YouTube Channels For Dummies, 2nd Edition

Chapter 10

Building Your Audience

IN THIS CHAPTER

Developing an engaged community of channel subscribers and fans

Recognizing your fans and figuring out how best to communicate with them

Making comments work effectively for your channel and your audience

Driving audience engagement and longer watch sessions

There’s obviously more to being an excellent channel manager than simply uploading a few videos and arranging a playlist or two. To truly excel as a channel manager, you have to realize that the core of your YouTube channel activities centers on your audience and on recognizing and responding to their needs. Your audience, whether it consists of 1,000 people or 10 million people, is coming to your channel and watching your videos for a reason, whether it’s education, entertainment, product information, or what-have-you. Building an audience is about catering to the requirements of your viewers.

In the “good old days” of television, content was broadcast to a mass of viewers who were, for the most part, anonymous. It was never truly clear how many people were watching, so companies ...