- Heyo Insiders.
I'm Pierce, a product manager working on
satisfaction at YouTube.
We get so many questions about Shorts,
not only about features,
but how Shorts works with regards to the algorithm.
So we wanted to answer more of your questions today.
Let's get into it.
First question,
if I start uploading Shorts,
if I usually make longer form content,
could it hurt my channel?
We've actually done some analyses recently
where we looked at audience growth
for channels that only made long form videos,
and channels that made both long form and short videos.
The channels that made Shorts
actually seem to be growing faster.
We anticipate that audience demand for short form content
is here to stay.
This is a format that's becoming increasingly popular,
and the very reason we've been investing so much
in more mobile first creation tools
and Shorts Discovery.
Question two,
How would you advise long form creators to approach Shorts?
If a new creator was getting started,
would you suggest they start with Shorts first?
The interplay between these different formats
is one of the unique propositions of YouTube.
It's given rise to a lot of multi-format creators.
We want to offer creators a range of video formats
for them to use as they see fit,
from videos on demand, to Shorts,
to live streams, and posts.
As a creator, you should think about
which formats to use and how,
and that's about experimentation.
Viewers love entertaining content,
and that's what's going to get recommended.
But, different viewers have different preferences,
and different creators are more or less skilled
at different formats.
Try a bunch of different things,
and make more of what works.
There's room for both Shorts and long form.
Let's say you're a live gaming creator
whose audience likes watching you
because they feel like you're hanging out together.
Maybe those streams are one plus hour,
and long form really works for that format
because it creates a sense of community with viewers.
On the other hand, maybe you have some hilarious moments
from these streams that anyone outside of your community
would find funny.
You could make those into a short 10 second reaction video
via Shorts, which could help you reach a new audience
that doesn't know you.
Who knows?
Maybe some of those viewers will want to tune in
to your next live stream.
Third question, if viewers watch more of my Shorts videos,
will they be recommended more of my long form content?
Some viewers watching Shorts
aren't always the same viewers watching longer form content.
For context, when we first launched Shorts,
we included all those Shorts videos
in viewers' watch history.
So when viewers were going back out of Shorts,
they started getting recommendations of really short videos
which our system had learned from their watch history.
At this time, this actually led to
a lot of viewer complaints,
as many people didn't want a lot of Shorts videos
in their homepage.
For this reason, we separate Shorts
and long form watch history.
So when someone discovers a new channel via Shorts,
we're not currently using that
to inform what longer videos are recommended to them
outside of the Shorts experience.
Our teams are currently improving these systems
so that they can work better together
while maintaining the quality of the viewer experience.
Next up, how do you decide
when to start a channel for Shorts
versus publish within the same channel?
Do I separate them?
Try to group your channels around similar audiences
who enjoyed the same or similar content.
Separate them out when your viewers
have totally different interests.
For example, if you started making videos
about Jeep off-roading,
but also ice campaign, and survivalism.
If you start building up very different audiences
with different interests,
then consider making a separate channel.
Last but not least,
does the algorithm need a certain number of videos
uploaded from a channel before they start to see success?
No, every Short is given a chance to succeed,
no matter the channel
or the number of videos on the channel.
Performance of a Short is dictated by whether or not
people are choosing to watch
and not skip a video in the Shorts feed.
That audience engagement is often built over time
as opposed to happening instantaneously.
All right, that's it for today.
If you have questions about Shorts
or how they're recommended, please drop them below,
and we'll try to answer them in a future video.
As always, keep it real.