New #Shorts Video Feature on Youtube & Britney Spears
#Shorts Feature on Youtube
Today, I discovered the Shorts feature on Youtube, thanks to my Youtube mobile app and a catchy Britney Spears video title. I’ll admit I’m late to the party. They’ve been testing this out in India since September. Given how difficult Instagram and Facebook have made it to build an audience on their platforms without paying for exposure, I thought the #Shorts feature would be an amazing opportunity.
Well, I immediately dashed over to make a video that was under 1 minute excited for this new feature. I quickly found out “your channel does not meet our requirements to do mobile streaming.” I’m a small channel. I only have 109 subscribers, but in the last month it’s been growing and my videos have been gaining traction. I felt really discouraged. I browsed around to see if any of the creators I followed were able to post #Shorts. I discovered a lot of the other Youtube channels I follow had already been posting short films all week.
At first I felt angry, and then I I realized I really wasn’t surprised. These platforms don’t care about smaller accounts. Why would they? They don’t make Youtube any money. Larger accounts have already proven they can rake in a following with their content. At the same time, it’s the same philosophy about making the rich get richer, by promoting the accounts that have the most followers. If you promote content from larger accounts and not smaller ones, by only allowing larger accounts to create short films, then you’re damaging smaller accounts and making it more difficult for them find their ideal audience. It’s this endless ladder one must scale. This last year I have told all of my clients, unless they are willing to dump a lot of money into advertising, spend hours every week planning out content to post 3 times a day, and scaling on more than one platform by interacting with every content, then just don’t bother committing to digital marketing. A lot of clients don’t have a budget for this kind of work. It’s a lot of work to compete with everyone in the social media sphere. I think we forget, though, Youtube is fueling this competition and making making it more difficult by promoting larger accounts, giving them features no one else has.
Britney Spears on #Shorts Youtube Videos
Let’s face it: Who really wants to see anything about Britney Spears these days? I don’t care to watch her run around her multi million dollar mansion with her kids. There was nothing informative or educational about the content. Here as a small artist I’m thinking about how much I have to offer, but because I’m not a Spears Youtube will not promote me. Also, I felt like Youtube was doing a terrible job of imitating TikTok. The more I look around at these platforms, the more I realize they aren’t going anywhere. They’re all copying each other so people continue to use them.
Here’s a link if you’d like to see the Spears videos.
Alternatives to Youtube, Facebook, Tiktok, and Instagram
I’ve decided to start building an audience on MeWe and I’m going to continue. It’s the only platform that is not pulling these kinds of tricks on their users. It has a paid option which makes me feel as though the people on there care about staying, care about privacy, and possibly want a platform with more freedom. I think these are all very important values if you are an artist and you don’t want your artwork stolen. You can see my video about Instagram’s new terms of service here where I discuss how scary it can be if a platform were able to use your content without telling you. Imagine you travel to another country and see a billboard with an illustration on it that you did a year ago? How angry would you be to know you didn’t make that 11,000 dollars for that illustration?
I discuss alternative platforms in my video down below. If you’re interested, then check it out. I mention a few I have been researching.
#Shorts Am I the only one who noticed? If not, drop a comment below. I’d love to hear what you think.
Is it really unrealistic to build a social following during this age? No, it’s possible. Email me at info@andaleehyatt.com if you’d like to discuss this topic. It’s on a lot of my client’s minds.
Subscribe to my channel if you would like to promote a smaller account that is growing. I post videos weekly about illustration and graphic design topics. I discuss social media specifically relating to social media. It’s a changing sphere. I’m a creative and I like to connect with other creatives about these topics. It’s great to be knowledgeable and open up a space for discussion and learning.
If you’d like to support my art, I also have a patreon account.
