I’m experimenting with my YouTube shorts and a couple of my recent shorts have gone viral…well, viral for me anyway. I’ve now released two YouTube shorts about creating a custom plaid using the IOD Pretty In Plaid Stamp. The first short received very little attention. Only 43 views, so I decided to updated it and the second version went nuts. So what made this YouTube short go viral? I wanted to share what I changed and analyze what made the difference.
YouTube Short #1
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/PO7P_U3LpVU
The Quick Stats:
October 22, 2022
10:45 a.m. on a Saturday
40 Seconds Long
42 views as of 12/4/2022 (43 days)
It had four views the first day, but has had gradual growth. An average of one a day. Does slow and steady win the race??
1 Subscriber
Zero likes
YouTube Short #2
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/PO7P_U3LpVU
The Quick Stats:
December 3, 2022
10 a.m. on a Saturday
28 Seconds Long
12.2k views as of 12/4/2022 (24 hours)
It stopped going viral after 45 minutes and then just three or four views an hour after 3 hours.
17 Subscribers
241 likes
Titles:
How To Make Custom Plaid
How To Create A Custom Plaid Using The IOD Pretty In Plaid Stamp
Thumbnails:
Update 12/13/22: YouTube doesn’t allow you to update the Thumbnail any longer.
Thumbnails don’t show for someone scrolling through shorts. They are only visible to someone when looking at your channel as a whole. They still don’t show up when someone clicks on the shorts tab of your channel so I don’t attribute much of the initial success of video #2 to the thumbnail.
No Thumbnail:
Thumbnail:
The Video Editing Changes:
I opened with a one or two second shot of the completed project.
I jumped straight into putting paint onto the stamp.
I showed covering the entire stamp with paint.
I showed covering just half the stamp with paint.
Showed one stamp placement and how you have to make sure to touch the whole stamp to get a good imprint.
I showed putting the stamp to the furniture with no real technique. Then I showed the satisfying reveal of lifting the stamp off of the surface. I showed how the second stamp connected to the first with just it’s lifting from the furniture. Then showed the complete first layer of the plaid.
I used laid-back, kind of chill music at a lower volume.
I used a upbeat, quirky, louder music.
Each process in the viral video is no longer than one second. I imagine trying to hold the attention of an ADHD 2nd grader. I had one so this was easy to channel. HA.
What Made This YouTube Short Go Viral?
My conclusion:
So, in looking at the second video, what made this YouTube short go viral?
First, I was so happy that both videos were published on a Saturday morning around the same time. It allows me to rule out day and time as having a huge impact in the viewership difference between the two.
I believe that the high viewership of this video is the result of editing the video with the mindset of capturing the attention of a non-crafter. The virality (is that a word?) of the video is driven by people not scrolling past the video.
Right now, I don’t have many subscribers, so I can’t count on my own people driving interest in the short. It means that no matter who’s screen it comes across, they needed to watch it.
Shorts aren’t the place to teach fine point technique like the delicate nature of not pressing too hard on the stamp but still applying pressure to the whole stamp. This type of video needs to provide just enough information to let the viewer understand what is being done.
What does this mean for my business:
To grow my YouTube channel – Outstanding. It seems like each of the three videos I’ve been able to get to take off have brought me 10 new subscribers. I’ll continue to do this to get me to the point of being able to monetize my channel.
To make sales – Not so much. Half of the 12K viewers are in India. Only 4% initially were from the US, but as I finish this blog post on 12/5, that has jumped to closer to 10%. Maybe that will continue to shift.
Will I continue to make them?
YES!! They’re easy. They’re growing my subscribers. They’re bringing viewers to my other videos that do drive sales.