YouTube community tab is MORE powerful than you think

I’ve researched 178 posts on the YouTube community tab from this channel and my DJ channel and this is what I learned.

Goal of the community tab
Engagement – what drives the community tab
2.
The YouTube Community Tab is basically its on mini-social-media-platform within YouTube.
It has its own algorithm, which is fully fed by viewer engagement.

3
Without engagement, no impressions, so no promotion of your post.
And the engagement you get on your current post influences the amount of impressions you get on your next post.

4
You only get engagement by providing value to viewers … you don’t get engagement when there is only value in it for the creator, it’s just like making YouTube videos in that regard.
So don’t mistake the community tab for a dumping ground to promote anything you have to offer.

5
returns viewers/who sees your posts?
One of the best ways to grow a channel is to return viewers to your content, your community tab can help you with that.
This graph had a hotspot on Friday because that’s when I release a video, and cool spot on Monday.
But since I started posting daily community posts: look at how even my audience is spread across the week.
[broll: audience hotspot before]
[broll: audience hotspot after]

6.
Your community tab is most valuable when you ask viewers what they would like to see, so you can cater better to their needs.

7
And by the way, not only subscribers see your community posts, also your regular viewers and sometimes viewers-who-watch-similar-content like yours on other YouTube channels

8
I smell opportunity

What works best

9
What post-type works best
Community post with polls work best to get engagement, especially compared to asking open questions.
[broll: polls get most impressions.mov]
10
There is a strong correlation between the amount of ”Impressions” and “Polls” in my Analytics.

11
I think the reason for the poll getting most engagement, is because it is the quickest way to engage, only 2 clicks, instead of having to type anything.
And a poll is more fun than a like-button, because people are curious to see the results of a poll.

12
After polls, Images work really well, simply because it stands out.
YouTube is a visual platform, viewers come to see something, not to read.
[broll: after polls images work well.mov]

13
What type of questions worked best: talk about themselves
Every time I asked a question about viewers themselves, it got the most impressions and highest response rates:
for example:
-how many views did your best video get,
-what was the main traffic source of your best performing video
-what social media do you use most,

14
The data doesn’t lie, People like to talk about themselves.
You can find out a lot about my audience this way, so you can craft also better content for them.
[broll screenshot: engagement rate]

15
Most liked:
I also was curious if there was a relationship between likes and impressions.
I do see a clear connection between the 2, although not a linear one.
[broll screenshot: connection likes and impressions.png]

16
But I don’t see a clear connection between like-rate and post-type.
People generally Liked [=thumbs up] polls less, because none of the top performers in like-rate stats are polls, they are all at the bottom.
I’m not sure what to think of that, since I can image, that if you’ve answered a poll, you are not inclined to click the Like button too.
[broll screenshot: polls less liked.mov]

17
curiosity
Something that sparks an emotion or invokes curiosity works good, just like “in real life” with YouTube videos.
My post about: “my views are down & I’m happy about it”, had one of the most impressions.
[broll: invoke curiosity: views down happy about it]

18.
Powertip: this is a sneaky hidden way to test YouTube video ideas and titles on your audience, BEFORE your release a video.
Just to see what sparks most engagement.

19
Give something to respond to
Instead of having just a message, ask a question so your audience can respond, so there is something to engage with.

20
A “dirty” trick to engage viewers while you promote something, is to do that in the form of a poll that people can respond to.
I’ve announced that I have twitter this way.
I asked people if they follow me on twitter already with a link to my twitter account.
[Broll: do you follow me on twitter.png]

21
You can promote your next video in a very subtle way, simply by asking your audience what they think of a video title or thumbnail.
It also gives you super useful information for your video.
[Broll: ask thumbnails.png]

22
Everyone can react
This tip: applies to only polls.
Make sure that there is an answer for people who have no idea what you are talking about or don’t know the context of the question.

23
Take a look at this poll:
[broll: share tips in community posts.png]
This way, even a total noob to your channel can react to the poll, which maximizes the amount of engagement you can get on the poll.

24
The same applies to the ‘other’ answer. And allways ask viewers to comment what ‘other’ means to them.
[Broll: the other answer.png]

25.
Meme answers
Sometimes I like to make jokes, to make the posts fun to interact with.
This way viewers are more likely to engage.

26
Like the second meme answer here.
And also this poll is a message packaged a question to spark engagement and therefore promotion.
[broll: post meme answers - also message packaged as question.png]

27
But be aware that viewers like to click on meme answers, which makes the poll less reliable.
But, there are ways around that.
[broll: meme answers workaround reliable poll.png]

[wink]

28.
How often should you post?
Very Regularly.
I’ve posted daily for a while.
That worked better than when there were a few days in between.
I do this by sitting down an hour every week and schedule the posts for the upcoming days.

29
Like with YouTube videos: consistency is more important than volume.
I Neglected my dj channel for months and now community posts get very little response.
[broll: dj channel response before.png]
[broll: dj channel response after.png]

30
Length text
Your community posts are shown on YouTube Home and the Subscriptions tab.
[broll: community posts on home screen.png]
As you can see you have only a small space for your text.
So keep it short.
Again, YouTube is a visual platform, viewers don’t like to read walls of text.

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Author

Dexxter Clark
Music Producer / YouTuber

YouTube community tab is MORE powerful than you think

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