It takes ongoing effort, but there are several characteristics you can apply to forming your new audience: Targeting, Discoverability, Accessibility, Collaboration, and Shareability.

  • Targeting
    It’s often helpful to target a niche audience that is currently underserved by content on Social Media. Viewers in these communities love seeing videos they can relate to, so try tailoring your content to a specific community. Here are some ways to do this:

    • Target audience at the video level. You may decide to create videos for a certain demographic, such as parents or teenagers.

    • Target an underserved audience. Some audiences get less representation in other media; they may come to YouTube to find community.

  • Discoverability
    Google, YouTube, and Yahoo are some of the most-used search engines in the world. Think about how your social media and/or website can appeal to people based on their search queries. Some suggestions:

    • Build trending topics into your videos. Design your content in a way that it ties into trending topics in the news or pop culture. You can use resources such as Google Trends or Twitter Trends.

    • Make constant content. Create videos that answer everyday questions or solve common “how-to” issues, such as home improvement or beauty tips.

  • Accessibility
    When making new videos, consider that not everyone will have seen your previous videos. Your latest work might be the first thing they’ve ever seen from you. You can improve the accessibility of your content in several ways:

    • Don’t tie each video to the last one. Try designing videos so they make sense on their own without knowing the backstory.

    • Show a brief recap of the situation. If appropriate, create an intro sequence to provide the audience context on what they’re watching.

    • Make a strong call to action pointing to other videos. 

  • Collaboration
    Collaborating is one of the fastest ways to build an audience and to build relationships inside the vibrant and active community of creators. Here are some tips for doing collaborations:

    • Build a “guest slot” into your format. You can design your format in a way that makes it easy and logical to have guest creators drop in. Interview shows are the most common example.

    • Reach out to creators who fit. Try to find creators in your genre or niche who serve a similar audience or have similar interests as you. That way, these viewers are more likely to stay with you.

    • It helps to feature guests prominently and in a positive light. If they’re proud of the video, they’re more likely to cross-promote it.

  • Shareability
    Sharing videos can be powerful because people are discovering you from the people they trust the most—their friends and family. Some tips to be shareable:

    • Be topical. When a news story is breaking or something is trending, you can join the conversation by crafting a video about it with your perspective.

    • Be relatable to viewers on a subject they can relate to, whether it’s something funny or serious.

    • Be valuable. See how you can provide practical value to viewers. For example, can you make a tutorial video that would be truly helpful?