Any Useful Takeaways from VidCon?

Pierce's Mom said:
I see now why you all stopped live streaming. Really living through the motto of trying new things, failing often, and changing it up quickly. Thanks for sharing. It's a shame that YT brand reps can't be completely trusted either for knowing the details of the algo.
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It's definitely not malice on their part, they simply repeat what's publicly available - make good videos, thumbnails, engage with the audience, keep up with the trends. If there's new functionality out, they want to promote it.
 
xingcat said:
The main things I learned from larger creators:
  • Engagement seems to be less of a factor for YouTube these days than watch time. (I have heard this from other sources as well, such as YouTube events and live streams). So asking for likes and subscribers isn't as important as getting people to watch your videos for as long as possible, and as many videos of yours in a row as possible.
  • Having a single focus is also important. YouTube's algorithm seems to be punishing (or at least not rewarding) channels that have huge dips and spikes in their viewership. So if you have a gaming channel with vlogs, and the game playthroughs get tons of views and the vlogs significantly less, drop the vlogs or put them on another channel, because your game videos will be less likely to be promoted because they're lost in a sea of changing analytics.
  • The YouTube audience is super-young. I knew this, but seeing that many kids all with their parents at this space all at once really drove that point home.
  • Don't count on YouTube as your only platform. The algorithm can and will change without notice, AdSense is no longer a reliable source of income, and anyone who exclusively stays on YouTube could wind up as happy as people who stayed on Blip.tv exclusively a few years ago.
  • There are many, many, MANY companies out there vying for your attention to try to "promote" you, but they don't seem to have much beyond building up a group of creators to skim off of. Be wary of companies offering you to put your videos on their platform to get revenue, seemingly for nothing, because they're most likely doing the same thing that MCNs were doing a few years ago, and will probably be just about as good for small and medium sized creators as MCNs are/were.
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What other platforms are out there now like YouTube? Facebook and Instagram are great for short videos or long videos but they dont have the engagement or consistency that YouTube offers. Any thoughts on this or advice?
 
Quick Question said:
What other platforms are out there now like YouTube? Facebook and Instagram are great for short videos or long videos but they dont have the engagement or consistency that YouTube offers. Any thoughts on this or advice?
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For the most part, the creators I spoke to spoke of building on Facebook, Twitch, Instagram, YouNow, Vid.Me, Vimeo, and any other platform where you think you can get a foothold. Mostly, it's about diversification, even if the benefits aren't immediately obvious. Putting all your eggs in the YouTube basket could be as bad for you as doing so for Vine back in the day was when Vine was....a thing.
 
xingcat said:
For the most part, the creators I spoke to spoke of building on Facebook, Twitch, Instagram, YouNow, Vid.Me, Vimeo, and any other platform where you think you can get a foothold. Mostly, it's about diversification, even if the benefits aren't immediately obvious. Putting all your eggs in the YouTube basket could be as bad for you as doing so for Vine back in the day was when Vine was....a thing.
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Wow... I've been out of the loop. This is the first time I ever heard of Vid.Me, and after checking their website, the Nostalgia Critic is already there.
 
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