After my last content creator tips post, Starting a YouTube Channel you are now ready to launch your channel and/or blog. You have a message to share with content you are passionate about. Now it’s time to share your channel with your audience. This post is all about how to build your YouTube Audience.
HOW DO YOU BUILD A YOUTUBE AUDIENCE?
KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE
When you are ready to share your channel or blog, know who your audience is. Not sure where to start? Typically your audience begins with you. You are creating content that you’re passionate about therefore spreading a message you feel you needed to hear yourself. So, who you are = your target audience.
Start with 3 basic questions
- Gender
- Age group
- Category (beauty, fashion, lifestyle, etc.)
There will be more that goes into this, but hopefully you get the idea. Not everyone who watches or reads your content will fall into these demographics, but it’s a good place to start.
My audience
I am consistently asked who my target audience is by brands. At first I was offended. My videos are for everyone and anyone. How dare they try to categorize me or my viewers/readers?! After stepping back and thinking about it, 80% of my audience can be categorized. This helps me understand my demographic and also create content that speaks to them.
Here is a recent screenshot of my viewer demographics on YouTube. At a glance, you can see most of my audience is female between the ages of 18-35. Makes complete sense because I am a female in my 30’s, but look young for my age. We like to watch people that we can relate to. 4 years into YouTube and my main audience is still who I am. In fact, more so as I become clearer with who I am and what my message is.
When you first start a channel or blog, you won’t have analytics to help you, so it’s up to you to understand who you are speaking to. The clearer you are about who your audience is, the stronger your content can be.
TIME TO BUILD YOUR YOUTUBE AUDIENCE
Now you know who to target. It’s time to build your YouTube audience.
*Note this can be applied to blogs and any social medias.
Be Proactive
YouTube and blogging is a community. With any community, be active. Because you are looking for like minded people to build your audience, watch channels that you are drawn to. Like and comment with quality comments. Be engaged in other’s content.
DO NOT spam or leave comments promoting your channel. Comment from your YouTube channel and people will find you. It’s okay to leave your blog link in the signature of blog comments as long as the comment is meaningful and pertains to the blog post.
I have become friends with other content creators because I truly admire what they are doing and am an active viewer and reader. Comment on other comments on your favorite channels and blogs. People in the comment section are active, which makes them the perfect audience for you.
Start With Who You Know
This can be scary, but share your videos and posts with friends and family. Ask them to support you. You’d be surprised who in your life will be there for you. When I first started I accidentally shared to my personal Facebook account. At first I was mortified, but then realized my first 100 subscribers were thanks to my friends and family. My channel has actually reconnected me with friends I’ve lost touch with.
Make Friends
Sounds repetitive, but necessary. You cannot be successful alone. It takes help from others. Start with smaller blogs and channels. So many of my friends today were not much bigger than me when I first started, but I loved what they were doing and we’ve grown together. It starts with supporting others. Be genuine and be inspired by those around you. There have been lots of times a friend I made online has helped me with a technical issue or a brand deal question.
Spread The Word
Don’t be afraid of telling people about your channel or blog. Use it in conversation. Be proud to have started something. I remember Hubs telling everyone about my channel to my dismay, but because of him, I met another YouTuber who worked at Lush and we did our first collabs together! You never know who you’ll meet or who is listening.
Tweet It, Snap It, Instagram It, Pin It!
Make sure you have every social media outlet and share your content. I’ll be writing posts on how each of these platforms can help you as a content creator. To start off, create an account and share all your videos and posts to them. Follow people that inspire you and start building your community there as well.
How’s it going? Have you done any of these tips? Did you start your channel or blog yet? Share your progress in the comments. I encourage you to support each other and check out each other’s channels and blogs.
Stay tuned, I’ll be offering my first skype session giveaway for one Content Creator Tips Newsletter Subscriber soon. We will have a one on one call where you can ask me anything.
xoxo
Serein
I’ve been a follower for a while now and have always loved that you have stayed true to who you were. You have definitely become an inspiration of what a true blogger/vlogger is.
