How to Get More Views on YouTube in 2020
Tip 1: asking people on various platforms to “like and subscribe” is an extremely inefficient way to get more attention to your YouTube channel. If you spend the next year relentlessly asking people to subscribe, you might just add 1000 subscribers. But if you get your content right, you won’t need to go begging for viewers, YouTube will send them to you.
The videos shared are often made with varying degrees of skill and professionalism. That’s OK, we are all learning and hoping to be better filmmakers. Or should we now say “content producers”?
Anyway, many (almost all) are missing a key quality which would get them a lot more views if it was included.
Social Media Success
Like other social media platforms, a popular YouTube channel can bring financial rewards. So it’s no surprise there are many of us out there trying to build our channel and get more subscribers. Filmmakers still generally have a low opinion of YouTube.
However, it can also be a way into the film industry, so shouldn’t be discounted for that purpose either.
The problem comes when we place most of our focus on the technical side of filmmaking and ignore this powerful element. Enthusiastic aspiring filmmakers expect viewers to be excited about the things we get excited about: shiny 4K footage, colourful LUTs, smooth tracking shots and slick pans of attractive locations.
But ultimately, this is all B-Roll without a purpose. And most viewers will switch off at the point they realise there’s nothing more to the video than that.
Audience Retention
Audience retention is one of the most important aspects of your video. Why? Because YouTube measures how good your video is by it’s average audience retention time. And if YouTube decides your video is good at keeping an audience’s attention, it will recommend it to more people.
So what is this magical quality that will stop people losing interest and keep them watching to the end? The answer is: a story.
I know it seems obvious, but yet many aspiring YouTubers do not attempt to add a narrative. Well, we are not all story writers, so perhaps the task seems out of reach. However, I believe even some simple narrative elements would make a huge difference.
The need to know more
Even simple 10 second cat GIFs that are popular on Facebook often have some kind of basic narrative. The ones which get shared aren’t just cats doing ordinary cat things. They often include some surprising element and when one is shared by a friend we usually assume there will be a plot twist.
This expectation of a plot twist is what keeps us watching (beyond the the first 3 seconds!). This plot twist usually involves the cat attacking the dog, a rabbit jumping over a dog and so on. If there isn’t a plot twist, we feel let down and we certainly don’t share that GIF.
In other words, it’s the entertaining plot twist which motivates people to share. You might not think of a 10 second pet GIF on Facebook as a story, but actually this is indeed a form of storytelling. So you can see that adding a narrative doesn’t mean you have to become William Goldman.
Setup the need to know in the title
I’m sure we are all familiar with this now. A title which gets us clicking. The worst offenders are those whose title is mere clickbait and we find ourselves disappointed by the content.
But at least we can understand why this works and try to employ it in our own videos. Basically, the title is beginning of the story. But add to this the thumbnail and now we have the start of the story.
How do we know if your video has a narrative?
Here’s a trick to tell if your video has an engaging narrative: try describing your film to someone, shot by shot. Perhaps your description goes something like this:
First there’s a wide shot of a beach. Then we cut to the waves lapping against the shore. Then we cut to some palm trees. We have a smooth walking shot towards a beautiful old building. Then I have a shot moving around some fishing boats. Now a wide shot of the ocean with a fishing boat in the distance… and so on.
OK, it sounds idyllic doesn’t it? But does the person listening care what happens next? Do they want to know more? Do they need to know?
Or are they dreaming of lying on a warm beach sipping cocktails and have stopped listening to you?
Your video might look beautiful. And some people might watch it for this reason. But the point is that more people would watch for longer if the video had a narrative.
Add some history
You can’t think of a story, I hear you say. Well, you don’t need to. Luckily, there’s a well containing thousands of years of human and ecological history to draw from.
Now imagine this video again, with the same shots. Except this time you add a voice over about the history of the beach. Perhaps Captain Cook landed here and something interesting happened to him. What about the fisherman? What’s their story?
If your shots are local to where you live, then what history do you know about the area? What about your own stories and experiences? Any surprises?
Wherever you are, if humans have ever been there, there will be stories to be told. So it turns out adding a narrative is pretty easy.
