SHOW TRANSCRIPT

[00:00:00] Jeff Sieh: [00:00:00] Welcome to social media news live. I’m Jeff Sieh and you’re not. And this is the show where we keep you up to date on what’s happening in the world of social media. Now today’s show is brought to you by cam. If you’d like to go live on your Mac. And if you’d like to do that, and you would like to have an awesome lower third, multiple cameras, incredible overlays, then you need to go to a Ecamm and go to socialmedianewslive.com/ecamm.

[00:00:27] If you can dream up. Your life show, easy cam can make it happen. Make sure to check that out. Socialmedianewslive.com/ecamm. That’s E C A M M. And I mentioned in the pre-show. I am very excited to have my friend back on the show with me. Grace Duffy is back with us. Grace, you got a new job and whole new thing.

[00:00:49] Tell us what is going on with you. 

[00:00:51] Grace Duffy: [00:00:51] Yes, I I’ve been producing and developing the show with Jeff behind the scenes. And so I’ve been doing this behind the scenes, but I actually am the new virtual events manager at restrain, where I oversee our involvement in industry events, both big and small.

[00:01:07] And I also look after our. Life shows on the restraint channels, hosted by a phenomenal lineup of hosts and influencers in the live streaming industry. So Jeff and I get asked a lot we produce, we host, we’ve been guests on a number of shows and most of them stream to multiple platforms and people often wonder why or how, or is it magic?

[00:01:30] Is that a myth? Is that a mystery? No, it’s restream so I actually. Yeah, I worked for them, of course. So I’m very excited to talk about them. They are a browser-based live streaming platform that lets users go wherever your audience is. So that is multiple destinations up to 30 D online destinations, in fact, and you can check us out our show right now, like Jeff was saying is on YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn, which is just.

[00:01:59] One or three of the 30 plus destinations that we’re actually going to Amazon live using a technology called RTMP and it has restream has everything you need to be successful to live stream right now from your browser. And you can find out more about it at social media news live. Dot com slash restream.

[00:02:22] Again, that’s social media news, live.com/restream. But we are joined here today by an extra special person. Jeff, who do we have 

[00:02:31] Jeff Sieh: [00:02:31] here? Okay. I’m very excited to have my friend Rob bell say, but I can never say you’re a ballast Sabass right. Did I say that right? Rob

[00:02:43] I know it works. I know you spell it out for me, but I still it’s just hard. But I’m so excited to have Rob with us. Sorry. You say it enough times. You’ll eventually get some parts of the syllables, right? We’re going to be talking about what you need to know about creating YouTube shorts,  upcoming YouTube monetization opportunities and growing a community.

[00:03:03] On and off YouTube, which Rob does phenomenally well. And if you don’t know who Rob is, he is the partnership manager at two buddy by day and a video content creator by night. And Rob helps content creators create and market content by sharing strategies, tools, and best practices across all platforms.

[00:03:23] And you see them on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, all over the place. And we are so excited to have him on the show today. Rob, welcome to the show, my friend. 

[00:03:32] Rob Balasabas: [00:03:32] Thank you and yeah. Glad, to be here. Love the show and yeah, just honored to be here. So excited to be talking about all the topics here. These are some of my favorite topics super, super pumped.

[00:03:42] Jeff Sieh: [00:03:42] Cool. So for people who don’t know, tell us what is two buddy? 

[00:03:48] Rob Balasabas: [00:03:48] Yeah. What is two buddies? So two buddy is a YouTube ,  software. If it’s a mobile plugin, it’s a browser plugin, there’s a mobile app. And there’s over 80 different tools to make your life easier on YouTube. We’ve got, I think now over 6 million channels that have installed to buddy to their YouTube channel.

[00:04:06] And  we’re just enjoying building the community and serving the creators ,  that are on YouTube. And  that’s what everybody is. Awesome. Awesome. 

[00:04:14]Grace Duffy: [00:04:14] So tell us what you do as a partnership manager. What is the day in the life Rob? 

[00:04:20] Rob Balasabas: [00:04:20] Yeah. The day in the life is always a little bit different, but my main,  roles here, my main duties here is to manage our affiliate programs.

[00:04:27] So we’ve got an amazing group of affiliate partners. And so managing the day to day,  helping them with resources, helping them with things,  to,  grow their revenue on our affiliate program.  Also building a community with our affiliate partners. That’s a big, that’s a big thing for us we don’t want to be.

[00:04:45] Just a transactional affiliate program. We want to make sure that we are building a community with our affiliate partners. So that’s a big part of what I do here, too, buddy. I’m doing collaborations like these. These are also a big part of what I do and I also enjoy,  and I also host a show, a live show called the creator’s corner,  here at two buddies.

[00:05:03] So that’s yeah, those are some of the things. And then in between there’s marketing, I’m part of the marketing team. So there’s always marketing strategies behind the scenes that I’m working on as well. 

[00:05:15] Grace Duffy: [00:05:15] That’s awesome. 

[00:05:16]Jeff Sieh: [00:05:16] Before we get onto our first section Rob, I want to just, I want to bring up some of our comments.

[00:05:21] INCOSE is Jeff’s podcasting machine steam powered? No, it runs on diesel. And so there you go. But Terry goes, and this is a big shout out to grace. She goes just, wow. Three amazing, wonderful people. Grace Duffy is a fabulous lady. She is wonderful job doing a Rubenfeld job at restream. Thank you for putting this together for all of us.

[00:05:40] Terry, thank you so much. He is a big deal over on Lincoln. And,  and he’s watching here on Facebook with us, but thank you so much, Terry. And he goes restream is trans code testic so there we go. A British word. I’m not really sure what that means, but lots of people coming in,  Carlos says I stream to 30 locations for a massive celebrity concert Restream was essential. That’s awesome to hear. Carlos. And so he, and he was making fun of me of pronouncing your name wrong. And he goes, I worked so hard at saying Rob’s name that I ended up calling him Bob, which is worse, anyway. So funny stuff there. Thank you guys so much. I appreciate you guys supporting us and,  your great comments during the show today, but we’re going to go ahead and start talking about this first segment about YouTube shorts rolls out to us.

[00:06:31] So grace, tell us what. In the world it’s been happening in the news about this YouTube short. 