I always find it so insane how active you are. You post on every outlet possible and still have time to upload, create, and live. You work so hard you deserve every single subscriber, follower, and like out there. I think all of this is really great advice. If anyone is reading this and you want to start something, DO IT. Today is just as good as any day to do something you love. Get out there and share your love and passion.
Author
Thank you so much for taking the time to read and comment. Yes, it’s a bit insane and I work too much, but I love what I do and I hope to help others thinking of starting. You are totally right! DO IT!
I’m really glad you mentioned how scary it was to tell family and friends about your channel. I struggle with anxiety and that seems like the scariest part to me, like I only want strangers to watch my content, not my friends. It’s nice to hear that others have the same fear and I’m not crazy. Thanks for all your positivity!
Madeleine, that’s exactly how I feel! Except for my daughter and sons, I’ve told no one else. I’m so afraid that they’ll think I’m crazy. I’m also older then the average youtuber 44 on 5/24), in the beauty world anyway. Im so afraid they’ll think I’m being silly and ridiculous. I’ve been thinking of this for a few years now but I can’t pull the trigger and just do it. I’m petrified of putting myself out there.
This so helpful! I’ve been playing around with the idea of becoming a content creator, and you help me believe it may be within close reach than I realize. You are so inspirational and I appreciate your insight!
Serein thank you for all the information it will be so helpful when I am finally able to do my blog but unfortunately I am going to put it on hold my illnesses have been worse lately so just putting it on hold until I am rfeling better. I just wanted you to know how thankful I am. Your are truly inspiring.
Thanks so much for your advice
Thanks so much for your advice
Hi Serein! Really appreciate this series from you. But what do you do when you’re already doing these steps and feel like you’re not getting results? Sad but honest- I feel like the only way I’ve gotten much to any growth on my channel is via sub 4 sub chains in comment sections. It’s super easy to got very disheartened trying to do this.
Lauren what is your YouTube channel? I’ll check it out.
Thank you so much for these tips Serein. It truly is helpful and much appreciated. I know I’ve been following you for sometime now… I think way before you went to Europe. I love how relatable and honest you are. You can see how much hard work you put into everything you do. Your videos, blogs, photos, podcast, everything. It truly is inspirational. My hubs is always telling people about my channel and it’s taken awhile for me not to feel so shy about it. It definitely was so scary when I first started and people I knew back in highschool were watching…. Or just being really positive. It definitely made me feel better but it was still really hard for me to tell people. Even now I get a little shy telling people about it. I feel that not a lot of people know how much dedication and hard work it takes to do YouTube and to be consistent. I love that we have this community to talk about it with one another. Thank you again, Serein! I just can’t wait to read the next one! 😘
Have a wonderful week everyone!
Thank you again for this Serein, and ALL you do for your subscribers. I can’t wait for all of your content!!!!
I literally just started my youtube channel and it’s a lot harder than I thought to grow my following. I’ve been loving this series and looking forward to the next post!
http://asequinloveaffair.com
I have the hardest time telling people about my channel! I’m still in High school and am still in that “accept me accept me” type mindset. I’ve been working on it and have told 5 of my friends and they have all reacted so amazingly for the most part. I have a question about comments, how do you respond to those spam comments and make a real viewer out of them? Is it possible? Thanks!
That’s such a great question! How do you deal with that? I get so annoyed where I know they obviously haven’t watched a video and all they want is a sub back. I prefer those who actually take the time to write a meaningful comment… Or what about the same person writing the same exact comment on all your videos (every month)… Almost like they forgot you already are subscribed to them.. Am I the only one who gets annoyed? Maybe they don’t realize that it takes more than a sub count to actually grow your channel. I don’t know… Something that has always bothered me…
I’ll tell you how I deal with it, even though I don’t know if it’s the correct response (Serein, if you’re reading this, please let us know!)… for those comments that come right out and say, “love the video! great job! sub4sub?” or something along those lines, I just don’t respond (they usually go to spam folder anyway, and just delete. Those that leave the same comment every month, or I can tell they didn’t watch the video, I respond with a brief “thank you so much for watching! Hope you’re having a wonderful day!”… you can’t control what other’s do, say, or write. Just always be polite and courteous! Remember your other viewers are also reading your comments! Hope this make sense. Serein, is this your take, as well?
