VidCon is not always the type of conference you’d think of for a higher ed professional. It’s all about online video, and a lot of it is about screaming pre-teens running after their favorite YouTube stars. This year, though, my boss and I got ourselves some industry track passes and dove in. Here’s what we learned!

Sonja & Laura in the emoji photo booth at VidCon

YouTube!

You can use YouTube for more than just hosting your videos. Use all the functionality of YouTube to really take full advantage of the platform!

• Use the community tab to interact with users: Ask questions, deploy polls, etc.
• “Stories” tab is coming for channels with >10,000 subscribers this year!

What should your branding and subject matter be on YouTube?

• Find and study 5 channels that you want to be like.
• Optimize for the “suggested video” function in YouTube by changing your thumbnails to ones that match current videos, and updating old titles to match current trends.
• Personalities do well on YouTube.
• Check out #YouTubeTaughtMe for some really fun stories about what people have learned from YouTube.

Facebook!

Facebook has some interesting video formats to play with.

• Facebook Watch:
  • Check out George Takei Presents. It’s growing by 20k subscribers/day!
  • Facebook Watch is better for programs rather than personalities (as opposed to YouTube, where personalities rule).
• Facebook Live:
  • Create a consistent live video programming schedule.
  • The key for live video is interaction.
• Facebook Stories:
  • You can save some work by importing these from Instagram Stories if you’re already doing them.

LinkedIn!

• LinkedIn is a pretty un-crowded (is that a word?) space for video creators right now. That’s why a lot of video creators are jumping in!
• Max length for a LinkedIn video is 10 minutes.
• Here are some LinkedIn personalities to check out: Bill Gates, Emirates, Gary Vee

Snapchat!

• Is Snapchat dead or dying? Maybe. In the Snapchat vs. Instagram Stories battle, it looks like Instagram Stories is winning.
• But Snapchat is different from Instagram in that authentic content is the key. Snapchat doesn’t depend on the likes, comments or “score” of your posts. It’s all about the relationships.

Content!

We talked a lot about educational content at VidCon.

• Answer questions people didn’t know they had.
• Establish friendliness and familiarity. (ex. Crash Course on YouTube)
• For teens & tweens, let them participate in some way and focus on how things affect them now.

How can you stay on top of trends?

• Use Google Trends to monitor trending terms.
• Track your overall channel performance year over year to account for seasonal changes, and then adjust as necessary!