Social Media Mid-Life Crisis: I became a YouTuber with over 80k views in 4 months
... then it flatlined... then it took off 🛫
Have you ever wondered what the “influencer” hype is all about? In my Social Media mid-life crisis, I spent the last 6 months posting a YouTube video everyday. 200 videos later, I have now accrued over 200,000 views. Here’s some Q and A:
Why YouTube Shorts? Having worked at YouTube (my first non-academic job), I still have an affinity for the YT platform. As far as the competitors, similar formats can be found on Instagram and TikTok.
Why Shorts? I started creating in March 2022, because I realized that the practice of “Shorts” is still relatively new, so I’d be able to contribute content without as much clutter. I’d also heard and experienced the power of recommendation algorithms being used for short video formats, and wanted to understand that from the creator side.
Why squirrels? 🐿 It’s nice to have a place to share/recall my gigabytes of squirrel memories. Along the way, I’ve discovered the online squirrel communities, and have even discovered a fan or two for my channel.
The Creator Experience
Are the analytics as addicting as the algorithm? Not as addicting, but still addicting. I had a low streak around Independence Day week, and it made me realized that I cared more than I thought I would.
What were the major milestones are a creator? I didn’t expect much for the first few posts. Many people are used to the traditional YouTube video format, which may give you a click or two at most, if you are a nobody like me. With Shorts, I had a few 1000 views every couple videos from the start. I’d identify the milestones as follows:
first 100 subscribers - From 0-100, it’s all pretty new and exciting with some steady growth.
100 to 200 subscribers - Things seem to slow down at this point. This is where I started to notice when people from the first 100 unsubscribe here and there. My best videos got ~4k views.
first plateau - All of sudden, I didn’t get views anymore, and I wanted answers. Did the algorithm change? Did I do something wrong? Will I come back from this?
200 to 300 subscribers - I was in a prime spot for a spontaneous bump in views and subscribers. It took one 40k (view count) video that quickly pushed me into 300 subscribers.
300 to 400 subscribers - I realized that the shortest videos get me my most “viral” moments. I could get to 400 subs with a burst or two of views.
Are you rich now? So, I’m such a low-impact channel that I don’t even qualify for monetization. The image below shows how far I have to go before qualifying to be monetized. I have no doubt (if I keep posting), I can get to 1000 subscribers, but Shorts views don’t count towards “watch hours,” so I’d need to make traditional YouTube videos to get my 4000 hours.
The Nosedive in Views
What were you doing when your views dropped?
Some of the videos that were getting over 1k were not videos that I would expect, so it made me wonder if “the algorithm” was showing videos that weren’t well received.
I queued up a long line of videos and sort of stopped checking, b/c it would autopost everyday for me (30 days up until July 10).
I posted a couple non-short videos (because they weren’t filmed in the vertical Shorts screen orientation).
I had accidentally changed all the video descriptions to be the same by (accidentally) selecting multiple uploads for a single change.
What were external circumstances? It was around the July 4th US holiday.
What did you try to get out of the slump?
I made a pity post on FB and had a few known people in my network subscribe (and I’m sure some views and likes as well).
I moved the posting time from 6 am to 3 am.
I chose a shorter videos where the squirrel engages with my hand.
I started actively watching my own channel and liking. I use my work account, personal, and the channel account (that’s three likes off the bat).
Below is the video that got things going again:
Best Practices
In summary, I basically followed the advice that any Shorts expert would give: make sure the title is compelling and people watch the video all the way through (and, even better, many times over). Hands down, ~5 second videos did the best for me (my first 40k+ video is 2 seconds, my best 40k+ video is 6 seconds).
Other things I’ve tried is: (a) breaking the story of an injured squirrel, (b) stating that the squirrels wished people a great weekend in the titles, and (c) breaking videos into parts with a “to be continued.”
My approach is VERY minimalist and low-effort. I spend like an 30 minutes week queueing up 7 videos from my photo library of squirrel videos. It gives me an opportunity to be creative with YouTube’s in-app editor, and I get to explore past and present music (which I often choose to suite the mood of the moments I find myself in).
Overall, if you have no following and want to build an audience within a few months (without a lot of preparation), shorts is really effective, because it plays your content to complete strangers who wouldn’t have found you otherwise.
Other corners of the internet you will find me: 🐿 Squirbles on YouTube | Substack: Faith Updates | Substack: ML/AI Updates | Substack: Random | Substack: Yearly Newsletter