YouTube Question Has anyone had success using the YouTube Community Feature?

[The Jungle Explorer]

So I got this email today

Woohoo! Right? Or Not? YouTube sends out this email as though something huge has happened for my channel. The truth is, I have had the ability to use the "Community" feature for very long time and have made many posts with little or no interaction.

So, I am just wondering if anyone has had success communicating with their subscribers through the YT Community feature? I have had zero, and I think most YouTube user do not even know it exists.

 

[KS Moto Cafe]

The best engagement I got from the Community posts were polls. People love providing their anonymous vote on something. Other than that, I just use it to leave a message to my subscribers if I am about to take a break or big changes to the channel. I toyed with trying to use it like Instagram but the engagement was so low that it was waste of my time. I think if YT brings a instagram like messenger application, it would be far more useful.

 

[Damon]

I was wondering why they sent that out. I've had Community Tab for a long time now. I only use it to update my audience, especially if it's a week where I won't produce a video.

 

[lonelytalks]

From the audience perspective I never saw Youtube showing an update to the channel I subscribed, if they ever post in community section. If Youtube introduces notification for community activity then probably more people get to know about it and use it.

 

[The Jungle Explorer]

From the audience perspective I never saw Youtube showing an update to the channel I subscribed, if they ever post in community section. If Youtube introduces notification for community activity then probably more people get to know about it and use it.

EXACTLY! This is where YT just baffles me. They want audience engagement but don't even do the basics to make that happen. The community feature is so buried and difficult to get, most people do not even know it exists. And yet, they are pushing and promoting it to creators as if, "They REALLY care" about helping us. This is what almost makes me hate YT. These kinds of things makes me feel like they are keeping us in the dark and feeding us

 

[MediaMan]

My take on it is, I wouldn't take away time from anything else to make posts, but if you are all caught up and have some free time, at that point it's probably worth doing a post or 2. Promotions, polls, etc. Just a way to perhaps fill in with some content in between video drops.

 

[MauryneMwende]

Someone should help me understand about it's use

 

[The Jungle Explorer]

Someone should help me understand about it's use

You have to qualify for it. There are two ways.

1. You must have 500 subscribers.
2. You must enable Advanced features by verifying yourself as a real human. This means you will have to provide verifiable personal information to YouTube, such as a Photo ID.

Once you qualify, the Community tab will appear on your channel. You cannot use it in the Studio app, the YouTube App, or the Web Studio. You have to actually go to your Channel page.

 

[Tito Tim]

1. You must have 500 subscribers.
2. You must enable Advanced features by verifying yourself as a real human.

The community tab is much more open to all now. I have a new channel and as soon as I verified my email, I got the Community tab. I had 3 subscribers at the time.

Even on my main channel it does not seem to be of much use, though. I will post a Members only message sometimes, but I am not convinced even all the members get it. The polls do seem to get a better response. Overall it seems that YouTube has a long way to go get the "social" part of social media.

 

[The Jungle Explorer]

The community tab is much more open to all now. I have a new channel and as soon as I verified my email, I got the Community tab. I had 3 subscribers at the time.

Even on my main channel it does not seem to be of much use, though. I will post a Members only message sometimes, but I am not convinced even all the members get it. The polls do seem to get a better response. Overall it seems that YouTube has a long way to go get the "social" part of social media.

Google does seem to not get it when it comes to social media. Actually, the Community tab is really an old function of the failed Google+ program. If your YouTube account is the same email as you used for Google+ account, the recent email you got about communities was actually sent to your old Google+ account and then redirected to your Gmail address. If you dive into the metadata of that email you will see the TO address was your, "Google+accountname"@pages.plusgoogle.com. Now you know why it sucks so badly. Youtube is running this community tab on the old failed infrastructure of Google+.

When it comes to the google staff, the old saying makes sense. "With friends like these, who needs enemies." LOL!

 

[jilinjames]

YouTube's Community tab allows creators to engage with their channel subscribers and visitors beyond just video. Use this tab like you would your Facebook page wall: post status updates, ask questions, encourage visitors to ask questions, poll your fans, and much more.

 

[lonelytalks]

EXACTLY! This is where YT just baffles me. They want audience engagement but don't even do the basics to make that happen. The community feature is so buried and difficult to get, most people do not even know it exists. And yet, they are pushing and promoting it to creators as if, "They REALLY care" about helping us. This is what almost makes me hate YT. These kinds of things makes me feel like they are keeping us in the dark and feeding us

My friend have about 65k followers and when she posted something in community, there was rarely any engagement. I have checked some big channels, even for them only polls seems to get engagement which is the only thing worth of posting in community it seems.

 

[Goelz funtime]

The best engagement I got from the Community posts were polls. People love providing their anonymous vote on something. Other than that, I just use it to leave a message to my subscribers if I am about to take a break or big changes to the channel. I toyed with trying to use it like Instagram but the engagement was so low that it was waste of my time. I think if YT brings a instagram like messenger application, it would be far more useful.

