YouTube Community Tab: How to Master Your Subscriber Base

What if I told you that the second most popular website on the entire Internet, we're also the most up and coming social platform and that you're on it right now? That's right. We're in the matrix now. What's up? It's Jamal from HubSpot. Hang on. Much better. What's up? It's Jamal from HubSpot. We're going to walk you through what the Community Tab is and why people should care about it more and give it the love it deserves. Then we'll break down Netflix's own winning formula for using the Community Tab to its full potential potential and how you can use it to up your own Community Tab Game Speaking of game, if you enjoyed this video, give it a like and subscribe to the HubSpot YouTube channel. You know those update posts you see when you're scrolling through the YouTube Home tab on your phone? Or if you've opted in to get notifications from your favorite YouTuber and you see a post that isn't about a new upload? That's the YouTube Community Tab at work. The YouTube Community Tab was launched as YouTube's own social network in 2016 as a way for content creators to interact with viewers beyond video. If Your channel has 1,000 or more subscribers, you automatically get access to the Community Tab's many features, which include posting text updates and images, polls, GIFs, and video uploads. Text updates and picture posts are useful when making announcements on your channel, like changes in your upload schedule or links to your external content. Anything that you feel that your audience would want to be informed about. On a visual platform like YouTube, adding pictures to your posts will go far in grabbing your viewers attention and give context to your text updates too. Polls are the perfect way to survey your audience with questions that can inform your future video content. Because why live in mystery about what your viewers want to see when you can just ask them? I'm begging you, please just ask. GIFs are effective when it comes to the art of entertainment, which is one of the top reasons why people come to YouTube in the first place. Definitely make sure that these are GIFs that you created yourself or that are licensed from a legit source, though for legal reasons. Look at this one of me dancing to Baby Shark, the Good Old Days. And of course, we can't leave out the handy video posting feature embedded into the channel update box, which allows you to directly include a video thumbn thumbnail CTA to your Community post. And you can use the Community tab for the same social goals you use on other platforms, such as bringing awareness to your content, generating leads for any offers or promotions you have, and engaging with your viewers. Sky is generally the limit, but make sure that you take the time to determine which goals are the best fit for your business and plan out your Community tab content strategy accordingly. Don't be like me where I just thought I could repost memes, I went bankrupt shortly after that. For an easy way to set up that content plan, use a social media content calendar to help you organize your ideas in one place. You can access our free social media template in the description below. No social platform gets left behind on my Watch Community tab. It's your time to shine. Netflix is recognized as a master of social media due to their approach that really delivers on their promise as a brand, like this Bloomberg article points out. And they definitely didn't leave their YouTube channel out, which has 19.3 million subscribers to date. It's like a small country. Believe it or not, though, Netflix only began to use the Community tab starting in 2020 and you might be thinking, were they late to the game? No, they're right on time. I'm offended by the suggestion. Netflix's larger YouTube strategy is to operate multiple channels, with each channel regularly promoting smaller segments of its media, either by show, genre or even industry with how much they're investing into creating YouTube channel content. Though, Netflix actually used to view YouTube as a main competitor because it was the only online video service in the world that people spend more time using every day than Netflix. Oh, how the stars have aligned. Let's take a look at Netflix's strategy based on four major pillars to see how they harness the community Tap's full potential as a social media platform. Netflix establishes their voice like this. If you're scrolling through Netflix's social channels, you'll notice consistency in their tone. Whether they're driving brand loyalty, awareness or engagement, they do it with a touch of humor and wit. Their voice is distinctly Netflix, otherwise described as a fan's fan Persona, meaning how a fan would talk about and discuss the latest Bridgerton episode. To accomplish this, Netflix built out a social team with people who were passionate and knowledgeable about TV and movies and had backgrounds in marketing, journalism and entertainment. Put everything together and you have yourself the formula for their uniquely approachable, clever yet cultured voice. The social team embodies Netflix's Pro Freedom philosophy, detailed on the company's culture page, inspiring the guidelines they set for what they post like don't promote, entertain. Stand out by taking risks. Don't just clip out the show build out the world. Check out this screencap from the Queen's Gambit. The caption is short and simple, yet it captures the essence of something an intellectual chess player might say. The text not only fits perfectly with the image of Beth wanting a new chess set, but it also touches upon current news trends that since the show aired in October, there was also a 250% increase in sales of chess sets and accessories. Damn. At 47k likes and 330 comments laughing about the fact that chess sets are nowhere to be found, this post really captures the voice people know and love from Netflix. All this