Understanding YouTube Features for SMM

Hello Friends, welcome to Learnvern

In the last video we saw the reason people create a youtube channel, the advantages of creating a youtube channel. And we also learnt about the important elements that we need to take into consideration while creating a youtube channel.

Let us start today's unit. In this unit, we learn about the few more features, and that too in depth. We will see how to upload titles, meta descriptions, tags and in the end we will also see a live demo. Through this demo I will help you understand how to step by step upload a video on a youtube channel and how to add carts and many more.

As you can see this is a screenshot of a youtube channel. This is the channel of Learnvern. This is how a youtube channel looks like.

The first and the most important feature that I would like to discuss with you is a Playlist.

So what is a Playlist?

Suppose you have a plan to upload a lot of videos on a youtube channel so, can you actually group it with a similar set of videos? The answer is “YES”

You can group those videos and this grouping section is called Playlist.

So let me help you understand this with a simple example. The youtube channel of LearnVern is in front of you. You are able to see a lot of videos here, videos of different subjects.

So what we have done here is that we have created a separate playlist for the videos related to php. A separate playlist for R programming related videos, one more playlist for Core Java related videos, one more for digital marketing, one more for SEO.

So, What will happen because of this?

The potential audience or the potential viewers who visit your youtube channel, you can showcase a particular playlist to them. You can show that all the videos are under a specific playlist.

By doing this, all the videos will get organised in a better way. If your organisation of videos is good, then it is a plus point for your channel, it will be easy to navigate the channel. And all the new audience or the subscribers who visit your channel will easily be able to view the desired videos.

For example, if I am a digital marketing professional. OK?

The coding related videos arent of much use to me or for my profession.

So what will I do?

If I visit the youtube channel of LEarnVern, then I shall only and only view the playlist related to Digital Marketing or just the SEO related playlist.

So based on the preference of a user, and the interest of a user you can create a particular playlist and showcase it to your audience. The audience has the option of viewing either any specific playlist or multiple playlists too.

In a playlist, the user can see videos one after the other and can also view them.

The second tab is the community tab. What does a community tab do?

As you can see on the screen after the playlist is the community tab.

The community tab lets you publish engaging content.

Right? So it means that you can share a lot of content with your users, with your subscribers.

Like text, images, polls, videos. If you wish to share any new update with your subscribers then you can share them under the community tab.

In fact you can engage your audience through polls also. You can ask them for their preferences.

A Youtuber whom I follow, makes a lot of videos related to Technology. He uses polls to understand which youtube video he should make next.

For example I watch a lot of videos related to mobiles, I go through a lot of reviews on mobiles. So recently a phone was launched      with the name “Google Pixel” and prior to that an Apple’s phone was launched. So the creator had posted a poll asking the viewers if they wish to understand the difference and the review of Apple versus Google’s phone.

Many people responded to that poll. So through this, you as a creator, as a youtuber can get to know what does your audience want, what are their preferences. Thus you can engage your audience in a better way.          

The next feature that I would now like to discuss with you is the About section.

The About section can be called as the Biodata of your youtube channel.

What does your youtube channel do, what are its USP’s, when did this channel actually start and what is the motive of starting this channel - all this information you need to mention in the About section.

You can mention an email address for business enquiries. It will be visible like this

You can mention your location.

In this about us section some public information gets displayed like when did you join youtube, the date, the month and the year.

Like in this example, LearnVern joined youtube channel on 3rd August 2017.

And since the time we started this channel, how many views do we have on our youtube channel that also you can see here on this screen.

So this About section is very important for you as it works like an introduction and users can relate to it. They can fetch your contact information from here and they can contact you as well.

You can also put your social media sections here. Like here we have added Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn.

If you wish that your users should follow you on your other social media platforms then you can integrate the links here.

Come, now let me take you to the Live Demo.        

Understanding all these through a live demo is very very important.

If we only focus on theoretical knowledge and do not focus on practical knowledge then we will surely be left out.

Hence, now through this Live demo let us understand step by step how to upload a youtube video.

As you can see from my screen that I'm on youtube.com and I have logged in using my gmail account.

So the first visual that I will have after logging in is something like this.

What do you have to do now?

You need to click on this button. As soon as you click on this button you will have 2 options to select from - upload video and go live

You need to click on upload video.

Now you can see my picture on the upload picture, similarly you will have yours.