[00:06:36] Grace Duffy: [00:06:36] Absolutely. So YouTube roll, Rick YouTube shorts rolled out to the U S this past week. And when we say YouTube shorts, we’re referring to the new 92nd or under vertical video format introduced last September. And it has drawn.

[00:06:52] Early comparisons to Tik TOK. Gee, I wonder why. It’s been in beta for a while, but many people have had access to it in its beta form. One of those people is actually Rob Bella Sabas here, who is going to talk to us all about it. This past week shorts became available in the U S so more people are now getting into it.

[00:07:12] And that’s what people are started saying. Okay. What is this? How can I use it just to give you some background? It initially gained momentum in India, where it was being tested. And according to YouTube, more than 3.5 billion daily views globally on this new, impressive new format. And that’s an impressive number considering it’s only officially been available to Indian creators and then some beta testers for now.

[00:07:39] But. Where can we see shorts? Where can we find them? Rob, tell us where, because I don’t see them very much on the desktop. I know they’re on mobile, but where do you see them? 

[00:07:49] Rob Balasabas: [00:07:49] Yeah. You see them on. Yeah. So you see them, you can upload them like right now, everything they’re rolling out YouTube shorts.

[00:07:56] And so what they mean by that is an actual feature on your mobile app.  Your mobile,  YouTube app,  to upload a shorts. Now, even if you don’t have this feature on your channel, you can still upload YouTube shorts. People have been doing that for a while now in the U S like all over the world.  And there’s a couple of things that you just need to do, but it’s essentially the same upload process as the rest of your,  other videos on your channel.

[00:08:23] All you need to do is upload a vertical video.  Normally. Videos are like this, right? The way that you’re seeing now on Facebook. But now you’ve got to upload a vertical video, similar to pick talks, similar to Instagram stories,  in that format and then upload vertical videos. It’s actually 60 seconds or less.

[00:08:40] Some people are actually making them 59 seconds just to be sure that they get picked up by YouTube as a short, and then,  in the title. You need to add hashtags shorts, and then that will make sure that it gets into, it gets recognized by YouTube as a YouTube short. 

[00:08:57] Grace Duffy: [00:08:57] So how important is it to have a title and description?

[00:08:59] Because I know that when you upload a regular video, like the description is key, right? You want to get that SEO. Perfect. What’s the, story here with, shorts. 

[00:09:10] Rob Balasabas: [00:09:10] Yeah, that’s an interesting question. That’s a really polarizing question. If you ask different people,  I feel I still feel that it’s important because eventually you still want your you still want these videos to be found in search.

[00:09:23] You still want these videos to be, they’re going to be living on your channel. Now, initially,  the main thing here is you want to get a big, the biggest opportunity to get views for your shorts. Is on the short shelf. So what that means is that basically if you’re in the mobile app, there is a section once you’re scrolling on the YouTube app for YouTube shorts and you want your videos to get into sort of that highway abuse,  similar to tick talk when you’re just scrolling through.

[00:09:50] And that’s how a lot of,  creators that are uploading shorts. Are uploading shorts. And then usually in about day, or two,  all of a sudden there’s a big spike in,  views. It’s usually because that means that that short video got into the YouTube shelf,  YouTube short shelf.

[00:10:07]And that’s.  So in that sense the title is somewhat important, but also the content itself is much more important and needs to be really quick,  entertaining, like really,  like short cuts, I would say,  so that people are watching it. So as far as Engagement and everything.

[00:10:23] That’s probably the most important thing.  And then longterm the title, the description, the tags,  those will all play a factor in getting more views,  in the longterm. 

[00:10:35] Jeff Sieh: [00:10:35] Very interesting. So my pal, Ian asked the question,  because we’re talking about a little bit about strategy and how that works.

[00:10:41] And he was like, do we need to have 10,000 subscribers? And,  so that was the question I have how are views counted with shorts? How does that really.  Work together. There’s this cause I was reading some of the things in the article. Like some people I was confused on, does it count towards like your 4,000 hours you need to have to,  get advertising money and all that kind of stuff.

[00:11:01] So can you break that down a little bit? 

[00:11:03] Rob Balasabas: [00:11:03] Yeah, that’s really good. Yeah. The so Ian, yeah, you don’t need 10,000 subscribers to,  to do YouTube shorts the way that I explained,  yeah, you can just upload a video now, again, 60 seconds or less vertical video. And as long as you use hashtag shorts,  in the title,  then it’s good to go.

[00:11:18] So it will be considered as a YouTube short.  Now those videos, if they are found.  On your channels. So if they’re found by like somebody going to your channel and then going through and seeing the YouTube shorts then,  that will count towards monetization. If you’re trying to get into the partnership program,  you need a thousand subscribers and you need those 4,000 watch hours over the last.

[00:11:41] 12 months, right? So those YouTube shorts, if they’re found, if people click on the YouTube short from your channel, then it will count towards,  that 4,000 hour a watch time requirement. If it’s found on the S on the shelf, on the YouTube shelf, then it won’t count.  That’s something to consider.

[00:11:58] That’s something to consider for sure. But yeah, it won’t count towards monetization. Gotcha. 

[00:12:03] Grace Duffy: [00:12:03] Okay. Yeah. So I have I have another polarizing question for you cause I ask all the questions, right? So some advice that I have been hearing from other creators as I was researching this segment, should you tubers create a new separate channel dedicated, just.

[00:12:21] For their shorts. Now I know there’s some big creators out there who have created their own channels just for their shorts for branding purposes. And it has just completely blown up. But is there any value in growing a separate shorts channel when you’re growing the other major channel? What’s your thinking on that?

[00:12:39] Rob Balasabas: [00:12:39] Yeah I would say, if you have a really big channel,  one channel that comes to mind is a there’s Jessica hatch. She’s an awesome creator.  She’s got a channel called, gone with a snow dogs and she’s, she’s got like over a million subscribers, I think, on her main channel.

[00:12:53] And then on her,  she created a separate channel for just her shorts.  Just because she didn’t want to mess around with. The main channel already, right? That’s, something that you need to test for your channel, but like the main channel is very established people, know the content, the length of the videos to expect there.

[00:13:12] So I totally understand that she created a separate channel for shorts now, her shorts channel,  I think last I checked, it was like over 50,000 subscribers already, but it’s grown really fast.  Of course she’s got a big channel,  to like. Push people into the shorts,  content.