Author
Hi Guys- Totally a good question. For those who constantly copy paste “sub4sub” or similar comments, they do get filtered out into spam, I usually delete them when I go through the spam folder. Those that leave a generic comment, I use to respond with “thank you for watching” Now it’s harder for me to respond to every comment, but remember it took them a few clicks to write that and while writing the comment, it was watch time and views.
While you cannot control what other do on your channel, try to remember they are trying to build their content too. Although I don’t agree with their methods and it’ll put them in a different category in the long run, that I don’t think is what you should strive for.
Focus on quality content and building relationships. Good relationships last longer, so it makes your community stronger in the end. Quality over quantity. My channel and blog is the perfect example. I am not considered to be huge subscriber wise, but I am respected by brands, peers, and hopefully by my viewers.
Thank you so much for this Serein! It has helped me a lot you always put so much effort into your posts
P.s. I tried out one of the leaders sheet masks and OMG! It’s amazing I’m defiantly going to be picking up more
I hope you have a great day xo
Great article Serein !! You are well spoken, we’ve always known that with you YouTube channel…but you have a knack for writing too !!❤️❤️❤️
Hi… Your advice help me a lot😘 actually in 2015 I and my sister started a youtube channel where we were doing a covers, but we didn’t know if people liked it and we stoped do a covers…. But now I read your post and we want to start it again 💋💋 Thank you so much…. You and your posts always helped me❤️❤️❤️ I’m always watching your youtube videos and blog posts☺️☺️☺️ I live you so much.
P.s. Sorry for my English🙈🙉🙊
Great informative post girl!! Loved reading all your experiences and advice for others in the industry 🙂 I also agree that it’s really important to be consistent, know your audience and always promote your channel!! <3
Xoxo, Jessi
http://www.mywhitet.com/sneak-peak-into-my-new-office/
As always, a great and informative read. Thanks Serein. And a Skype session….how fun.
I just want to thank you for all the hard work and advice you put into your work. I am to scared to start my own channel but your advice is very helpful since my daughter wants to start one. Again it shows how much research and dedication you have for your channel but to be so sweet to share your experience with us and give us advice. Thanks .. I will be looking for the post about the equipment you use.
This is so helpful and kind of you, not everyone is willing to share this kind of information and help others. You are genuinely a kind hearted person and I admire that very much. I’m looking forward to these posts, they’re filled with so much happiness and hope. 🙂
I was concerned about the target audience when I read your first Content Creator tip. Now I get what it is for. And yes, the fact that I have not yet started my channel is because of the thought of what my friends and family might think. It’s really really scary sometimes to think about it. 🙈
And you would obviously be more bent towards the beauty and lifestyle side with your tips but I must say it is just as helpful for any other content. Thank you so much for this.
I am so appreciative of these content creator posts. I found your YouTube channel after your collaboration with Tati and I quickly fell in love with your videos. You’ve become my favorite channel to watch and your Behibd the Beauty Podcast is actually the first podcast I’ve ever listened to! Your such a wealth of information and I love that all of your reviews are so much more than simply saying, “this is bomb and you need this in your life”. I’ve actually learned so much about beauty products and skin care and I so appreciate you sharing that knowledge with your viewers and readers. It’s obvious how much time an effort you put into your channel, blog and podcast (excited for season 2!) I’ve been wanting to start my own YouTube channel focusing on natural hair care and beauty/lifestyle and I’m finding all of your content creator tips and posts as great motivation to finally jump in! Thanks so much Serein!
This is great advice. It’s so kind of you to want to help others out. Sometimes the beauty community can be so ugly and I am so happy to see that you want to help people pursue their passion.
Thank you for all this advice!! It really helps me out 🙂