💪 The Power of Analytics: How I'm Growing on Youtube

Hello, beautiful people of the Internet! 👋

I know, I know… I should have sent this update yesterday, but… I did not. So here it is today. Enjoy!

▶️ My YouTube Channel is “booming”

Today it’s all about YouTube growth strategies and how I’m using the power of analytics to make them happen. If you don’t feel like reading, you can just watch the following video and get on with it. I've got your back. 👊

🤓 Let's geek out with strategy

You're probably wondering what I'm on about. I'm growing! I mean, my YouTube channel is growing. And no, this does not imply that it is exploding with new followers and bomb threats (kidding!). By YouTube growth, I mean an increase in metrics and numbers. Not just the number of followers. It is much more than that.

So, why is this happening? What am I doing differently than before? First of all, I have the goal of monetizing my YouTube channel. In order to do that, I must get to 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 hours of watched content. Y’all need to go there right now and watch all my videos until your eyes pop out, okay? Gruesome image, sorry. Those are ambitious goals, but with a few tricks and tweaks, I think I'll get there.

🤓 So, I did, I am doing this...

• Work. Work. Work. Work. Work. Yes, the Rihanna song.

• I moved my content from Portuguese to English.

• I picked a niche. Yes, I’m one of those people. Mine is Social Media Managers and Content Creators.

• I created visual consistency. I’m talking about applying my brand’s colors, reworking my video editing style, and designing thumbnails.

• Regular uploads and posts. Specifically, 1 long form video, 4 Shorts, and daily Community Tab updates every week.

• Share the long-form video link on all my Social Media presences. I know the algorithm hates links, but I’ve been scoring extra views with this one.

• I’m optimizing my video’s titles and descriptions for the search engines.

• Oh, and…

🤔 What have I learned?

Moving my content for both written and spoken English was very strategic. I wanted to get the attention of more people. According to statista.com and worlddata.info:

• “228.5 million people worldwide speak Portuguese as their mother tongue.”

• “1.5 billion people worldwide who spoke English either natively or as a second language”

With numbers like that, who can argue? English it is!

For the last 28 days, all of the key metrics have been higher than usual. On February 10, 2023, I began implementing the new strategy. I know these aren't huge numbers, but they show that I'm doing the right things to advance. Of course, this is social media, and things change quickly, so I may have to adapt or rethink everything next week or even tomorrow. In my honest opinion, not much has changed. It's all “fluff”. It all comes down to basic human behavior, and changing it takes a long, long, looooong time.

The most powerful insight of all: posting YouTube Shorts is working! I was reading everywhere that this was a "thing," but as someone who likes to try stuff for herself, I had to try it for myself. Look at what happened:

As you can see, 79% of my viewers discovered my channel through YouTube Shorts. 79! Mind-blowing!🤯 In a previous edition, I discussed short form content and how social media platforms are encouraging creators to create more of it. YouTube is no different. Why is YouTube acting in this manner? In order to compete with TikTok. Easy. By increasing the reach of brands and creators, YouTube hopes to encourage the use of this format, allowing more TikTok-style content to enter the platform and more TikTok viewers to migrate to YouTube. I believe YouTube has a good chance of winning this race, but I'll discuss that in another issue.

😄 What’s next

Monetization, brothers, sisters, and all my other peeps. This is where I’m at:

I'm going to keep doing what I'm doing because it's working. You probably think I'm crazy, that these figures are so small that my goals seem so far away. In my experience, what usually happens is that you keep growing slowly at first, until one of your videos gains traction and your numbers begin to grow faster. Then it stabilizes, but it is still sufficient to monetize and grow your brand and services via YouTube. I'll make it. I'm a believer.

If these numbers hold, I expect to have 1,000 subscribers by April 2023. However, the watched time prediction is not encouraging. According to my calculations, I'll reach 4,000 hours of watch time in January 2027. As previously stated, I am an optimist. We must consider things like how much content I'll post and how that will translate into more views. Also, as said before, one of my videos may "explode" and increase these numbers. I'll get there. 💪

If you want my YouTube tracking sheet, just respond to this email and I'll send it to you. No problem. 😃

🔨 Usefull Tools

• CapCut, superb mobile video editor for creating amazing short-form videos. It's the app that everyone on TikTok uses. You can shoot yourself, use a built-in teleprompter for your scripts, apply filters, add AI-generated captions, and upload directly to your favorite platforms, among other things. I created this YouTube Short with CapCut. → https://youtube.com/shorts/BcLEUyBYhhM

• TubeBuddy, This is the tool I use to optimize my YouTube videos. I do title and keyword research here, as well as all of my SEO work and A/B tests to make it stand out! It has saved my life.

👋 Want to work together?

When you’re ready, here are 6 ways I can help you:

1. Social Media and Content Strategy

2. Social Media management (Editorial calendar management, content creation, community management)

3. Personal Branding

4. Social Media Career Advice

5. Education (workshops, social media classes)

6. Speaking Events

👉 Book a FREE 1:1 session with me

📅 I'll be back...

But in the meantime, you can find me on Youtube, Linkedin, Twitter, and Instagram.

Thank you for sticking with me to the end. You’re a brave one! 💪

See you next time!

– Vanessa

P.S. Did someone forward this to you? Subscribe here.

P.P.S. Thanks for reading me. If this newsletter ever becomes a burden, please feel free to unsubscribe. I’ll be okay. 🙂

—————-

This newsletter is edited by Filipa Guedes