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A Smart Look at the Future of Television // In Collaboration With Quinnipiac University's School of Communications
Thinking about YouTube: Partner advice to aspiring creators Mar 3, 2012
On February 29th, The International Academy of Web Television co-hosted a panel with YouTube at Google’s New York offices. The panelists included Tina Cesa Ward of Anyone But Me, Daryn Strauss of Downsized, Rebecca Lando of Working Class Foodies, Rob Barnett of MyDamnChannel, and Franchesca Ramsey of Chescaleigh. All the panelists, who are also YouTube Partners, were there to give advice on how to program your YouTube channel. With the launch of YouTube’s newest version of the playbook, it was nice to hear advice from actual successful practitioners. Out of all the panelists, Franchesca, who was part of YouTube NextUp’s first class, gave advice that seemed to have the poignant advice towards the beginning creative.
As all the other panelists were asked about their methods of content creation, Franchesca explained: “I don’t pay anyone. I have $100,000 in student loan debt!” Recent college graduates are in very similar situations. Ten years ago, a college grad had very little options to have their independent creative video seen by anyone. In this era, not only is there an abundance of outlets, but YouTube offers solid approaches to successful video distribution.
Much of the panel advice was standard operating procedure: update consistently; catch the audience in the first few seconds; know your audience. But some applied directly to the younger aspiring crowd of creators. Franchesca’s production methods are not only unique, but important to YouTube channel success.
Franchesca explained that with online video, you have to tell the audience everything. If you want someone to like your video, “tell them to like the video.” She integrates hand movements as well as annotations into her video in order to get the audiences attention. Rob Barnett agreed: “In traditional television you cannot stop halfway through a show and ask the audience for Neilsen ratings. In web television, you have to ask for views.” Franchesca explained that at first it felt weird to wave her hands or point off screen at the invisible boxes, but she got used to it.
In order to save money, Franchesca barters and trades with other YouTube creators. She offers skills like graphic design or cross-posting and collaboration in return for help with her shoots. For example, her “Shit White Girls Say to Black People” was shot and directed by Vlogger/comedian Wally Kankowski (mylifeincoach). Franchesca said if you have no money to “use your talent as value.”
Lastly, when the panelists were asked about social media outreach, two points of advice seemed most important: reach out to your similar audience and be friendly with the bloggers. Use the “As seen on:” under the video to discover the audience most likely watching the video.
Tina Ward explained that the web is like the independent films of the 90s. “It’s about timing,” she said, “Kevin Smith would not be able to do ‘Clerks’ today, but he was able to in the 90s. The web is in your hands to make money.”
When aspiring creators explain their interest in creating content for the web, they should be encouraged to start now. The sooner the better. While money may be the driving force behind production, there are ways for talented people to start regardless of cost. Starting is the most important part because a video never made is a video never watched.
Here is the YouTube Playbook version 2.
-Contributed by Jamie Cohen, -
This entry was posted in Alternative Distribution, Essay, Pro-Am and User Generated Content and tagged daryn strauss, franchesca ramsey, international academy of web television, nextup, rebecca lando, rob barnett, tina cesa ward, YouTube. Bookmark the permalink.
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