I had a hiatus on posting any videos w/ Haley in them since she posted DKHTLY, so I put it up to my Youtube subscribers which video I should post next from Ribfest, since it's clearly the most popular set, even more popular than the Troubadour. 253 votes is a decent sample size, much better than the 20 or so when I ask similar questions on Twitter. Also, it goes along w/ my continuing to use Youtube's 'Community' tab to cultivate views among my 42.5K subscribers. (It's something I suggested to Team Haley, which they are now using,
4 posts in the last 5 days....she has almost 95,000 subscribers they could be communicating with to bring views to her channel).
I thought getting my videos on Haley's Youtube channel would mean more views since she has twice my subscribers, but up until recently, Haley's channel had not been known to have really any activity on it, pre-Jay. I found that asking poll questions, engaging w/ my subscribers, I'm communicating w/ fans I'd never talked w/ before on Twitter, forums or Instagram and it's by far my most 'influential' social media platform. (42K subscribers as opposed to 900 Twitter followers and 848 Instagram followers). YT subscribers are mostly passive viewers and the alert system on Youtube doesn't always work. By engaging them on their YouTube stream, they automatically become active and more likely to return to your channel, watch your videos, than doing 'nothing'
My most recent idea to engage my Youtube subscribers, since most of the 42.5K subs probably don't 'know' me other than through the videos I post, is I'm going to do a monthly 'feature' in which I'll spotlight one of my 700+ videos and do a short write up about the video, maybe some background about how it came to be, or some trivia. My first 'feature' I posted Haley performing HOTRS at her Listen Up! debut. The piece of trivia being that Breezy Lovejoy aka Andersen Paak was Haley's drummer that night. So far, the idea of the 'feature' has been met w/ enthusiasm.
I'm meeting 'new' fans this way and they get a channel that is a little more interesting to visit win/win. TBH I get practically no feedback from 'OG' fans, but I really enjoy talking to new fans who just discovered Haley on Youtube and there are always new fans. Reminds me of when I first discovered Haley, that enthusiasm, that desire to find out more. Now I'm someone they can come to and communicate if they want.
So basically, I'm creating somewhere people might come back to check stuff out, my older videos get an opportunity to be seen w/ new eyes, and people can learn bits of trivia about Haley. Cultivating a fan base, cultivating repeat viewings, cultivating a Youtube community of fans
https://www.youtube.com/user/HaleysTusk/community