3 Ways to Elevate your Instagram and YouTube Videos
YouTube and Instagram influencers are individuals who are able to reach an audience which interacts with their content on such an intimate level, you'd swear all these "strangers" had met before!
In order for you to build a community that's loyal, you'll need to first get found by your people, your homeslices, your tribe...that's the start of elevating your YouTube and Instagram Video content.
Here's how you get it done...
1 - Know What Resonates with Your Target Audience
Most YouTube content creators understand that the only way to be seen by potential subscribers is to research the exact words and phrases that your target audience uses to search for content that's similar to yours on YouTube.
There are free tools like Keyword Tool, and YouTube Trends that give you insights into how your content was discovered, as well as additional data into how hard it will be for you to rank on YouTube for a particular search term. Ideally, you'd want a video topic that receives a lot of searches but doesn't have a lot of high-quality video results competing to be seen.
Even after knowing what your audience is looking for, you need to optimize your content so that the YouTube algorithm will know what your video is about. You do this through metadata and providing keywords to the platform — especially when the keyword is in the video title, description, tags, and subtitles!
On Instagram, increasing your video views is less tricky.
Firstly, in order to expose your content to a large audience, you need to include hashtags and location tags.
Hashtags help you to get seen by a larger audience and receive more likes and even increase the audience's engagement with your followers. When you have increased visibility, you can parlay that popularity into a lot more. Hashtags aren't actually exclusively for Instagram photographs — they're just as effective on video.
How do you choose the best hashtags?
Let others do the work for you! Instead of posting a general hashtag like #happy or #winter, be extremely specific. You can search for a hashtag like #snow, and Instagram will give you related hashtags which are also popular. These are hashtags that you can use in addition to #snow. Incorporate your location into your hashtags, and your page will automatically skip over the pile in order to be seen by others who might be where you are.
Check out Hashtagify. Solid resource.
2 - Remember: Instagram = Timing, but YouTube = Watch-Time
There's a misconception that YouTube doesn't favor smaller channels. Be that as it may, the amount of minutes that an audience spends watching your YouTube content plays a huge part in your earnings. The key then becomes getting as many people to watch MORE of your videos, instead of just clicking in and watching one viral video.
You can do this in three ways:
1) Post more consistently - When your audience has a schedule to look forward to, they tend to tune in.
2) Post longer videos - If you post a 10-minute video and your audience only watches 2 minutes, you might want to consider doubling your video length.
3) Create playlists and use End Cards - This means that the audience will have a greater chance to see other related content that you've created and they'll watch for longer.
On Instagram, the main barrier to hack is Timing.
Depending on your geographic location and the location of your audience, there are peak times that you have to be mindful of when posting your Instagram videos.
Firstly, you'll have to put your detective hat on and look at your analytics. If you don't have an app that you subscribe to, use your discernment. Where is your major engagement coming from and at what time these people interacting with your content? Once you've figured that out, make it your "golden hour" — that's when you want to post your most important content.
Instagram and YouTube are the same in the sense that in order to rank highly you have to do one main thing:
1) Post consistently - a fully themed Instagram grid is far more attractive than a grid of just random images.
Related: Top 5 Video Editing Apps for iPhones
No matter which platform you prefer, it pays to be consistent!
3 - Pay Attention to What You Audience Wants to See From You
Using simple metrics like comments, likes, and shares as a way to know what your audience prefers from you will help you carve out a niche and attract an even wider audience, on YouTube. By posting relevant content and ASKING your audience to "give the video a thumbs up" if they want to see similar content in the future, you're able to make better future content decisions.
On Instagram, the best way to do this is to ask your audience questions and pay attention to how they respond in the comments section. Engage with your audience in this way by responding to their comments and establishing a form of intimacy with them. This will create a sense of loyalty from the audience and they'll be more compelled to interact with your future Instagram videos. Just check out the account Willitbeard...
Damn, those beards are impressive. This is a perfect example of a niche Instagram account that's crushing it. I guess a lot of people love beard art. Who knew?
Pro-tip: Promote your audience!
If you're a small influencer aka Micro-Influencer, you have the opportunity to actually personally engage with your audience. When you have a good conversation with a viewer or follower, promote them to other audience members to show your audience how personable you are, and that "it's really you" that they're having conversations with.
If sharing your conversations with your audience members is too much of a stretch and feels like a breach of privacy (depending on what you talk about), by simply giving your viewers a shout out whenever you post a new video, you create a whole new level of engagement. Few of the larger influencers can do this!
If you're not fortunate enough to have a lot of audience engagement on your YouTube and Instagram, don't give up — go back to step 1 and find out what resonates with your target audience. They'll always leave bread crumbs all over the internet about the sort of content that they want to see more of.
Whether your go-to format is Instagram Videos or YouTube, the rules are almost the same.
In order to elevate your content, remember to:
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