Becoming Youtube Side-videos
So, the new "Becoming Youtube" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCEOSWQtnR8 by Benjamin Cook was up yesterday.
This post is about the side-videos "How important is it for a Youtuber to be good looking?" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2u7y4wKNr08 and "How much do views and subs matter?" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ZQiZl97aOc on the channel ninebrassmonkeys2 http://www.youtube.com/user/ninebrassmonkeys2?feature=watch , which explore the demographics of the Youtube audience and the factors for and measures of success on Youtube.
The view on the first question seemed to be that it was important to appear good looking, especially for girls. Girls who have famously made videos about how they aren't as "good looking" in real life are Lauren Fairweather http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Cq-S5hGkPo and Jenna Marbles http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYpwAtnywTk .
They may be right in that many people come to videos because a Youtuber is "good-looking", but a lot more people stay with a Youtuber and Youtube in general because their community and output is of a consistently high quality.
Dan Howell http://www.youtube.com/user/danisnotonfire and Phil Lester http://www.youtube.com/user/amazingphil , as well as Charlie McDonnell http://www.youtube.com/user/charlieissocoollike , are pretty popular with teenage girls, but they also create videos that are of a high quality and genuinely interesting to watch. Dan, in particular, used to reward viewers who watched for the content rather than for his face with a quick extra after his end-credits. This shows an awareness of his audience that television simply does not have.
The great thing about Youtube is that a huge proportion of content-creators on Youtube do not pander to the lowest common denominator (although, unfortunately, some of them do - cinnamon challenge, anyone?), and people are smarter than popular culture thinks they are.
The general consensus expressed in the second video was that views and subscriptions do matter, but that other factors are important too: watch-time, engagement with content, exploration of further content on the platform, and the integrity of the creators' original content. Of course, for Youtube partners www.youtube.com/partners , the metrics really do matter because that is where their money comes from.
However, as with all creative artists, good Youtubers put their content out there because they believe in it, and hoping for honest critique and engagement from their audience. And, as Tom Ridgewell http://www.youtube.com/user/tomska said: "there's a big difference between what's good and what's popular".
I'll leave you with the following thought:
"You matter as much as the things that matter to you. And I got so backwards trying to matter to him. All this time, there were real things to care about: real, good people who care about me, and this place. It's so easy to get stuck. You just get caught in being something, being special or cool, to the point where you don't even know why you need it; you just think you do." - John Green http://www.youtube.com/user/vlogbrothers .