[00:13:28] If you’re a newer channel I wouldn’t, be too hesitant to just put it on the same, channel. So like your regular content and then sprinkle in the shorts,  in between your regular uploads. So for example, if you’re uploading once a week and you’re doing a live stream like this, or maybe a tutorial video or a blog.

[00:13:47] Then you can upload shorts in between ,  your regular uploads ,  and then create like teasers or ,  a trailer almost, or, if you’re doing a tutorial,  let’s say you’re doing your, a video editing tutorial channel, then create like a little sizzle reel of the end product of, the ,  the edit that you just did, like a transition that you just created and then say  Hey, if you want to learn the step-by-step on how I just did this.

[00:14:12]Awesome transition. Then go watch the tutorial. It’s in the description or it’s in the first comment, right? So a lot of people are using it in different ways to promote other long form videos on their channel. 

[00:14:25] Jeff Sieh: [00:14:25] Awesome. That’s a good tip. Yeah. So I wanted  talk about how creators can streamline their process for creating sorts.

[00:14:32] And you were in before we went live, you were showing us your, some behind the scenes. You want to have me pull up your screen and you maybe can walk through some of that because I would love to show this, for some people. Let me go here to Rob. There you go 

[00:14:45] Rob Balasabas: [00:14:45] up. Sure. Yeah. Can you guys see my screen?

[00:14:49] There you go. There you go. Okay, cool. Yeah. So a lot of people will say Hey, can I still edit my video CS? So I use Camtasia for editing. The only thing you need to do. So you’ll see that my,  my canvas here is just like vertical.  For Camtasia, for example, like I, it’s really simple.

[00:15:06] All I go, all I do is go to project settings and then I change.  The dimension here, it’s, it might be a little small, but you’ll see the dimensions. I changed it to 10 80 by 1920. And just flip that around on the, actual canvas.  And the, and you can do that similar to on final cut or any other video editing tool that you’re using.

[00:15:25] And then you can just go and for example, this video is 33 seconds long, right? We want to keep it really short.  Also play around with,  the length. A lot of people are saying like Agorapulse shut up. A lot of people are saying like try 15 seconds, try 30 seconds, try 45 seconds.

[00:15:43] It’s all, an experiment.  So it pesto different links as well.  The other thing I wanted to show you guys is that, so this is my personal channel and you can see that there’s no playlist here for shorts. You can see all the different platelets. There’s no playlist here for shorts.

[00:15:57] But, inside of,  inside of,  when I click on customize the channel, so up here, customize channel right there,  that takes me to this where I can kind of mess like. Edit the layout and I can add a section add section. Actually, let’s see if I can still actually, I think I’ve added all the sections, but what you can do is you can add these section that is,  shorts videos right here.

[00:16:22] And,  so if I hover over a sort of this,  question Mark, this, I here, it says this section is only visible in the YouTube app. And so what this means is that nobody actually sees my shorts, videos, playlist. Unless I want them to, I can make a custom playlist, but this particular shorts video playlist, that YouTube puts together.

[00:16:42] It doesn’t show on my desktop and only shows when people go to my channel through the YouTube app, which makes sense, because then they can go through and just scroll through all my YouTube shorts,  really quickly.  And then,  and then again, just a really quick example. This is one of my YouTube shorts,  going to details all you need to do, like I said, is.

[00:17:03] On the, in the title, just put in,  the YouTube put in shorts, hashtag shorts, and that we’ll do that. We’ll do the trick right there. 

[00:17:11] Jeff Sieh: [00:17:11] And you mentioned beforehand that you noticed that there was like in your graph of when things were starting to be watched, that it would take a little bit before it, would it take off and then you saw a little bump later.

[00:17:21] So can you just walk through that a little. 

[00:17:23] Rob Balasabas: [00:17:23] Yeah. Yeah. So this is a this is,  one of my shorts,  my more recent shorts. And you can see here that this is the view graph.  And this is very typical, like seeing a lot of creators in different groups and communities. This is very typical of what happens to you to be short.

[00:17:38] So it’s. The blue line here is for this particular video. So right around about a day and nine hours, it went from like really flat line. And then it just went up like this. So this is the point right here where it, and it got put into the YouTube short shelf.  And then there’s a big spike in views.

[00:17:56] And then after about a day, a few days, or so it then flat lines cause it gets taken off the shelf.  And then this is where, where this is something you need to strategize for and plan for. Is that now you need to make sure that video is optimized so it can get found in search and all those things on your channel.

[00:18:14] Jeff Sieh: [00:18:14] Awesome. Thanks Rob, for showing us that’s really cool because I think that’s a really helpful for us newbies on,  trying to understand you just hard enough to understand anyway, but shorts is a whole nother thing. So here’s a question I know these are I’m a grimy little marketer and I’m thinking of stuff, so yeah.

[00:18:34] What are your thoughts on repurposing your tic talk and reels content for shorts? Are there issues with doing that? Do you recommend it?  Is it a good idea to repurpose that kind of stuff? What are your thoughts? 

[00:18:46] Rob Balasabas: [00:18:46] Yeah, I don’t think there’s a, I don’t think there’s any issues. I’ve seen people do that on, YouTube shorts.

[00:18:50] I know that on Instagram, I think correct me if I’m wrong, you guys probably know a little bit better, but I know an Instagram, I think Instagram reels is cracking down on any tick talk repurposed. With the watermark and limiting the reach on those.

[00:19:05] But as far as YouTube shorts, I don’t see that happening yet.  It might be, but understand there’s a lot of this is the whole reason why,  YouTube shorts is YouTube is so bullish on shorts is because they are really essentially trying to take on Tech-Talk which is which, I understand, like it’s a battle that they really can’t lose.

[00:19:24] They don’t want to lose that attention. For that next generation for that short form video. So that’s why they’re really pushing shorts and,  giving some boost on shorts, videos, and things like that when people do upload them. Yeah. Yeah, so it’s just, it’s interesting.

[00:19:40] I know we’re going to talk a little bit about monetization,  it’s an interesting battle to watch and, see, because.  A lot of tick-tock creators are migrating and creating on YouTube shorts, just because YouTube does have a bit of a better infrastructure when it comes to monetization and,  YouTube ad sense and all those things.

[00:19:57] Yeah, so it’s interesting, but yeah, I don’t see any, negatives to Tik TOK videos being repurposed on shorts quite yet. 

