspect the ‘view figures’ for the video did not increase as a result, but my engagement with his content did, and that is really what counts.

So how can someone without the resources of Gary V do a similar thing?

Here’s my initial experiment.

• I upload the video into Trint
• Tidy the automated transcription
• export as a srtfile
• upload my video from my phone to my computer
• create a camtasia project
• set the Project settings canvas size to 1080 by 1080
• amend the caption font size to about 80-90
• import the srt file as captions
• export video to mp4
• use buffer to share on instagram and facebook

And voila - a ‘watchable’ instagram video without having to have sound and without needing resources on the level of Gary V.

I will iterate forward from this to streamline my process.

Oh - I had one srt file that Camtasia refused to import, so I used smisrt.com/en to conver the file to smi which Camtasia did import. I don’t know if this was an issue with Trint or Camtasia - but this is the workaround I used.

All told this probably takes about 20 minutes for a 1 minute instgram video, but I think the engagement increase will go up and that will make this worthwhile. Also I have a transcript that I can repurpose later.

Content creation realisation "only you see everything you do"

Note to self: "The only person seeing everything that you are doing is you."

Therefore:

• you can re-use content and it will be new to most people
• you can re-purpose content, to keep it alive, if it is core to your message
• you can re-promote content because people will not have seen it

If you share and create good stuff then help people find it.

Stop:

• thinking that people will tire of what you create
• keep creating new stuff
• keep reminding people about the old good stuff
• thinking that if you include content from posts in your talks that people will 'already have seen it:
• most people don't read blogs
• most people don't follow you on instagram
• most people don't read linkedin
• most people don't follow you on twitter
• most people dont ... etc.
• And... more importantly
• when you talk, you add extra value with, in your face emotional and passionate presenting because you care about the content

Every channel offers additional value even if the content is 'the same' (but the content is not the same, it is channel specific).

Notes from a failed pitch - show the map, and the route from here to there

Just a quick write up of notes from a failed pitch.

A consultancy that I periodically work through brought me in on a pitch.

• I had the skills to lead the project
• they could provide the staff
• it was their lead
• they had the client contact and relationship

So we engaged in a joint pitch.