Then click on create channel. By doing so my new youtube channel will get created.

Now I'm going to upload my first video on it.

So now from here I will click on upload video.

You will have this screen “Welcome to youtube studio”

Youtube studio is such a dashboard from where you can manage all the videos.

This screen says drag and drop video files to upload.

The file which I wish to upload is on my desktop. So what will I do now?

This is my file, I shall drag this file now and drop it here.

As you can see, the file has started getting uploaded.

Now, This is the first step. This is a very important step. I had discussed about the Title earlier also.

For Title, youtube provides you with 100 characters. So with 100 characters you upload the title of the video.

In this section you need to write what exactly the video is all about.

Got it?

 Like here I have written: “Learn for free on LearnVern”

That means LearnVern as a platform does not charge a single penny and all the courses offered by LearnVern are 100% free.

You can take any course on this platform for free and the speciality is you can learn the course in Hindi, in your regional mother tongue. This will lead to a better understanding of the course.

So this was about the title and we have successfully uploaded the title here.

The second most  important section is the Description. So for Description youtube offers us with around 5000 characters. So we will be able to add a lot of stuff in description, we can share details about the video, we can share details about the platform. If you run a business and if your video talks about some specific part of your business then you can write a descriptive content about that too.

You need to be careful about one thing here. You need to include a few keywords here. You may take the help of google keyword planner or SEM rush and using them you will easily be able to research the keywords that users search for.

If you use those particular keywords in your description or title, then there is a high probability of your video getting reflected on the top of SEO, that is search engine optimization. Because you are making that content that the users are searching for.

So the limit of 5000 characters is sufficient enough to describe in detail about your video.

Here, I would like to give you a Tip. Do not write too long of a description that the users start feeling bored while reading it.

Keep it crisp in such a way that the users find it interesting and engaging while reading it and ensure that the summary of the video gets reflected in your description.

Let us scroll down further.

Now this is an important thing. This is called a Thumbnail.

What is a Thumbnail? It is about how your video will get uploaded.

Let me quickly explain this to you with an example.

Say for example we searched on youtube for “SONGS”

Right?

So here you can see how many songs are available here and this first picture that is visible to you , we call this as a thumbnail. So this is how songs display their thumbnails.

Right. So this picture that the song displays is called a thumbnail.

Now let us look at one more example i.e. “Cricket”

So here you can see the thumbnail of cricket. We can see the thumbnail of Ravi Shastri, then we have the thumbnail of the recent match of Australia.

You need to develop your observation skills. You need to observe in your industry what kind of thumbnails are being developed by the users or the brands or your competitors. This will help you to analyse and see if you can develop a better one than them.

If you start looking at this and analysing this then I'm sure you will be successful in developing a great youtube strategy.

So the thumbnail is the first video rather you can say it is the cover image of your video that is visible on the search results is called a thumbnail.

Here in thumbnail you have 2 options -

either you can customise and upload a thumbnail

Or

You can upload a specific part from your video itself

As you can see here I'm given a few options for thumbnails from my video itself, I can use either of them or I can upload a custom thumbnail too.

Then let us go further down to the playlist section. As you can see no playlist has been created so far.

So let me create a playlist by clicking on “Create Playlist”

And I will define the title and the visibility of the playlist here.

Thus this particular video will get added to that specific playlist.

Let us scroll further down. As you can see this is the section of Audience.

Here it asks us 2 questions:

Is it made for kids?

Or

Is it not made for kids?

So if the content of the video is kids friendly then you will click on “YES” and if not then you will click on “NO”

Normally if the content is related to adults or normal any content related to education then you will click on the “NO, it’s not made for kids” option.

So what will happen by this is that youtube will not take your video to Youtube kids.

Youtube kids is a separate mobile app, where kids related content can only be seen.

In kids related content ads won't come, right.

So by default you need to select: “No, it is not made for kids” option.

So now to complete this process, let me add something in description, for example “testing description”. Only then can I  move to the next step. So i have added “Testing description”

Now we need to click on “NEXT”

On the next screen we have these 3 options:

I can add subtitles

I can add an end screen

I can add cards

If you are active on youtube then you would have seen a prompt “Click on the i button on the top”

You would have heard this from many youtubers when you visit their channels or their videos.

So what is this “i” button

This “i” button is nothing but a card

Right?