[00:20:05] Jeff Sieh: [00:20:05] So I have a follow-up question before grace moves onto the next one, is so to me it’s okay, YouTube one of the things is, the strategy is  you want to have as much time viewed that helps,  the more people will watch your content.

[00:20:16] The better off you are. And,  you’ve heard a long time, longer content kind of works. You want to keep those eyeballs on YouTube. Shorts are almost the opposite. It’s it’s so quick and it’s, it seems like it’s almost a culture shift from YouTube and the creators they were creating kind of long form content where you wanted it really sticky where people would sit there and have those eyeballs on your content.

[00:20:38] And shorts is like the opposite of that. It feels you know what I’m saying? So is that a thing that YouTube is trying is struggling against? Or what are your thoughts on that? 

[00:20:47] Rob Balasabas: [00:20:47] Yeah it’s, really interesting. Like we learned we were like, you need a lot of data. Like we have a lot of channels, obviously that have connected their content their channels and, things to, buddy.

[00:20:57] And we were looking a lot of data and, it tells us that YouTube, like viewers on YouTube, like short content and long content, it’s like really weird. It’s really weird. But, they like we found that two minutes or less.  Videos two minutes or less tend to do really well.  And then there’s a bit of a slope.

[00:21:16] It’s a bowl like a dip between two minutes and 10 minutes, and then around 10 minutes, 15 minutes and more,  there’s another sort of spike in views,  in retention. Yes. So I think this is why I think a lot of creators that are mean, and that are doing shorts,  or even just like short form content meaning like shorter videos.

[00:21:37] And then they have their longer form videos.  They do fairly well they take a lot of their longer form interviews or tutorials and then they tend to break them up into shorter clips, for example.  So, yeah, so I think there’s a lot of creators out there that are still trying to figure this out.

[00:21:52] Where the shorts fit. Does it fit on a different channel? Does it fit on my channel? Do I do it once in awhile?  There’s a lot of newer channels.  Even last year that, just like they created their channels mid last year and they just blown up and all they’re doing are shorts.  One, one example that comes like I always use is this guy named Rishi draws.

[00:22:12] And it’s the guy that just draws on his tablet and it’s just all shorts. And I think he started this channel a while ago, but he only started uploading like last summer, like mid last year. And,  I think now he’s almost at 400,000 subscribers, so it’s interesting. It’s really interesting how people are using.

[00:22:29] Shorts but, yeah, people like short content and long content, but like some somewhere in between there it’s not, so it’s not so hot, which is really interesting. 

[00:22:37] Jeff Sieh: [00:22:37] That is interesting. Yeah. Very cool. 

[00:22:39] Grace Duffy: [00:22:39] Yeah. So shorts is, new and fairly unproven. You work for two buddy. I worked for restream, we’re deep in the video, but other businesses, other types of businesses that may not or video isn’t their main. The it’s really just part of their marketing funnel.  Do you think it’s worth their time and attention to, to to produce these shorts? What is the value of doing shorts? If let’s say that you’re not necessarily a video creator, but you’re a brand using YouTube to promote your own things.

[00:23:12] Rob Balasabas: [00:23:12] Yeah. Yeah. It’s, it is very unproven. Like right now we’re seeing a lot of,  there’s a lot of factors why people are getting views on shorts. So I would say if you’re a newer business, if you’re just trying to get into,  using YouTube as a, as another,  view source or traffic source for your landing pages and things like that.

[00:23:30] I think shorts is a little bit shorts, in my opinion is more of an awareness. Piece of content. Like just if you, start consuming and as if you’re watching this and you’re looking to do shorts, go into your YouTube app and just consume and just watch some shorts and look at your own behavior, do you tend to actually click on the links?

[00:23:50] If you’re on Tik TOK, you’re not really pausing unless you’re liking you’re you like, but then you’re going to continue scrolling through. With, YouTube shorts, It’s not really like a place to do like a pitch Hey guys, I’m going to show you three ways to do this cool thing.

[00:24:08] And,  by the way, this is part of a longer course or a full course,  click on the link down below. Like it’s you’re not going to be able to get people to take,  big action like that. They’re just scrolling through. Now that doesn’t mean to say that doesn’t,  contribute to long longer-term success on your channel because now.

[00:24:26] They’ve,  if they watch an entire shorts or like most of the short like a short video on your channel, then when they come back to YouTube YouTube made them serve them. Some of your other videos, some of your other long form videos, because YouTube is like, Hey, you watch one of Rob’s shorts.

[00:24:42] Maybe he’ll be interested in some of those other videos, because YouTube is in the game of trying to get people to watch more videos.  So then in that case, like they may not subscribe while they’re watching. They may not click while they’re watching your shorts, but when they come back, they’ll like, Hey, I remember Rob, you need that like really funny video or like that really cool,  teaser video.

[00:25:01] And then now I’m seeing his other videos populate on my homepage. When I go to YouTube again,  and then they may watch some of my other videos and then that’s where then,  the cost to action. They may actually click on some of the links and things like that.  So find a place for you, consume some of the shorts on YouTube and then see how your behavior is.

[00:25:19] And then that’s probably going to be,  close to what the, viewers that are going to be watching your shorts as well.  And then don’t try to sell again, people are doing shorts. Think of tick-tock, it’s like an entertainment sort of thing they’re scrolling through on their break and they’re just scrolling through.

[00:25:36] Make them really fun, quick punching like videos and just be satisfied that like they’ll like the main call to action might be to just like the video. Cause that’s easy. Cause that’s still there. There’s a like button when they’re scrolling through.  And their thumb is right there.

[00:25:52] It’s an, easy ask. Hey, make sure you like the video.  And then just assume that’s what that might be the, workflow. And then they’ll hopefully come around and then maybe check out your channel or see more of it, more of your videos later on.

[00:26:07] So yeah, that’s a good 

[00:26:08] Jeff Sieh: [00:26:08] tip. So what I want to ask this question, because I had mentioned, and even Scott air said at chimed in on this, cause I was like, Hey, yeah, I want to really concentrate on YouTube. This year is one of my goals. So if you have a new channel, Would you suggest that they, cause I want to know if will it help make your content more discoverable your other content?

[00:26:25] What if you’re starting a new channel and you’re getting started on YouTube, would you say,  trout shorts or would you say no concentrate on, being consistent and making a video each week and then if you have a time to add a short, so what are your thoughts on? Cause some people are saying use shorts now because it’s it’ll never be this,  a wild West kind of,  gold rush kind of thing ever again.