Can you plz give more information how it goes to community.
I have pisted 8-10 question but it hasn't reach to anyone.

 

[Nothin' But Gadgets]

Can you plz give more information how it goes to community.
I have pisted 8-10 question but it hasn't reach to anyone.

99% of YouTube users have no clue that a community feature even exists on YouTube. YouTube does not prioritize this feature. It is hidden deep in the menu system and difficult to find, and people do not even receive notifications when you post, and you don't receive any when they like or comment. Quite frankly, it is a bad joke at best. If YT wants creators to take communication with subscribers seriously, they need to put a little effort into creating a decent social media communication system that actually drives engagement. It is hard to lead a horse to water when you can't even find the water trough!

Google does seem to not get it when it comes to social media. Actually, the Community tab is really an old function of the failed Google+ program. If your YouTube account is the same email as you used for Google+ account, the recent email you got about communities was actually sent to your old Google+ account and then redirected to your Gmail address. If you dive into the metadata of that email you will see the TO address was your, "Google+accountname"@pages.plusgoogle.com. Now you know why it sucks so badly. Youtube is running this community tab on the old failed infrastructure of Google+.

When it comes to the google staff, the old saying makes sense. "With friends like these, who needs enemies." LOL!

You said it JE.

 

[CirceMoon]

I don't think it's taking off quite like YouTube wanted it to. I look at some established brands, and they don't even use that "feature".

 

[CirceMoon]

99% of YouTube users have no clue that a community feature even exists on YouTube. YouTube does not prioritize this feature. It is hidden deep in the menu system and difficult to find, and people do not even receive notifications when you post, and you don't receive any when they like or comment. Quite frankly, it is a bad joke at best. If YT wants creators to take communication with subscribers seriously, they need to put a little effort into creating a decent social media communication system that actually drives engagement. It is hard to lead a horse to water when you can't even find the water trough!


You said it JE.

I feel obligated to do it, and it's annoying. It feels like YT hired a social media manager who has no pulse on reality. People want to engage to a ~ certain extent ~, but they do not want to communicate with others. They see YT as an escape.

 

[Goelz funtime]

99% of YouTube users have no clue that a community feature even exists on YouTube. YouTube does not prioritize this feature. It is hidden deep in the menu system and difficult to find, and people do not even receive notifications when you post, and you don't receive any when they like or comment. Quite frankly, it is a bad joke at best. If YT wants creators to take communication with subscribers seriously, they need to put a little effort into creating a decent social media communication system that actually drives engagement. It is hard to lead a horse to water when you can't even find the water trough!


You said it JE.

Thanks a lot for this detailed information

 

[Nothin' But Gadgets]

I feel obligated to do it, and it's annoying. It feels like YT hired a social media manager who has no pulse on reality. People want to engage to a ~ certain extent ~, but they do not want to communicate with others. They see YT as an escape.

It is just so poorly implemented. As Jungle Explorer pointed out. It is built on the backbone of Google+, which was a massive failure. Over the last few years, YT has rolled out some, for like of a better term, half-a$$ features and tried to paint them as GREAT EFFORTS they are doing for creators. Take for example the SuperThanks feature. I have views ask me to show them how they can do this. It is not easy and straightforward. I had to create a tutorial video to show people how to do it, it is so complicated and hard to find.


So, once again, YouTube creates a total piece of garbage of a system and wants us to pee ourselves with joy and praise them for their great effort. They really think we are idiots. And don't get me started on the "Memberships" which YT takes 40% of, and is just a complete joke.

Don't get me wrong, I love YT as a platform to share my content, but I am not a mushroom. You can't keep me in the dark and try to feed me crap and expect me to love you for it. There is a lot of good about YT, but what the staff has been doing over the past few years is just a joke. I think they all got Covid and have Covid brain fog or something. LOL!

 

[Xavier De Buck]

I'm the "glass is half-full" kinda guy, so take the below info with a pinch of salt.

(1) First of all, for me, 'success' on community posts isn't measured by the number of subs I'm getting (see screenshot below) as the 20-40 new people following me on its own don't justify the efforts for posting. Impressions-wise, it's been stable for months on my side, so they're definitely not trying anything new to push this feature on their side.

(2) HOWEVER, I'm a big believer that building a small group of hardc0re followers/subscribers can go a long way AND these CP's offer a great opportunity to interact with them. The polls seem to be a popular one as I'm seeing THOUSANDS of people engaging when one comes out. That's never a bad thing, right?

I do try to mix it up with image posts, image polls, text polls etc (quizzes aren't available on my side, but I've started drafting a bunch of posts already).