So as you can see on this screen, you can add cards, you can promote the related content on your video.

For example, we need to add a card. So we will click here.

And the Cards section gives us 4 options:

Do I wish to upload a video link

OR

Do i wish to upload a playlist

Or

A channel

Or

Do i wish to promote an external link

As of now the “Link” option is disabled as my channel is fairly a new one but if your channel is an old one and if this link is enabled then you can make use of this section as well.

Now, I have clicked on the option of “Video”, I can search for any video here

For example I selected this video of LearnVern - C Programming

As you can see this card is reflecting here.

Now my video is of approximately 25 seconds and I wish that this card comes to the 20th second. So what will I need to do for this?

This section that you can see on the screen is called a timeline.

Right, so what I will do now is I will place my card at the 20th second.

Now as you see my card is placed on  the 20 second so that means that when a user will reach the 20th second only then will this card get enabled.

Ok, got it. This was very simple to understand. Right?

Here you can add a custom message too. You have this option available as a creator in case you want to customize a message.

After completing this you need to click on Save.

Right?

After this you will again click on Next.

Checks - youtube will check all the details just to ensure that there aren't any copyright elements, just to check that there aren't any issues in this video.

If there aren't any such issues then you receive a green signal in the form of a tick mark.

You can see a tick mark here.

Then you need to click on NEXT.

This is an important section. So youtube gives you 3 privacy options and you also have a fourth option and that is “Schedule” option.

Let us first understand the 3 types of privacy options and then we will see the schedule option

The very first option you have is “Private”.

As you can see here we have a private option. So what is the meaning of a private option?

 This video won't be visible to anyone except you.

This video is private for you.

Got it

This is only hosted on the youtube as a platform but this video is private

Next let us move to “Unlisted”

If you click on the unlisted option, then you will be able to share this video but the user who has the link of the particular video can only view this video.

Then the third option is Public.

You can publicly showcase this video so if you wish to do so you can select this option

Now the last option we have is Schedule option

If you wish you can use this option to schedule at a particular place.

If you wish to release this video at a particular time then also you can do so from this option

So you can set time for it.

You can “set as premiere” also.

So automatically the video will get uploaded on the set date and time.

So this is how video upload works on youtube

I hope you are clear about this.

After the youtube channel let us understand one more feature or functionality and that is Youtube Shorts.

As I had shared in my previous session that youtube shorts are small videos.

You would be aware that Tiktok got famous in India for short video formats. Though due to technical reasons, the Government of India banned Tiktok in India.

But Tiktok has brought a revolution in the form of short videos and hence Instagram, IGTV, instagram reels, youtube shorts - such types of features are available to us today in these social media platforms.

Youtube shorts is a short video platform, short video section where you can upload the videos upto 60 seconds.

Always remember that the videos are vertical, if you create a horizontal video then it might not support.

So if you want to upload a video on youtube shorts then you need to create a vertical video only and the aspect ratio should be 9 is to 16.

Youtube shorts can support videos of 600 by 600 pixels.

Youtube shorts are predominantly uploaded from a mobile device.

As you can see the screen of the mobile on the left hand side.

The first step is that you need to open your mobile app.

Hope, you are able to see the plus button at the bottom center of the left screen.

As soon as you click on that plus button, a dialog box will open up, as you can see on the right side. Now the options you have here is :

Upload a video

Create a short

And

Go live

You will click on create a short

Here, i have created a video sample

You will upload your video here

As soon as you shoot your video from that particular section you will get 4 options:
 You can add a sound

You can add text

You can either view or make changes to the timeline

You can add filters also

So all these 4 options will be available to you in youtube shorts.

You may also upload songs, the trending songs, the latest ones that have been recently released.

You may be able to see 3 screens here.

You can add text in the first screen, if you wish to add text to a video then you can do so. You can change the text color, add backgrounds as well. You can also filter too.

We saw on instagram that a lot of filter options were available, similarly a lot of filter options are available in youtube shorts too. You can use any of those filters to enhance and improve the look of your videos.

That is all for this session. If you have any queries or comments, click the discussion button below the video and post there. This way, you will be able to connect to fellow learners and discuss the course. Also, Our Team will try to solve your query.

In the next session we will see the importance of a LinkedIn profile.

What is a LinkedIn profile and we will also see the powerful features of LinkedIn that can help us achieve success in our job, career or in our business.

Thank you!