- In this video, we're gonna talk about YouTube hashtags
because they are, I think we'll all agree,
a big fat waste of time.
Oh, are they?
(bright upbeat music)
First things first?
Let's have a quick state of the YouTube hashtag union.
Do you still use hashtags in your videos?
What hashtags do you use?
Have you found any success with any hashtags
on YouTube at all in the last two and a half years?
Let us know in the comments below
and now for a short, entertaining little story.
When YouTube hashtags were first announced
we were one of the first channels to talk about it.
That led to an incredibly successful video
from a dashingly young and handsome host.
In that video, we used three hashtags and hilariously
I think some creators interpreted this to mean
that you should use these hashtags in your video titles.
And that literally is what a lot of people did.
So if you ever discover any videos on YouTube
with weird hashtags that have nothing to do with the content
you can thank us for that.
(beeps)
So, yeah hashtags, we got excited about them.
We use them and nothing really happened.
I don't know about you
but these days we almost use them out of habit.
So why are we talking about them now?
Oh, oh, this is new.
So for each hashtag YouTube will now display
how many videos are using that hashtag,
how many channels are using that hashtag
and a sprinkling of some of the best videos
for that hashtag.
Yeah, I can actually see how this could be quite useful
especially for generating video ideas
from within a community that's using the hashtag.
Now, currently there are some weird YouTube desktop
limitations with this.
If you search for a hashtag,
you just get the regular search results page.
Even if you try and force an exact search
what you currently have to do is go into a video
that contains the hashtag, click on the hashtag
and that will launch what's called the hashtag landing page.
I think we'll all agree this is stupid.
YouTube needs to fix it.
It seems to be the same clunky experience on mobile
too many taps to get to this hashtag landing page
if you are trying to search for it
but it is a step in the right direction.
And I feel this is the step YouTube are intentionally going
in for mobile.
And this is why I think hashtags on YouTube
might not be dead just yet.
In the YouTube studio go to analytics
and then go into advanced mode.
From the top of the screen switch your filter
to traffic sources and then click on YouTube search
from the list that shown below the graph.
This will now show you views
you've gained from specific YouTube searches.
And if you've been making a certain type
of video over the last few months
you are likely going to see a certain hashtag.
Yeah, it was inevitable.
We've now found ourselves once again
in YouTube Shorts land, it's only natural
that we ask you this question at this point,
how many #Shorts videos
do you think there are on YouTube?
There's a lot.
And that's because YouTube have been encouraging us to
include #Shorts in all of our Shorts videos.
Now who knows just how accurate these numbers are
but it does suggest that there are at least
3 million plus YouTube Shorts videos
already on the platform
along with half a million creators playing around
in this new YouTube space, I did warn you
this opportunity would very quickly get very competitive.
I'm delighted to see Jake Fellman appearing at the top here.
What an incredible swift Shorts journey he's been on.
Oh, and look at this.
We've snuck in there too.
Here's what I find interesting about all of this.
The common thing about all of these videos is
that they have pretty much nothing in common,
except for they all share that same hashtag.
You could come across anything from gaming to comedy,
to makeup tutorials to shopping advice,
to more gaming, to pretty much anything
people wanna know YouTube Shorts about.
And there, I think loose key difference
between long form content and short content,
whatever that may be, viewer intent.
When you log into YouTube
you probably have the loose intent
of watching your favorite creators that you subscribed to
or doing a search to get an answer
to a particular question that you need right now.
And along the way you may watch some other content
has been recommended by YouTube
and consume maybe five, six, seven videos.
On the other hand, when you log into platforms
such as TikTok, Instagram, or indeed YouTube Shorts
your intent is probably quite different
either you're in a more casual mood of consumption
or you're not quite sure what you want to watch or see.
So you're gonna rely on the recommendations
of those platforms based on your previous viewing
preferences and in the same time
if you can watch one or two YouTube videos
you can consume dozens of images or quick TikTok videos.
And in those cases you want more variety
which brings us back to hashtags.
Let's remind ourselves on how YouTube Shorts player works.
You start a video from a Shorts video shelf,
and then it's very easy to swipe from one video to another.
Now, when I look at the title, if a hashtag is included
you can tap on it and it will take you
to the hashtag landing page, tap a video there
and then all of it is at play from there on
are related to that hashtag.
So just imagine a landscape where creators
on YouTube are using hashtags, just like on TikTok.
And you'll quickly fall into a 10 minute video carousel
of #YouTubeMoms, #MyRecipe, #CraftChallenge.
Hashtags allow viewers to follow a trend
their shared belief, a topic without being too specific.
And because of a way, we're all likely
to consume YouTube Shorts,
that's why I think potentially hashtags have a lot
more value in the YouTube Shorts space,
but YouTube is still got a little bit of tweaking to do
to get it right.
In fact, they've got a hell of a lot of tweaking
still to do a YouTube Shorts
because I still haven't got the button
(bright upbeat music)