(3) Based on the interaction / polls / feedback I'm getting from my subscribers, I try and adjust what I provide in my future videos. They're loving it that I'm listening AND implementing their ideas - plus, it's a no-brainer for me as I helps me tremendously on what to focus on. What seems important to me isn't necessarily important to my audience, so why worry about it?

(4) And last but not least, I truly enjoy is the scheduling aspect of the CP's - I'm trying to set at least a daily update in the morning and I can have a week's worth of posts done in one sitting and won't need to worry about it any further. It's just a matter of making sure I dive into the comments when they appear at the time of the posts.

My 2 cents.

(Quick note - I was also the guy who got very excited about Google+ back in the day and was quite disappointed to see my 26,000-follower account go puff in smoke when they X'd it - I can only imagine what would have happened to my numbers if G+ actually took off...)

 

[Nothin' But Gadgets]

I'm the "glass is half-full" kinda guy, so take the below info with a pinch of salt.

(1) First of all, for me, 'success' on community posts isn't measured by the number of subs I'm getting (see screenshot below) as the 20-40 new people following me on its own don't justify the efforts for posting. Impressions-wise, it's been stable for months on my side, so they're definitely not trying anything new to push this feature on their side.

(2) HOWEVER, I'm a big believer that building a small group of hardc0re followers/subscribers can go a long way AND these CP's offer a great opportunity to interact with them. The polls seem to be a popular one as I'm seeing THOUSANDS of people engaging when one comes out. That's never a bad thing, right?

I do try to mix it up with image posts, image polls, text polls etc (quizzes aren't available on my side, but I've started drafting a bunch of posts already).

(3) Based on the interaction / polls / feedback I'm getting from my subscribers, I try and adjust what I provide in my future videos. They're loving it that I'm listening AND implementing their ideas - plus, it's a no-brainer for me as I helps me tremendously on what to focus on. What seems important to me isn't necessarily important to my audience, so why worry about it?

(4) And last but not least, I truly enjoy is the scheduling aspect of the CP's - I'm trying to set at least a daily update in the morning and I can have a week's worth of posts done in one sitting and won't need to worry about it any further. It's just a matter of making sure I dive into the comments when they appear at the time of the posts.

My 2 cents.

(Quick note - I was also the guy who got very excited about Google+ back in the day and was quite disappointed to see my 26,000-follower account go puff in smoke when they X'd it - I can only imagine what would have happened to my numbers if G+ actually took off...)

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I agree with you. I am not saying that community engagement is a bad thing, I am saying YT piss-poor implementation of it is.

1. It's hidden and difficult to find. It is not on the home screen, it takes four taps on the app to get to it once the app is loaded if you know exactly where you are going. It takes three clicks on a desktop to get to it, and that is only you know how.

2. There is no notification system attached to it. When you post, your followers do not get a notice, and when your followers interact with your posts, you do not get a notice.

In a day where EVERYTHING IS BIG BOLD UPFRONT AND CENTER TRYING TO GRAB YOUR ATTENTION, to design a function that can only be used through intentional deliberate action is a violation of any form of reason and intelligence. And then for the creator of such a system to act like they did something great, is an insult to the intelligence of all the people they are trying to fool.

I love the idea, but until it functions more like Facebook,, I am not impressed.

As far as "Engagement Posts" go, I personally am insulted by them and have developed an automatic instinctual rejection of them. As soon as I see an "Engagement Post" on Facebook, I scroll past it as fast as possible. I want only real things, not con jobs pretending to be real things. Engagement Posts are insulting because they are lying to the viewer. 99% of them are questions asking the viewer to give their opinion. The problem is, the person who is posting the engagement post has no interest in what anyone says. The reason they are posting is just for the sheer sake of driving engagement activity. The engagement post says, "Hey! I want to hear your opinion" but in reality, the poster could care less what they have to say. It would be like a boyfriend telling his girlfriend on a date that he wanted to hear about her day, but in reality, he just wanted her to start talking so he could watch the ball game on the TV that was behind her while giving her the impression he was interested in what she was saying.

Facebook is littered with "Engagement Posts" and they are very successful, but I see many people that are getting tired of being manipulated by these fake posts whose one objective is to drive engagement. Like me, people are starting to insulate their minds from these posts. These types of posts are using psychological manipulation to abuse natural human instincts. They are very much a Con-job on society and are very detrimental to society as a whole. Eventually, people will train themselves to not be manipulated by these things. It's kind of like the "Feed the Children" or the SPCA commercials. They use imagery of the saddest things they can find to tug at your heartstrings to get you to donate. This is fine if you only see it on a rare occasion, and it is connected to something real, but if you see this kind of stuff a thousand times a day for the sole purpose of causing a reaction, pretty soon, you are looking at starving children and abused animals and you are not feeling anything anymore.

All these fake engagement posts that are psychologically abusing natural human instincts and nature to drive engagement are going to severely backfire on humanity. They will eventually change human nature to where people will not react to anything normally. This is a very bad thing.