[00:26:43] So you need to do it now. So what are your thoughts on that? 

[00:26:46] Rob Balasabas: [00:26:46] Yeah, that’s a good question. So if you’re just starting out, if I was just starting out right now, I would still focus on long form, like a full on regular YouTube video, because that’s going to be evergreen.  Shorts might be really good right now.

[00:26:56] Who knows where it goes, but,  not to say that you don’t use shorts, so if I focus first with this is the same thing with repurposing content, right?  I would create the full length content first. So like the five minute video tutorial videos. If I, again, if I was starting over fresh right now, those short tutorial videos, and then let’s say it’s Hey, three tips.

[00:27:15] Hey guys, I got three tips to get more viewers on your live stream show.  Then that’s my five minute tutorial. Then again, I’ve already created the full thing. Now I can just take one or two of those tips and then make them into shorts while I’m editing.  And it’s, not that much more time consuming again, given if I do have time, then I will create the shorts.

[00:27:34] So to me it would be secondary. Like shorts would be a secondary thing, but if I start with a full length tutorial, then I know that’s going to be searchable. That’s going to because looking at the data,  the shorts content does give you a spike in views.  And then it kind of flat lines, whereas I know that like my full length like videos,  because they are just that, format,  that continues to just get views like months down the road.

[00:27:59] I would start with the full length tutorials or the full length blogs, a full length videos. And then if I have time, take the shorts out and make one or two shorts in between my uploads. 

[00:28:09] Jeff Sieh: [00:28:09] Awesome. That’s amazing. And so I wanted to bring up the incredible doc Rock’s comment and he goes, okay.

[00:28:15] Marketing people, always looking for the ROI. Think of shorts as top of mind juice. It’s all a little brand reminder to your tribe. So thanks doc for that. That’s a great point. So 

[00:28:26] Grace Duffy: [00:28:26] that is a good reminder. So YouTube actually launched a short report for creators. So if you’re interested. Did in learning more about shorts, learning more techniques, mourning, learning, more tips directly from YouTube.

[00:28:39] This is a new resource for you. You can go to YouTube, help and search YouTube shorts report. So there isn’t quite a, there’s an, a short shelf in the help section. But if you go in and they do this biweekly, so the first one launched at the beginning of February, I checked in and there was one that was published on.

[00:28:57] Tuesday. So March 2nd. So again, they’re always full of product updates, video, inspiration, content creation, tips, things you can do. They’re very quick. They’re, actually a short format newsletter. So check that out. If you’re interested in finding out more about shorts. 

[00:29:13] Jeff Sieh: [00:29:13] Very cool. And this next segment is,  very interesting YouTube announces a new applause feature that allows users to pay creators directly on YouTube.

[00:29:23] It’s inspired by the success of super chat and super stickers for live streams. And they’ve been testing a new applause feature that allows fans to support,  to show their support for their favorite YouTube channels. Now,  the S the super chat and super stickers that was for live stream only.

[00:29:37] This new feature, this applause feature unlocks new monetization opportunities for creators who are uploading like the pre-made edited content. So it’s currently being tested and will be rolled out broadly to creators later this year.   What I wanted to know, Rob is tech, do you know?

[00:29:54] And I’ve seen people do, a lot of my friends are doing it like Luria, and I know some other people,  do you know anyone making like a decent YouTube living from super chat and super stickers? 

[00:30:05] Rob Balasabas: [00:30:05] Man decent YouTube living. Yeah. It depends, on what that level of revenue needs to be for everyone.

[00:30:13] But I, would say yeah, a lot of live streamers do for sure. There’s a lot of live streamers that I’ve seen.  I know the like Nick Niman, for example, every Saturday he’s doing like a live stream marathon, like consistently for years and yeah. He gets a ton of love on the super chats for sure.

[00:30:28]Yeah I think, there are, there’s a lot of gamers that do them really well.  A lot of, yeah so, there it’s a handful it’s for a lot of people it’s it’s, like just a way to think they’re create like their favorite creators when they show up. But there’s a lot of creators that do make a decent,  revenue stream out of it, for sure.

[00:30:45] Awesome. 

[00:30:45]Grace Duffy: [00:30:45] Do you know what kind of cut YouTube takes with is expected to take with applause? Because I know that with a super chats and with super stickers, that there’s a little bit of a percentage. I still think a majority of it does go to the creators, but has there been any word on what the percentages here?

[00:31:03] Rob Balasabas: [00:31:03] I’m not sure. Yeah. I haven’t heard, like I know with a super chat and everything else that YouTube has as far as like its, monetary station. It’s about 30%. So I’m assuming it’s going to be about the same,  it’s, in line with that. That’s my assumption. Just to keep things simple for creators and for YouTube.

[00:31:20] So, yeah I would think, it’s about 30%. 

[00:31:24] Jeff Sieh: [00:31:24] And if I did, I don’t know if he said this or not, but it’s two bucks for, to get an applause is what I thought the thing is. And so you can spend what, like $500 a day on super chat and applause. Once somebody got some money, if they want to do that, I’m telling you.

[00:31:38] That’s interesting. So yeah.  Live video is very exciting and sponsor and spontaneity really spot. I can’t even say the word now, Montana. See, I mess up Rob’s name. Can’t say spontaneous. It’s just the way it is. It goes downhill after that. Yeah. About that being,  when people are going live it’s you’re in the moment, do you think this will really translate to Uploaded videos.

[00:32:07] Are you expecting to see people give you applause, like on your ones that you’re doing a tutorial on or something like that? What are your thoughts? 

[00:32:14] Rob Balasabas: [00:32:14] You may if you like right now, this is already happening. Like people are using Patrion or they’re using buy me a coffee.com or co co.fi or coffee.

[00:32:23] There’s already third-party tools that do this, which is, I think why YouTube is like. Making it available for them and keep the keep the money inside of YouTube. I think so there’s always even in my own tutorials, like people have reached out, say Hey, do you have something like, is there a way for me to thank you or for helping me set this up,  through a tutorial that you just created.

[00:32:46] Yeah I think, there’s going to be a good chunk of people that are going to be supporting their creators this way. Cause I think in general people, like.  A lot of people like free content and free training, but there’s, a bit of us as humans that are like, Oh man I feel like.

