Self Promotion

[grrduh]

Just curious as to what your thoughts are on self promoting and whether or not you engage in it.
And if you do, how do you do it - through which channels, how often, etc? Do you try to mask your self promotion as something else or leave it at face value?

 

[Symph]

To me the best self promotion is not self promotion at all. Basically what I mean is, you should go to other people's channels that are larger than your own but not TOO much larger, and try to befriend them, let them know you like what they do. Ask them if they have any tips for you. See if they wanna collab with you and just be available and real and nice. The WORST self promotion, the stuff channels do that make me want to burn their channel to the ground, is the copy paste messages that lie to people and tell them they watched when they didn't or act like they're a fan when they're not tagged with a "You should check me out I bet you'll love my stuff!!" This is a great way to get other vloggers to hate you LOL

And if you must kind of "spam" people, at the very least be up front about it. Just say "Hi I am a new channel and have trouble getting views could you take a look at my stuff?" Or go to a big channel and comment "Hi I'd really appreciate anyone reading this to take a look at my channel thank you" I don't encourage either of those things, but it's 10 times better than telling me "man your videos are awesome! I'm a big fan! You should check me out I make minecraft videos!" Yet I gained no sub, yet you didn't comment on my videos, that is a way to guarantee I will not only not watch your video, I'll mark you as spam.

 

[Caber]

You should really try to self promote in a way that makes you seem like you're not just someone spamming people to get views. I personally would try some community channels and asking friends to help promote you and give you shoutouts. Just don't be a completely obvious person, is probably the best advice I can give you.

 

[SimplyRodney]

I have done self promotion but it's so tough, lol. So I haven't self promoted in a while. And honestly, I think not self promoting is better because when you self promote you EXPECT a sub from them, but when you don't, it's saddening. But when you randomly gain a subscriber WITHOUT self promoting, I think that's the best thing ever.

 

[Seb King]

I'll self promote to the extent that I'm not spamming anyone. For example, I'll post on Twitter / Facebook that I have a new video and that people should check it out. Same with if I'm nearing a milestone. But I don't think it's right to spam peoples inboxes or feed's with self promotion.

 

[THEREALFLUFF]

I promote stuff on my personal Facebook. No one watches or gives a s**t but I do it anyways cause f**k it.

It'll typically just be something like " Hey go watch this, dicks". Always works.
My twitter automatically post new videos.

 

[Caber]

Also, if you're going to promote yourself, make sure you have a decent amount of content first. YouTube is all about first impressions, so if I went to a channel and only saw a couple of videos, I'd most likely be turned off by it. Make sure that your videos are high quality if you actually want people to subscribe.

 

[grrduh]

To me the best self promotion is not self promotion at all. Basically what I mean is, you should go to other people's channels that are larger than your own but not TOO much larger, and try to befriend them, let them know you like what they do. Ask them if they have any tips for you. See if they wanna collab with you and just be available and real and nice. The WORST self promotion, the stuff channels do that make me want to burn their channel to the ground, is the copy paste messages that lie to people and tell them they watched when they didn't or act like they're a fan when they're not tagged with a "You should check me out I bet you'll love my stuff!!" This is a great way to get other vloggers to hate you LOL

And if you must kind of "spam" people, at the very least be up front about it. Just say "Hi I am a new channel and have trouble getting views could you take a look at my stuff?" Or go to a big channel and comment "Hi I'd really appreciate anyone reading this to take a look at my channel thank you" I don't encourage either of those things, but it's 10 times better than telling me "man your videos are awesome! I'm a big fan! You should check me out I make minecraft videos!" Yet I gained no sub, yet you didn't comment on my videos, that is a way to guarantee I will not only not watch your video, I'll mark you as spam.

I definitely agree with this. I always downvote when I see people posting those messages. But as far as befriending the somewhat larger youtubers - I noticed that even they post a lot of self promotions, on twitter or other social media.[DOUBLEPOST=1374454952,1374454880][/DOUBLEPOST]

I promote stuff on my personal Facebook. No one watches or gives a s**t but I do it anyways cause f**k it.

It'll typically just be something like " Hey go watch this, dicks". Always works.
My twitter automatically post new videos.

Hahaha. Someone I follow always posts his new videos with a threat. It's hilarious, though.

 

[Symph]

I definitely agree with this. I always downvote when I see people posting those messages. But as far as befriending the somewhat larger youtubers - I noticed that even they post a lot of self promotions, on twitter or other social media.

Well on twitter and other social media it's way more acceptable than on youtube. I thought you meant strictly on youtube for some reason. Twitter is a cesspool for "CHECK ME OUT MANGGGGG" I post all my vids there too.

 

[grrduh]

It seems like a lot of people here will post some things on their social media accounts, which is pretty much what I was talking about. I wasn't exactly trying to go into the whole spam posting on others' videos, even though for some bizarre reason, I've seen that work for some.

Is there a point that the posts on social media become too much, though?
For example, I've recently started to get a little annoyed - if annoyed is even the correct word - with tyleroakley for the sole fact that he self promotes on twitter and tumblr A LOT. Some is to be expected and I did follow him partly to hear about new things when the sub boxes aren't working, but it almost seems like he posts a link every couple posts. Is there a limit?[DOUBLEPOST=1374455319,1374455207][/DOUBLEPOST]

Well on twitter and other social media it's way more acceptable than on youtube. I thought you meant strictly on youtube for some reason. Twitter is a cesspool for "CHECK ME OUT MANGGGGG" I post all my vids there too.

Yeah, but how often? And I have received some tweets from random people that just have a link to their youtube channel and copy and paste a "HEY CHECK ME OUT" message. I don't ever click on them, though.[DOUBLEPOST=1374455723][/DOUBLEPOST]

I have done self promotion but it's so tough, lol. So I haven't self promoted in a while. And honestly, I think not self promoting is better because when you self promote you EXPECT a sub from them, but when you don't, it's saddening. But when you randomly gain a subscriber WITHOUT self promoting, I think that's the best thing ever.

Those random subs and comments are definitely a great feeling.
But when you say you do it/haven't done it in a while, does that just mean social media or comments on other youtube videos?