A deep dive on YouTube’s new Communities with Andru and Aaron

Andrew who are you and what do you do I'm Andrew Edwards I have been making uh consumer electronics uh tutorials reviews and Tech videos gez since 2006 true or false you were the 14th ever Creator in YouTube Partner program that is true um and I'll actually tell you how that happened I just got a phone call one day I was in the middle of uh making a video and I got a phone call hello hey this is so and so from YouTube and we're starting something called the partner program and we'd like to offer you

a spot in it it was literally that's how small YouTube was back then it was a personal phone call wasn't even an email someone just called me up and told me about the program and you said money okay yeah basically why not Ain what do you do at YouTube uh I lead product management for community and also live streaming nice and you've been a reporter since you were 10 years old you were saying I did start that way I was on TV as a 10-year-old I love that I love that what was your beat though

oh um well did a special interest piece on uh youth chess champion oh now that's a huge YouTube career it's like a whole vertical that you could explore if only we had YouTube then only had so let's talk about communities YouTube just announced communities at made on YouTube we're at the event uh recording this now tell us about communities sure Renee look communities are really important to creators on YouTube you know when you get advice from new creator for new creators one of the things that we hear is spend time with communities learn from your

fans get to know them and that's so important to shaping your channel and your identity and really just having a great connection on YouTube and so we've built this new communities feature because what we found was that a Creator had to start every conversation whether they're uploading a video or making a post uh everything was Creator Le and what we really wanted was a space where where big fans could start conversations they can share photos they can talk about their thoughts and it's in this space where they can go back and forth with each other

and the Creator can participate and just have a lot more Rich interaction around uh this Creator and and these shared interests before I joined YouTube that was one of my biggest requests and I know some people think oh poor Creator you have to start conversations but there's so many jobs as a Creator and people cre keep creating new places for us to post and are you supposed to post the new one and who keep maintains the old one and just the idea that the community could be part of keeping it like vibrant and fresh all

the time was huge for me well that's great and we're excited to see that you know we know there's a big surge in comments and fan interaction right after a video posts um and that's excellent we love that but we also want there to be a moment where you don't have to be as a creator making that post for that to happen and so anytime that a fan is inspired or wants to share something uh they can help keep things going yeah I love that Andrew you've been in the community's beta yes what's it been

like for you so far it's been interesting so what you said a minute ago was like you know poor Creator you have to make all the posts I I never really felt like that right but to use the word community on the the community tab as it exists right Community is not one person starts everything and then people can just respond to it that's not a community in my opinion a community right anyone can contribute so it wasn't that I felt like oh this burden is all on me to make Community happen it was more

I wish people had an opportunity to commune with each other even if I'm you know I'm at an event and I'm busy all day right right let's say there's a big Google event we're here at this Google event I'm here all day I would love for people who watch my channel to be able to talk to each other about what's happening here while I'm busy doing other things and that just couldn't happen before so having a space and I remember we were talking um it was VidCon and uh you said I think I I explained

I said I wish there was a way that I felt confident that I didn't have to tell people all right we're on YouTube thanks for watching head over to Twitter or head over to Instagram or head over to you know insert name of other social network Discord whatever it might be and let's continue the conversation there why YouTube owned by Google one of the biggest companies in the world should be able to give me something that would keep everyone here and he said I think I have something for you turns out turns out we agree

completely like we really think that you you already have this huge fan Bas here and so why Jump Around why not make it as easy as possible to keep that conversation going mhm YouTube thinks creators are the heart of YouTube and I think creators feel like Community is our heart and you were showing me the other day a community that had like sprouted cat pictures that I I could not even believe yes it's it's you never know like what people want to talk about and what they're interested in and but that's part of the fun

is the unexpected directions that we see these these creators going um you know shout out to M swamp that's the community where we're seeing this where uh for whatever reason people said let's post some cat pictures and we're still seeing that I I even looked today and saw a few fresh ones it's amazing and you never really know like I think on some channels people will dive deep into the lore like maybe start threads about things that happened on the channel days ago weeks ago years ago and others another example we saw was someone who

travels a lot people sharing their experiences of traveling where do you think like how do you mostly communicate with your community right now well right now the way that I've communicated there has been pretty much similar to when it was just the community tab which is if I find something interesting or thoughtful within my niche of consumer electronics I'll post it there um usually with some sort of image or you know link if it if there's something I want to sends oh absolutely absolutely and I don't know if it's because I'm in the beta that