comes to show that once you set your channel's unique voice, sticking with it and keeping it consistent even across different types of posts will take your channel far. And it really helps to establish some social posting guidelines too, to help you ensure your voice doesn't get off track. Things get super exciting when your viewer base understands your channel voice and how they can interact and engage with it in the comments. This brings us to our second pillar, which is to know your audience. YouTube makes it very easy to see the demographics of your channel within the YouTube studio. By checking out the Audience tab in the analytics section, you can hone into your viewers, age and gender, countries, most active times, and even other channels or videos they watch. Knowing your audience on your channel and what they're interested in will help you cater your Community tab's content to be what your audience wants to see. Here's how Netflix does it from a 2018 study from Wall street firm Con & Co. 40% of Americans ages 18 to 34 choose Netflix as the platform they watch most often on TV, compared to other platforms like YouTube, cable and Hulu. That means that Netflix is dealing with Gen Z and Millennials as its target audience on social too. With this in mind, Netflix does a great job at curating content that their target demographic would respond to, meaning current trends slaying lots and lots of memes. Anything they would feel would resonate. And we all can resonate with some memes. I don't know why I went bankrupt. It was really too bad. Take this informative graphic for example, compiling characters from multiple Netflix franchises. Netflix taps into the very Gen Z trend astrology as well as pulls in some standout characters from their various shows and applies them to this clever quadrant chart depending on who your audience is for your channel. The key here is to give people what they want, whether that's informing them about a recent upload or announcement along with an image, or referencing relevant topics in a poll or post. Your Community tab should deliver it and it should be delivered on time. Along with doing a great job researching what content their audience wants to see, Netflix also makes sure to listen and engage with their viewers. To plan their Community tab content, Netflix puts out these nine Image Interactive posts, for example, that ask viewers to select the image that best answers the post question. On this post, Netflix turned to the comments to respond to and interact with people who left their answers, of course, with their unique self aware twist. Other than simply responding to comments, Netflix appeals to Stranger Things fans by responding with this upside down text referencing a place featured in the show literally called the Upside Down. This ties in that Netflix voice we were talking about before, as well as shows that viewers feel like they are being heard if they get a comment from the channel itself. The comment section is also the perfect place to hear what people think about your recent updates that could help inform future social media content or video uploads. To learn more about tools you can access for social listening to help with your content strategy, check out the resources in the description below. Social media is all about creating that bridge between you and the people supporting your channel with the types of content they put out along with the discussion they facilitate with viewers. On the Community tab, Netflix leans into their social approach to build out the experience beyond what's on the show or movie itself, according to Netflix sources, bringing us to our last pillar. Netflix really drives this approach home in their Community tab content by leveraging their social networks. When I say social network, that doesn't just mean other channels. This means star power and a lot of it tapping into their access to the stars from the shows and movies. Netflix makes the YouTube community tab a prime location for viewers to continue their media binge with behind the scenes footage and interviews with actors and directors. They actively name drop the actors in their posts so that their fans can easily flock to support them on the post. Because actors nowadays, especially Netflix famous actors, are very active on social media. This is a huge part of Netflix's play of tapping into the halo effect of the shows and personalities affiliated with the streaming service. In other words, there's this whole social chain going on between Netflix and its actors, and they're just feeding off each other's energy to keep their media on everyone's radar even past the premiere dates. On top of this, Netflix doesn't shy away from tagging relevant YouTube channels using the AT feature in the Community tab, like how they do on this post with Jubilee to keep their binge going too. I can't wait for them to tag me. Just Amal. No other words. That's it. While your channel or business probably doesn't have the same access to stars that Netflix does, that doesn't mean you can't learn from their methods. If you've collaborated with another YouTube channel for a video, make sure to tag them in your next promotional Community tab post. Netflix truly has a winning strategy on their hands that we can all learn from. The YouTube Community tab is still very much a newer social channel that people are still just starting to take seriously. So now's your chance to get ahead of the game. Make sure to keep up with this channel for more winning strategies you can apply to your own social media. And for additional resources on YouTube marketing, check out the resources below. Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got some gifts. Watched Gifts Gifs. Let me know in the Community tab. I'll see you guys next time. Sometimes I say words and I'm just like, am I human? All right, you have the formula baby formula. You have baby formula babies.