[00:33:02] Indebted until it, how do I like pay you back so that we’re square, so I think I, think there’s, gonna be a lot of people that are gonna be excited about this.  It’s gonna be interesting to see the formats of videos,  people are going to be asking people like, how do you promote that applause thing?

[00:33:18] So it’ll be interesting how creators are going to be working that organically into their strips into their videos, But yeah, I think people are going to be supporting the creators this way. Pretty cool. Yeah. 

[00:33:29] Grace Duffy: [00:33:29] Yeah. Yeah. We funny like subscribe and applause, please.

[00:33:35] Rob Balasabas: [00:33:35] Exactly. 

[00:33:35] Grace Duffy: [00:33:35] Exactly. So this announcement, YouTube did announce two other tools coming down the pipeline for creators. So I will run through them real quick. So the company is also rolling out. Automation for its chapters feature. So this allows you to you tubers, excuse me, to segment their videos and enter a time code for each section.

[00:33:56] But this is something that we can already do manually. That’s something that we used to do on our videos. Rob, is this something that yeah, Yep. Yep. And 

[00:34:06] Rob Balasabas: [00:34:06] then the other lines. 

[00:34:09] Grace Duffy: [00:34:09] Yeah, which is very helpful for people like me, that will go to YouTube and read one, answer to one thing. And I’m like, I love your 10 minute videos, people out there. But like sometimes I just need to know how to install that thing right now. But and then on the monetization front YouTube is currently looking to integrate more e-commerce options. This is something we talked to with Luria Petrucci in the show in January, we discussed that YouTube is testing ways for people to discover and directly purchase.

[00:34:38] Items products within a stream. Is this something that I know this was, they were just testing it, but is this something that you’ve seen in the wild Rob? 

[00:34:46] Rob Balasabas: [00:34:46] I haven’t seen, I haven’t seen the shopping yet. I obviously chapters is already available manually, so it’ll be cool to see what YouTube is going to do, how they’re going to roll that out as an automated thing.

[00:34:56] So we’ll see how that goes.  But yeah,  yeah, as far as like the online shopping on YouTube, that makes a lot of sense to me, but I haven’t seen it out in the wild yet. Seeing it on other platforms. But I think it’s, coming this way. Like we’re on Amazon live right now.  A lot of, people are, a lot of people are just, this is how they shop.

[00:35:13] Like they shop through their favorite creators and favorite channels and personalities on, social. So yeah, it makes sense that YouTube is going to be doing this again, like with all of these things there’s a lot of things that YouTube is doing as far as monetization, whatever the platform is.

[00:35:29] I think the creator, the whole like topic of creator economy is, like a real thing. Now there’s a lot of creators. There’s a lot of people, just everyday people like you and me that are making a living on, video, on social and creating videos. And the, platforms recognize this, the brands recognize this as brands. You can’t really like your options for advertising. If you have an advertising budget your options for that is like really dwindling down. Like it’s I can’t, people are not watching TV anymore. They’re just watching Netflix and Amazon and YouTube. So they’re not on cable, so I can’t do TV ads.

[00:36:11] People are skipping ads. Like they’re skipping ads altogether. Like on YouTube you can, get a subscription so that you don’t have to watch ads.  They have ad blockers and all these things, so it’s yeah. Where can I get my I’m a new company, where can I get my my coffee beans so that people can I can’t even pay for it ads anymore.

[00:36:29] So now you have to approach creators because that’s. Who people are watching. And so you have to integrate with creators. And all of these platforms, YouTube,  Twitter, like Facebook, LinkedIn, they have to think ways of how can they help creators to monetize. So then they create on my platform, not on,  other platforms, and so this is something YouTube recognize this. And so they’re just adding okay, people are buying,  creators coffee on third-party platforms. So let’s. Just make an applause feature we can already take people’s money. So let’s just add this one feature. It’s the same thing as,  super chats, but it’s for recorded videos.

[00:37:07] So it’s, cool to see. And I’m glad too, buddy, we’re very we’re very poor pro for creators getting paid. And,  that’s how,  if creators get paid, then they create better, content. And then,  the, audience enjoys better content. So it all works. Awesome. 

[00:37:25] Jeff Sieh: [00:37:25] So we got some comments I want to bring up before we go to our next section.

[00:37:28]So one of the questions from a brand goes, will you have to have 10 K subs to use applause and do you know the answer to 

[00:37:35] Rob Balasabas: [00:37:35] that one wrong? I don’t know. I don’t, I haven’t heard yet. 

[00:37:40] Jeff Sieh: [00:37:40] And then,  the incredible doc rock says, Jeff, I buy you an applesauce just for the beard game. Wait it’s applause.

[00:37:47] Aha. That’s good. Thanks. And he also says a YouTube cut is worth it because,  imagine having to pay for the bandwidth and storage for all your videos. Yes. Very, true. Yeah, that’s true. And, and we were talking about the the being able to segment your videos. He goes when you say video from your editor, it has an option to save chapter markers.

[00:38:08] Hopefully they will simply read that I put mine in and always have, it will be a time saver. So I think that’s really cool.  Anyway, by the way, if you guys are wondering how we are doing the magic of what we’re doing right now, we are using an awesome tool called e-com. They are a sponsor of the show.

[00:38:25] We’d love for you guys to go check them out at social media news, live.com forward slash e-com, lets you do all these cool overlays and have guests on all sorts of cool things. And another piece of the magic that makes it happens is from. Restrain which grace is a big fan of, and that allows us to multi stream to over 30 different platforms.

[00:38:45] Like we’re going to YouTube, LinkedIn, Facebook Amazon live and so very, cool stuff. So make sure you check those people out as well at social media news, live.com forward slash restream.  Now I want to talk a little bit more about Rob because he has some Some very cool things that I wanted to pull up that he does.

[00:39:05]And we can go ahead and do that now.  We’re going to talk about creating community on and off YouTube and Rob hosts, a private Facebook group called the content.  Marketer’s cafe and it’s got 1,900 members and he does this, he posts high engagement videos. He does events, testing, setups, and equipment, and I, and grace and I both have gone in there.

[00:39:28] And there’s not a question that probably doesn’t get unanswered. So Rob we’re, we are in all of you, but,  we, want to know how you do it. I’m going to pull up, just the screen real quick here on, on screen. So there’s. 