these posts get maybe pushed out more to people but people are more responsive in responding to my posts I found so to me that's a good start like I don't have um you know a bunch of people posting cat pictures or their first smartphones or whatever it might be exactly yeah but I've seen more activity in responses so previously if I would post something I would see like a lot of people hitting the like button but not actually like saying anything just like a bunch of likes on the on the post and now I'm seeing

more people actually saying stuff and there are a few who are actually putting their own post there and I think it's just educating people that they can do that now I think it's still again it was beta um so I'm starting to incorporate that in the end of my videos letting people know hey by the way you know don't just leave a comment down below if you have your own thoughts or your own opinions or something else to share use the new community tab is that how you're seeing or how are you seeing creators Ed

community so far yeah know I think that those were some great examples and we're we're seeing more too it's great seeing different channels uh seeing their communities light up in different ways you know one example is uh aquarium Co-op uh we see people sharing fish tank setups and talking about those um uh we've seen Fitness channels where uh people have been really excited to share their Journeys and progress photos and um what's been really delightful about that is seeing seeing fans also supporting each other in those Journeys um similarly there's been a Baking Channel where

we've seen people um uh posting some of their baking triumphs and and maybe a few tragedies but they're they're bonding over it they're sharing Thoughts with each other and and it's great to see not not just the the fan and the Creator going back and forth but also fans uh mixing with each other and what sort of features does community have uh when it launches what are you going to be able to post text images yeah it's a great question we're able to use uh texts you can have images in your posts you can have

multiple images um and uh we're we don't support videos yet but it's something we're certainly thinking about and you know the important thing is that that when you're a viewer you know it's audience you so you're you're you're sharing this and it's going to this dedicated space that's associated with that Creator and the people who are going to see that are are those other fans yeah I think there's a myth that when YouTube launches something new we artificially sort of push it in front of people but I think like it's the opposite it gets pulled

in front of people because there's just not a lot of stuff in it yet and if you get involved early on yours is some of the first stuff that people are going to see in it that's a great way to put it and I do think about it the same way it's it's uh when these spaces are newer it's just there's less in them and so people who are posting or engaging are are are in this new space and so things do get a little more seen yeah so I I never sleep on these things

I always figure when they're new it's the funnest time to get involved with absolutely so so are you confirming that that is a myth though that is a myth yeah we we we try not to put our foot on the pedal of anything we don't want to sort of make we want the viewer to choose we want the viewer to choose what they want to interact with and we want to give the viewer what they want when they want it on the device that they wanted at the time they want it so in the beginning

like you look at any product there's just not a lot of stuff yet but we still have to build a way to get to it sure and so if you're going to it and there's just not a lot of competition yet so people will say oh it's not pushed as much but it just means now millions of people are using it now tens of millions of people are using it so I guess you get that question a lot I bet we do and and it's always great to get in on the ground floor but yes

it the content has to be good and and then it gets pulled by people yeah what's the difference between communities and memberships cuz we've gotten that question a bit too yeah the biggest difference is that this community is a dedicated SP place where viewers can start conversations memberships are a separate feature where you must pay to become a member and they you get a number of great perks from being a member um but it is a very distinct feature right now from from Community yeah so Community is like a form where we can discuss things

and membership is sort of like a Content area yes yeah and Andrew you asked some great questions you know might those two things have overlaps one day so how do you envision you already said you might put this in your videos um but what is your sort of like growth strategy for communities in general how do you want do you is it something you put a lot of effort into do you want to grow a really big Community is it a thousand true fans thing I I do want to well I I think and it's

not even really for me personally although I I would I would love to see the community grow I think it's really more as a platform and as someone who uses YouTube as an essential component of you know my livelihood I want to see Community grow there and I want people to just have the thought as a viewer I can contribute to right right now YouTube is in order to contribute if you if you're not a video creator you can leave comments that's pretty much it right that's your contribution is to leave a comment on a

video that may or may not be seen by the Creator usually when you post a comment you're hoping it's the Creator who sees it although obviously other commentors can see it now with communities it's you can literally commune and post with others regardless of if the Creator sees it or not and maybe you still may want the Creator see it and respond too but you can almost be you know a superstar or or a sidekick in a way to the Creator by being active in their Community people will get to know you from that Community

