Marc Guberti: Three strategies to grow your YouTube channel

Each social network is placing emphasis on video. It”™s no wonder they”™re all giving priority to videos. Video content is one of the most engaging forms of content and grabs people”™s attention. Social networks like grabbing people”™s attention and keeping them on their platforms.

Social networks like Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, Pinterest and others have recently made video a deeper part of their strategies. Let’s remember it”™s essential to focus on the social network that started it all which is YouTube. YouTube was the pioneer in the video space and opened the gates to the competition that now ensues. Growing on YouTube makes it easier for you to grow on any social network.  I”™ll be sharing three strategies you can use to grow your YouTube channel.

#1: Increase Your Watch Time And Click-through Rate
These are the two metrics that matter the most on YouTube. The click-through rate is a measure of the number of people who click on your video upon seeing it in the suggested tab. Your title and thumbnail are the two factors that will determine your click-through rate.

Invest more time in coming up with great titles and thumbnails, and more people will click on your videos when they see your videos on YouTube.

Your watch time is the other important metric. If someone watches your 10-minute video from start to finish, that”™s an extra 10 minutes that YouTube has the attention of your viewer. YouTube gets to show suggested videos, run ads if your account is set up to run ads, and ultimately keep people on their platform.

Creating a great video and sharing valuable insights is the backbone for increased watch time, but you also need to edit your videos to increase watch time. By editing your videos and adding b-roll and other pattern interrupts, you can increase the amount of time someone watches your video. If you”™ve ever watched a video of someone talking and then a picture pops up, that”™s an example of a pattern interrupt.

#2: Publish Video Teasers On The Other Social Networks
Earlier I mentioned how it seems like every social network is embracing video and rewarding the people who create videos. However, those rewards only come into play if you natively upload videos on their platforms.

If you copy and paste your YouTube link into a Facebook post, Facebook isn”™t going to reward you for it. They”™ll only reward you if you upload the entire video into Facebook and then post about it. The same rule of thumb applies for the rest of the social networks.

Instead of taking the entire video file and uploading it natively to each social network, there”™s a better approach for promoting your YouTube channel. You can take a clip from your upcoming video and post it on the other social networks. At the end of the clip tell the viewers that you”™ll post the entire video on your YouTube channel. Encourage people to subscribe and hit the notifications bell so they get notified when you come out with that video.

#3: Get Into Collaborations
With marketing and anything else in life, there”™s only so much you can do on your own. Collaborating with other YouTubers will allow you to get in front of their audiences and ultimately grow your channel.

That”™s because the people you collaborate with will promote the video to their audiences. For a YouTube collaboration video, it”™s ideal if both of you are in the same room. If that”™s not possible, there”™s still a way around it, but it”™s a different set-up from a podcast interview.

You can intro someone to your audience and let them do the rest of the video on your channel and then you come in with closing remarks. Then, that person will allow you to speak to their audience in the same manner.

YouTube was the foundational social network that inspired other platforms to utilize video content and reward people for creating that type of content. Even though it”™s the older social network on the block, YouTube is still a heavily visited platform. Utilize it properly to help you get more customers for your business.

Marc Guberti is a USA Today and WSJ bestselling author with over 100,000 online students. He is the host of “Breakthrough Success” podcast and radio show. He coaches content creators on how they can attract more traffic and boost revenue.