How to get not just subs, BUT FANS

mrtoastbuster

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OK, so I see a lot of the threads on this page and I am, just like you surely, thinking

sub4sub?
fireviews?
shoutouts?

Those aren't real ways to get promoted! I will reveal how you can get people to actually LIKE your videos, to make that conscious decision to click subscribe cause they think you are funny or give good make up tutorials or are good at guitar covers or whatever!

Ok so first of all here's what ya gotta do. This is what I do. Everyone has friends. Make your first video. Show it to your friends. Not just one friend, LOADS of them! The more you show the better! Use facebook and twitter to show your videos to people you really know!

This has two benefits:

1) Adds pressure on you to make something of a decent standard so your rep doesn't go down the drain.

2) Your friends are real people that you know and you can actually see how they react to your videos.

Once this is done, based on the QUALITY of your video your friends will either hate, love or like your video. If they love it they'll share it. If they hate it (ie. Rebecca Black) they will share it. If they like it, they won't share it. That's why it's important to make the best videos you can! You don't want to be mediocre or it won't get passed round!

If your content is good enough it will get passed round your friends, your school, your work your community, and from there your audience will inflate: like a balloon. If you keep coming out with consistent quality your audience will grow at an exponential rate. At first the growth will be small but then over time you will gain a subscriber every day as opposed to every week and so on. This is exactly what happened to me. My friends started watching, then other students at school and eventually teachers. Growing your audience is like gaining muscle: if you go to they gym everyday and lift just the bar you won't gain muscle. If you go to the gym once a year and put all the weights on the bar, you won't gain any muscle either because you can't lift it. If you go to the gym once a week however, and lift a good decent amount of weight you will gain muscle! You must strike the balance between quality and quantity.

The trick here, when you are growing your audience is LISTENING! What do they want?! Look at the comments, create a facebook page check messages. All that good stuff. Once you have listened you will then know what kind of videos they like.

It's all good and dandy if your videos are amazing... but what people look for on youtube as well is a friend! They want exactly that! That's why vlogs like ShayCarl are so succesful, it's like you are having a conversation with a friend who tells you whats going on, what their favourite ice cream is and who they're voting for in X factor. Now, you have to do this in one of two ways.

1) Public Relations- this is how you act towards your audience as a whole through videos and tweets. You have to just be you! If you pretend to be someone more you will forget to act one day and people will notice you are phony. On top of this if you are you, you will never act differently and will have the same familiar personality that your audience will come back to because it is always the same, people don't like someone who changes personality all the time!

2) Private Relations- this is when you send an individual fan a message privately. This is important in that "being a friend factor". Put it like this: Have you ever seen a salesman at work? He will call up a client and ask how his daughter is, or how the new car is shaping up before making a sale. This shows your fan that you know them, and will make them feel wanted and part of something, which everyone loves to be. They will feel like they are a friend!

When reacting with your audience it is also important if you are a group of people making videos to have one "face". Like Harley, the main guy in EpicMealTime and Freddie from freddiew are the faces that you get to know the most. One more piece of advise about relations. If you relate (the very definition of relations!) what you are talking about to your audience they will feel more of a connection to you, like you are indeed a friend.

SO... To summarise 3 key steps:

1) Inflate your audience like a balloon starting with people YOU know.
2) Strike the balance between quality and quantity in your videos.
3) Be a friend to your audience!

Also, one last way to grow your audience is through collabs, which are always fun!

These are just opinions from my experience but I feel they do work. My name is Patty G or as I'm known on YouTube, MrToastbuster. I hope you found this informative and a better way to grow your audience!

:p
 

PansGaming

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If you're a vlogger/gamer and want to reach a wider audience who are also into the same interests as you, why not try to be a guest vlogger/commentator on other people's channels as well. Or try doing channel swaps. I've seen that these can be quite successful.

Cheers and good article :)
 

mrtoastbuster

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Awesome suggestions!
I'm way too shy to show my videos to my friends though :oops:
Don't get me wrong it took a leap of faith for me to do it too but I am so glad I did! :3 Just appear like you're not worried/ embarrased and people will like your videos! Oh yeah btw, my earphones always fall out too ._.
 

RoyalTeeZone

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This is so true! I tell this to my band all the time! Let's build our audience first through friends and family.. If they like our shows then they tell their friends who tell their friends and then the newbies and strangers start to fall in and become friends/fan.
Great information! Thanks for sharing!