as well right so I I would love to see people feel that they can o contribute more meaningfully not that comments aren't meaningful but you know post your pictures post your you know your gifts post your if videos are allowed to be posted post those and really like like latch into a community and and com commune there almost like you do people do on Reddit like there's there subreddits people love and they you know if you're not a mod you can still get like different flares and basically you get recognized as a contributing member of

this community on Reddit and I would love to see something like that on YouTube too yeah is there maybe a Continuum here because we've seen with shorts for example there are more people who may not want to make like a long form video but they want to participate they want to have their voice heard and maybe in previous generations they would have gone to forums to do that and then next they might have posted on social media and now maybe that they they do want to actually like talk and be on shorts but maybe they

need a like a little Bridge into that world and communities could be a place to start communities can be a good place for that especially for for you know photos and posts and what what it does let you do is is get your ideas out into the world with this friendly audience you know we see great great examples of fandom content on YouTube having its own life and and going going wild and that's so amazing and a community is a great place where people who are newer to that and maybe want to test the waters

can can try these posts in in that slightly smaller setting mhm so one of the other questions that we get a lot from creators is the sense of safety about you know are the comments a safe space for me um communities how are you thinking about safety when it comes to communities safety is a really really high priority for us and first and foremost the by being a community and having this smaller audience it is um just a little bit more of a safer Space by nature of of going out a little less broadly but

of course that's that's necessary but not sufficient so we also are investing quite heavily in moderation tools and really it's it's Community powered but it is a Creator owned space and so as a Creator driving a community you are able to moderate that content you are able to decide if a post should stay or not um regardless of whether you created it or it was a member of your community not unlike comments on your videos who can post in communities now is it anybody uh on YouTube can post in communities or are there just certain

people per Channel yeah so so right now the way we've built communities is that you do need to be a subscriber of a channel in to post and you know we're really thinking carefully about who should be able to post and why and how to make that clear how do you balance that right with as a Creator and I'm sure many creators want to be able to kind of set the tone set the rules etc for their Community with as the contributor or as the viewer as the non-c Creator having a consistent experience from Community

to community right how do you balance those those two things sure so so automated tools things we do with AI you know protections YouTube's policies there's a lot of things that will be Universal and foundational to safety and your experience in any community on YouTube you know beyond that we do actually want the in the balance of things the Creator to be able to set the tone of their space because it really is theirs It's associated with their identity their Channel if you're taking the time to nurture a community and a community is forming around

your content then we do believe it should have that imprint and so there will be some variation and you know we see that in other products on YouTube today like live and we think it works and so um we're optimistic that fans will get to know spaces they choose to be in and understand what works and what doesn't so you're not worried about it needs to be consistent when you hit the community tab no matter what channel you're on it has to the same experience it's you like the fact that we as creators can customize

and have our own that's cool yeah it's important it's I think it's a part of your expression as a Creator yeah and I think that's how comments work today and I think also like different correct me if I'm wrong about this but different uh channels and creators said different expectations like a channel that might be about Free Speech absolutism might never moderate anything because that's the point of the channel and that their viewers and their commenters see that as like they would see that as in conr experience if they did where another Channel might be

incredibly topic based we don't want off topic comments we want to focus on this one fandom or this one uh subject like maybe you only want to have like Tech stuff and you moderate things that are off topic and someone else might be like we want this space to be very inclusive of these ideals and anything that doesn't follow these ideals and you get to sort of craft the experience that represents you as a Creator in your channel and we don't we don't punish anybody for moderating more or less in the community or their Channel

like the algorithm shouldn't have an opinion on that that should be up I think to the Creator and their safety levels do you think makes sense that a Creator might say I only want people who are members to be able to post in this community or um that the community may become more Forum like where instead of just one tab the members have this area and then there's this public area and I don't care if you're a subscriber or not feel free to post like again being able to craft who can participate yeah it's it's

early days for us and I think we want to see what works with the current volume features all the ideas you suggested are really interesting like I think it's it's fascinating to think about you know could members have a different experience could you could you you tailor The Experience more with a few different places or rooms or or with different ways of being and um we're thinking about it if someone was trying to find communities where would they go so the best way to find communities is to go to a Creator's Channel and then there's

actually a large button uh with some explanation around it explaining here's how you can go to the community and that will take you out that dedicated space we also try to if you are active um on a Creator's Channel we do try to to have some content show up and and ways to help you see uh glimpses of that Community from from your feet and elsewhere yeah I see you in my in my home feed you're welcome do you fair enough nice I do um where do you see like I know you can't do any

