Google YouTube Creator Playbook Guide Version 2 - Manual (Page 72)

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Your viewers don’t just want to be an audience, they want to
be a community. They want to engage with your channel
and interact through comments, messages, and more.
Make sure you are a part of that conversation and
representing your brand well. If your videos attract a large
viewership, a community will emerge with or without you.
Interacting with fans and the Community
•
Respond to comments. This should always be a key part of your
social strategy. Comments are the best forum to interact with
viewers about specific episodes and will spur more viewers to
include their comment when they notice you actively respond.
•
Respond to comments in the first few hours after you publish a
video. These first commenters are your core audience, and building
comments early helps increase the video’s ranking in search.
•
Your own comments on your uploaded videos get pinned to show up
at the top of the comments section, prominently featuring your
engagement with the fans.
•
Be an active member of the YouTube community and platform.
Comment, ‘favorite’, and be present on the site, outside of your own
channel.
•
Where possible, engage with the commenters on the places outside
of YouTube where you’re seeing a lot of new views come from, such
as blogs, sites or other online communities.
Reward Your Community and Super-Fans
•
Find ways to reward your community (both on and off YouTube) for
their loyalty and support of the channel. Beyond shout-outs in the
videos, think of rewards such as fan merchandise or exclusive
content shared through ‘Unlisted’ videos.
Community & Social Media Involve Your Audience
Messaging Fans / Subscribers
•
Make announcements through YouTube Bulletins which will appear
in your subscriber feeds.
•
Where appropriate, include Call To Actions in your responses or
messages, but keep it casual. E.g. “If you like the video, don’t forget
to share it!”