[00:39:37] Grace Duffy: [00:39:37] Yeah, go ahead. I will say that. I will say that being in the group too, not only does, a single question, not go on answered, but everyone is super, super supportive, no matter who you are, what you’re doing, what company you work for, everyone is always working together.

[00:39:53] Rob, I want to know how you’ve nurtured this incredible positive community of creators. Can you tell us how this group began? Like how you started it and then also.  Along that journey, how you’ve grown it to today. Cause it’s just such a,  it’s such an amazing place and that is hard to accomplish with the Facebook group.

[00:40:13] Rob Balasabas: [00:40:13] Yeah. Yeah, no, thank you. You guys yeah. That this whole group was it started as a Facebook chat group when I was still at Thinkific, like almost to like over two years ago, I started this cause we started doing collaborations and I was like, okay, how do I keep in touch with all the different amazing people that I’m doing collaborations with and podcast interviews and swapping content with.

[00:40:37] And  I’m like, okay, let me put it into like this. Let me just add everybody talk, chat group, and then maybe They all want to meet each other. I’m sure. Cause they all have shows and they all have content and maybe they can get into each other’s shows and spilled a little community on Facebook chat.

[00:40:51] So I started it like,  was like a late night idea. I started, I added like 20 or 30 people into the chat, had that idea.  And then it went to, I felt like a couple people messaged Hey, this is cool. This is awesome. And then w fell asleep the next morning. There’s like over 200 messages and then people are like, This needs to be a Facebook group.

[00:41:09] And so that was it. And then, so I created a Facebook group really just to keep in touch with all of these friends of mine. And it just started growing. People would invite other people became a thing where people would ask questions. And, yeah, it was just good.

[00:41:24] Like right now it’s just growing on itself.  And it’s. It’s not a thing where like I do talk about too buddy there. Of course, that’s just where I work.  But it’s not something where it’s Hey guys, we’ve got a paid training. You guys want to join there’s no paid thing happening inside of the group.

[00:41:40] It’s just literally, like I see doc in there. See you guys in there we’re just asking questions and Hey, I’m doing this. Does anybody know like how I started my teleprompter so it’s a, it’s cool. It’s cool. It’s just, a fun community, especially right now during lockdown, it’s like really helped me stay sane with social, like the social side of life.

[00:42:01] Like just to see people this way. 

[00:42:03] Jeff Sieh: [00:42:03] Of course, none of us really have worn pants in a year, but other than that we, this is how we do our social stuff. So I want to know, I want to know Rob is it appears like you have. 30 admins and moderators, which seems like a lot to anyone who hasn’t met manage a Facebook groups.

[00:42:21] So how do you manage your team? That’s the other I, have backed away about, cause I’m like, I don’t want to have to deal with the nightmare of it, but you have got it down. It looks like. 

[00:42:30] Rob Balasabas: [00:42:30] Yeah, no they’re, just admins. The reason they’re admins is because they want, they’re like, Hey, you guys should scream.

[00:42:37] If you guys are going to stream one and just stream in the group there’s some people there that could learn from your show, from your content. So I haven’t it’s not, there’s no rules. There’s no required like duties as an admin or anything. It’s not Hey, make sure you. Keep everything clean.

[00:42:50] We don’t even really police the group too much just because just when people want to join the group, just take a look at their profile. So like a lot of the filtering and policing is nipped in the bud, like before people join and identify some like spammers and things like that.

[00:43:07] So, yeah, there’s very little I guess like work wise, that’s just literally it just jump in. Oh, cool. There’s some posts and people have already answered each other’s questions. Yeah. It’s, great. It’s great. It’s just a fun, like I said, it’s just, it it’s not a place where we do what we were doing, promotion or anything like that.

[00:43:24] It’s like literally just a place to help each other out and, of be social. Very cool. 

[00:43:30] Grace Duffy: [00:43:30] Yeah. I think, the key here is that it was a group that you created. And so I think you, you attract what you give out, right? And so of course you were such a generous and positive and amazing person.

[00:43:42] So of course you bring that you, that, that radiates out and it comes back in. But what advice do you have for someone that is not Rob Bella Savvis, who would like to create their own Facebook group? And I’m not going to say they don’t have the same love and light. Because perhaps they do, but just generally across the board, when may speak, you have, if someone were to start their own group or community, it doesn’t necessarily have to be on Facebook community like this.

[00:44:08] Rob Balasabas: [00:44:08] Yeah. Yeah. So I would say  have a, have your goal in mind what is your goal? What is your group for if, Hey if, your group is a pop-up group for a course, you’re running. That’s much respect. Like there, there’s definitely a place for that. But if your group have a, have a.

[00:44:25] Have a thing, like what is your group about?  Make sure that you identify what that is Hey, this group is for creators looking to create better content and build revenue around their content. So okay, cool. I can, like line up with that. So make sure that you understand what your group is about.

[00:44:43] You need to show up like building a community, whether it’s on Facebook. Book or Slack or discord or circle, like there’s all these other cool platforms for communities you need to show up. So understand that you need to show up for the The first little while, like you need to be the person, you need to be the host of that group.

[00:45:01] So everybody that comes in, you’re connecting with them. You’re, engaging with them and you’re understanding what their their, goals are, what their business is about. So then when other members come in, just  if you have people at your house a bunch of strangers, you’re hosting a dinner party you need to understand what, okay, Dave.

[00:45:17] Cool. I see what Dave’s about. Okay, cool. Dave you should meet Ryan over here,  I think you guys, and then let them connect. And then you can step away and then meet other people so you need to be a connector.  When you’re doing these groups and so you need to show up, you need to not be promotional,  people can smell that a mile away. Hey, I got a Facebook group is a Facebook group, but it’s really like an email list. The shy is just a Facebook group, so you gotta be, you gotta be real, really careful that you’re not promotional or else people will just be like, Oh, this just another like Facebook another like promotional kind of group.

[00:45:51] And then the last thing is you need to protect that group. So you need to be as the, as a person, as the host, the owner of that group, you need to protect that space. So if there’s people that are spamming if there’s people that are not being nice you need to like, Either kick them out of the group or have a conversation.

[00:46:06] So you need, you didn’t need to be the, the bad cop if, needed. So you need to protect that group that it is a safe place to ask questions and have opinions.  So I think that’s probably a good foundation for starting a community. 

