babyteeth4
Taking over the world... ...one kid at a time!
I've spent a lot of time wondering about why certain videos manage to separate themselves from the pack. I released two fairly similar videos last summer on the same date. The title is almost exactly the same (except for "part 1" and "part 2"), the thumbnails are almost the same, the channel is the exact same, the running time is almost the same, same actors in both. They are both part of the same story.
But one of the videos has 5 times more views than the other--and it's part 2, not part 1!
At first I just assumed it was because the more popular video had a little more action and humor up front, whereas the other one took a little more warming up before it really got going. But as the distance in views between the two videos grew larger and larger, I did some more study of the analytics and found out something interesting.
The more popular video has a much larger foreign audience, whereas the less popular video is getting most of its views from English-speaking countries.
Now that I've re-watched my videos with the sound turned down, taking dialogue out of the equation. The more popular video makes sense even without dialogue, and works better visually.
I think this is key for getting that global audience--overcoming the language barrier, being more visual. If you can make a video that anyone in the world can understand regardless of language, you have that much more of an audience available.
I'm going to keep this in mind for my future videos when I can--it's tough to avoid doing a lot of talking for reviews, but there's at least one unboxing channel out there with no dialog at all, and guess what, it has a HUGE amount of views.
Now, for a gaming walkthrough channel, it's hard not to have a lot of dialogue, right? And the visuals are going to be pretty similar from one gaming video to the next. But what else comes across even if you don't understand the language? The emotional reactions of the game player. Suddenly it makes a lot more sense as to who is the most popular gaming YouTuber: Pewdiepie. That guy wears his emotions on his sleeve (and his face, and voice, sometimes his whole body!) No one is going to call him reserved. You always know exactly how he feels, and even if he annoys you, he's interesting to watch. People can relate to that, even if they don't like the video game, they like the way he's reacting to the video game. He's speaking a language that goes beyond the words.
So, long story short, my two tips making your videos more global-friendly:
1. Use imagery instead of dialogue whenever possible.
2. Make an connection with your viewers by showing more emotion.
Something to think about.
But one of the videos has 5 times more views than the other--and it's part 2, not part 1!
At first I just assumed it was because the more popular video had a little more action and humor up front, whereas the other one took a little more warming up before it really got going. But as the distance in views between the two videos grew larger and larger, I did some more study of the analytics and found out something interesting.
The more popular video has a much larger foreign audience, whereas the less popular video is getting most of its views from English-speaking countries.
Now that I've re-watched my videos with the sound turned down, taking dialogue out of the equation. The more popular video makes sense even without dialogue, and works better visually.
I think this is key for getting that global audience--overcoming the language barrier, being more visual. If you can make a video that anyone in the world can understand regardless of language, you have that much more of an audience available.
I'm going to keep this in mind for my future videos when I can--it's tough to avoid doing a lot of talking for reviews, but there's at least one unboxing channel out there with no dialog at all, and guess what, it has a HUGE amount of views.
Now, for a gaming walkthrough channel, it's hard not to have a lot of dialogue, right? And the visuals are going to be pretty similar from one gaming video to the next. But what else comes across even if you don't understand the language? The emotional reactions of the game player. Suddenly it makes a lot more sense as to who is the most popular gaming YouTuber: Pewdiepie. That guy wears his emotions on his sleeve (and his face, and voice, sometimes his whole body!) No one is going to call him reserved. You always know exactly how he feels, and even if he annoys you, he's interesting to watch. People can relate to that, even if they don't like the video game, they like the way he's reacting to the video game. He's speaking a language that goes beyond the words.
So, long story short, my two tips making your videos more global-friendly:
1. Use imagery instead of dialogue whenever possible.
2. Make an connection with your viewers by showing more emotion.
Something to think about.
Thinking about it I appreciate the type of my channel even more - music is an universal "language" and showing your emotions is a huge factor.
