YouTube recently announced several new updates to help all creators home in on their audience.
First off, they expanded their ‘Other Videos Watched’ Feature.
Launched in 2020, ‘Other Videos Watched’ tracks your users’ viewing habits over seven days then delivers a curated list to you of what they’re tuning into. This can help you to stay on top of trends, spark creative ideas, and give insight into what your audience is craving that you may not be delivering.
Cool right? So why were most of you unable to use the 2020 update?
Originally YouTube was stingy and only offered it to those with higher traffic thresholds. Now, two years later, as reported on by Social Media Today, they decided everyone deserves the intel no matter what size their channel is.
As explained by YouTube:
“We’ve talked to creators, and we’ve heard that it can be frustrating when some YouTube analytics features are unavailable due to insufficient data, and we’re happy to announce that we’re bringing the ‘Other videos your audience watched’ feature to more creators who may not have hit previous data thresholds.”
Now, with the new expanded update, you’ve got a shiny new tool that can help you understand what your audience is consuming outside your channel. That should give you fresh ideas on how to tailor your content to them. In the future, YouTube is also planning to take the feature one step further by implementing a function that filters “Shorts,” “VOD,” and “Live.” This is a nice bonus especially if you’re into creating short videos because it can help you break down “key trends” in your niche.
In addition to expanding the ‘Other Videos Watched’ feature, YouTube is further testing a few more updates for community posts which include text filters and stickers.
As Social Media Today explained, text filter and stickers are nothing original as every other platform on the planet offers these… but because they all do, it’s expected by creators and keeps YouTube competitive. The article did mention however there may be a few different stickers thrown in there that are specific to YouTube which would “point to key features.” If the update is implemented after the testing is over, you can look forward to being able to customize all your posts this way.
Finally, to wrap it all up, YouTube is looking to offer a new search function so users can easily find Shorts Content.
This is important because, “75% of all YouTube users now engage with Shorts Content.”
Knowing that statistic and that YouTube is making it easier than ever for people to find your short videos, should encourage you to get out there and make more of them. Whatever you decide to do, however, the new options YouTube is implementing, and testing are worth checking out.
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Alyssa Collins hails from Minnesota, where snowy days were the perfect excuse to stay warm inside and write. Over the years, she turned that joy into a career and has authored numerous articles for various publications (under pen names). Email Alyssa via alyssa@ynot.com.
Photo credit: iStock.com/hapabapa