[00:46:22] Jeff Sieh: [00:46:22] So I have a kind of a two-part follow-up question because,  Eric Fisher, my pals, the, he does the beyond the to-do list podcast, all about productivity.

[00:46:28] He, I know he wanted me to ask this question, so we see you not only on Facebook,  you’re everywhere.  And on YouTube and you’re active, insightful, engaged on Instagram and Twitter and  what how do you, manage your time? Because I think that’s time management, big thing.

[00:46:43]And  and the second part would be like, Has have your community building and your efforts, even though you’re not, you even mentioned don’t be promotional. And, but have that, does that helps you grow your YouTube presence just by having that group as well? 

[00:46:55]Rob Balasabas: [00:46:55] Yeah, I would say so. I would say so not directly subscribers probably.

[00:46:59] Yes. But,  more just accountability and Hey, this is okay. There’s Hey, this video really flopped and then people like, Hey, that’s fine. That’s all good. So yeah. People that will catch you when you have a bad day. So I think in that sense yeah.

[00:47:15] In different ways. Yeah. It definitely has helped me grow and just be more sustained, like sustain the YouTube journey. The YouTube journey can be a little bit lonely or if you’re just doing this by yourself right now everybody’s working from home, but if you’re not plugged into some type of community, Then,  it can be really hard and it’s really easy to just eh, forget it.

[00:47:36] This platform doesn’t work for me. YouTube is really no good. LinkedIn doesn’t work because there’s nobody to bounce off and just tell you like, Hey, that’s normal. This is. It’s not always going to be a viral video or like it’s not always going to click.

[00:47:49] So I think having a community, no matter what it is online is very important. So find one,  to be a part of. One of the things I’ve really learned is that there’s different types of communities. So there’s the communities where the people you’re serving. So people that are, let’s say subscribers to your channel.

[00:48:06] So that’s one community where you are. Th the smartest person in the room. And then there’s also a community that’s really important, which I’m part of with you guys, I consider you is like your peers. So people that can speak into that are smarter than you and say Hey Rob,  you kinda got a gun, you kinda Zig, you’re gonna zag here, but you got to Zig.

[00:48:25] So I think that’s really important. So make sure that you identify the types of communities that you’re in. If you’re the smartest person in that room and you’re like I can’t learn from anything here. Then you need to find yourself maybe a different circle or different communities.

[00:48:37] So make sure that you’re,  you’re teaching other people,  which is really important.  But then they’re also like continuing to learn and you have some mentors along the way, or virtual mentors, they don’t know it yet, but they’re your mentors. Yeah. So have both sides where you’re learning, but then you’re also teaching,  so that’s different types of communities.

[00:48:55]Jeff Sieh: [00:48:55] Do you have like a. Facebook group day or afternoon where you like, you’re going to focus. Cause I’m like, cause I see you do all this content and I see you in all these groups and you’re, active and all that stuff. Do you segment your time? Like I’m going to go and do Facebook today. I’m going to do, I’m going to, this is my YouTube creation day.

[00:49:13] Is that how you batch 

[00:49:15] Rob Balasabas: [00:49:15] your stuff out? Yeah. Yeah. A lot of it’s a lot of time blocking on the calendar. Okay. Let’s do Facebook, like in the morning before you get started with work and let’s let’s schedule a couple of posts for the rest of the week. And then that’s it, and,  and then as far as like YouTube, that’s usually, I usually do that after, like at least you use like late afternoon. And again, That’s recording and and have after a little while you have your own flow, so I’ll do recording one night and then I’ll edit it the following night and then, upload it at the same time.

[00:49:50] Again, using some of the, like to buddy to schedule all of those uploads and from, to go from unlisted to public. So yeah a lot of, scheduling and a lot of time blocking or else you Never sleep, never restaurant never, ever seen the family. So, yeah, just that, just a lot of that.

[00:50:11] Jeff Sieh: [00:50:11] Very cool. I want to, before we wrap up, I want to bring up some comments because,  it’s really some really good ones from doc says, Rob is a true gentleman that adds to the group culture. And,  he also says iron sharpens iron. If you’re frantic, your group will be frantic. If you’re calm and organized, your group will be too.

[00:50:29] And Pat goes,  yes, these are great,  tips for groups on Facebook. Thank you very much. She goes, yes, I have to use time-blocking for social media. I manage the company for the company I work for. So yeah, she probably has you and then a DJ Slack’s a strict, says I am also in Rob’s group and I really enjoy the info.

[00:50:45] So you got a bunch of fans? Yeah. There. Rob, I want to know we’ve told people I can go to the, content marketers cafe, but where else can we find out more about Rob and all his places online? 

[00:51:00] Rob Balasabas: [00:51:00] Yeah. Instagram, LinkedIn, those are the best places and feel free to connect. Send me a message.

[00:51:05] Send me any questions I can help with. Yeah, always happy to help. So yeah, Instagram and and LinkedIn. And I also 

[00:51:12] Jeff Sieh: [00:51:12] want to be your buddy. Yes, too, buddy is awesome, buddy. Yeah. Yeah. I use it. So it’s very, cool. I’m needed to use it more, but it’s an incredible program. But grace, where can we find out about you now and your new adventures over on restream.

[00:51:29] Grace Duffy: [00:51:29] You can find me over at the restream YouTube, Facebook or LinkedIn page. You can also find me personally on LinkedIn. I’ve been upping my LinkedIn game and paying more attention there and I get distracted very easily by social media. So I need to incorporate some time blocking, but that’s where you can find me.

[00:51:46] Oh and, in Rob’s group, I hang out there too. 

[00:51:49] Jeff Sieh: [00:51:49] And as always, thank you guys so much for being a part of the show today. Our next show is on Friday, March 12th at 11:00 AM. 10:00 AM central. And you can find us on Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Amazon live. And I also want to do a big shout out for our sponsors.

[00:52:03] We could not do the show without them and by supporting them, you support us. So make sure you check out Agorapulse, who Rob even had their hat on. And some of this he was showing earlier and they’re a great company help us schedule and actually. Monitor comments even after a live videos. Really great.

[00:52:19] Also my pals over on at Ecamm, make sure you go visit them and also,  Restream as well.  So go to socialmedianewslive.com/restream.  And thank you guys for, and thank you for our sponsors and we will see you next time. Bye everybody. 

[00:52:34] Grace Duffy: [00:52:34] Bye everyone. Have a good day,