“Keep making the YouTube videos, even the ones about baking the bread”, said a client to me on Friday as he left the office.
Yesterday, I watched a video by a guy on YouTube about why he was deleting his viral video which obtained over 18 million views. He rationally explained why he was doing it which basically centred on the idea of keeping the YouTube algorithm happy by only publishing videos for his audience.
And his audience was one interested in productivity, creating content for YouTube, digital marketing, and so forth. He had studied the analytics and knew the audience he had drawn in by the viral video, featuring a car crash, was not interested in the type of content he was now committed to making.
This was a smart decision from the perspective of growing his YouTube channel and serving his audience who were not interested in cars. And from the perspective of pleasing the YouTube algorithm.
I make videos about law and business and property. But I also throw in videos about making bread, politics, my holidays, and trips abroad and random stuff.
And I will continue to do so. Partly because of what the client said on Friday morning about making videos, “even the bread making ones”.
Theoretically these types of videos could damage my channel.
But there are two reasons why I will continue to publish such videos: firstly, even though all my core audience will not be interested in the bread videos there is a small number with whom I make an even greater connection than normal. This is important and an algorithm will cannot measure it.
Secondly, these videos are personal, slices of my life, and part of what I am and do. In years to come I know I would regret deleting such videos just to keep the YouTube algorithm happy.
This morning I am publishing one about our trip to a lemon and olive farm outside Sorrento on my annual leave in September 2022.