spoilers but like what is your Grand Vision for communities oh spoil it spoil it please let me just lay out a quick 5 year Rance yeah so look when we think about Community it's really it's really about as much as possible making YouTube for everyone go from a one-way experience to a two-way experience we want to Foster participation we want to Foster interactivity and we want to do that in a way that's supportive of of creators who want it and in the way that they want it I'm going to get into like the nity a

little bit here what is your best tip for creators who want cuz I just want to say for a second you have an ability uh to convert people like I've never seen like and you're well known for this industry like regardless of like some people require tons and tons of views to to do business on YouTube to be like honest about it uh you don't like you have videos that have various sizes of audience like and you still manag to like monster business on YouTube what is your secret when it comes to community I I've

heard this question quite a few times and my f my first answer is always like I don't know but after thinking about it for so long is it not true that you made major Bank off bedday well yes yes so um I did I did a review of a of a very high tech Beday um like right leading into covid and so like all of a sudden people were searching for this and this video would just come up not just on YouTube but in Google searches like in Google search like my video would be like

the top even above like Beday companies for some reason and that turned into like a like six figure earnings just from from that video um but I I honestly think there's there's a way of of calling an audience right and not so much like someone comes in and you kick them out because you don't belong but really more your communication style um how you present you know there's there's so much to it even like the words you use right A lot of people will say to get the biggest audience use a fifth grade um reading

level type speech right like true for me I I it's not that I don't want the biggest audience possible but it's really more I want the Right audience I want the audience that I would I would legitimately want to invite into my living room to have a conversation about the stuff that I'm I'm passionate about and that's probably not going to be a 15-year-old kid so I really think about how I communicate and who I'm communicating to the camera is a person to me and and who that person is is kind of how I think

about it and those people who I am commun communicating to are also kind of like me you know back in the day I'm I'm first in line at the at the Apple Store when you know the iPhone 4 is coming out which means I got here at 9:00 p.m. last night and I'm just I've just been here for 13 hours right so those are the people like those are my people and so in order I'm a high converting person right so like companies can get me if I get excited about something and so those are

the same people who I want to attract yeah eron any tips that you found so far for people using communities any sort of pro tips yeah I do think uh a couple things do come to mind you know it is that definitely listen and engage with your community I think that it's always fascinating to see you know who's engaged who and why um I think the other thing we're seeing just in the earliest days uh of of of testing fan communities this communities feature is is you know the the more reasons you can give someone

to post or contribute it's it's a great way to seed the community and sort of nudge it in a direction if you have some ideas and and not every nudge will work and it's a bit of an experimentation um but we do see you know that that people get used to some style of posting and they see it works and then more fans start to do it more too so if you can if you can plant those seeds and experiment with prompts um I think it's a great way to sort of till the Earth to

help make it a fertile place to grow a community yeah establish Your Meme reviews in community Andrew what would you like to see in community like now you've been using communities for a while what else would you like to see with them I think uh I mean you you are leading communities and live yes right so I think there's a one thing I would love to see in communities is that live chat component like when you have a live video or when you're doing a uh a Premiere right you have the live chat where people

can interact with each other there that feels like a a natural feature to the community tab for me it's almost like having a mini Discord or a mini slack on your channel um also the I forget what they're called now but um when you're live and you're a member you have like badges the Emojis yes like the custom badges the custom emojis things like that to just make the community area a little more fun maybe you can earn badges or things that you can post with that other people don't have yet because they haven't participated

as much um exactly and just just get people you know it's gamifying gamifying the experience I think which you know quite honestly the whole reason that word exists because it works so like letting me gamify a little bit hey we have this upcoming event or this upcoming device is coming out here's my you know what here's my challenge that I'm setting out to my community and you know have at it and then earn something for it and how nice is it to be recognized if you're if you're if you're one of the people helping to

make this thing go and make it happen it's nice to have some some decoration some way of for for the Creator and for others to know hey this person's this person's on it they're part of it yes and I know like it's not the chat experience but I do think communities gives creators that stable place where people can go and create threads for them which we've never had before on YouTube so even if I'm not posting a video that day I'm not live that day you can still go and start your own thread there and

like the community just keeps going which I love Aon thank you so much Andrew thank you so much absolutely thank you thank you all so much for joining us you know what to do if you have a comment or question just leave it down below and keep it real