Q&A: What You Need to Know About Youtube Stories
Short and temporary stories are dominating the digital world with millions of frequent users per platform. In fact, Instagram Stories, as the market leader, is currently featuring 400 million users every day. With such gigantic user base, it is easy to understand why nearly all social networks have already jumped in with their own iterations. And the newest name in the competition is no other than Youtube – the biggest video platform in the world.
Even in the beta phase, Youtube Stories has triggered quite a larget number of conversations regarding its functions, coverage and of course, advertising opportunities. To catch up with the trend, here are some bullet points you need to know about this feature.
So, what is Youtube Stories?
Originated from Reels back in November 2017, Youtube Stories allows you to create short, mobile-only videos to connect with your audience more casually, interestingly and frequently. The feature is still in beta phase and only available for registered channels with 10000 or more subscribers. We have the first look of this much-awaited type of content through hot Youtubers invited for beta testing:
It has been confirmed that your stories on Youtube will appear in Up Next as well as some watch pages for general audience and on Subscription feeds to subscribers. Viewers can leave comment, react to other comments and even subscribe to your channel directly from the story. What’s more, you are free to pick a comment, create another story to respond and strengthen your connection with audience.
How do you create a story by Youtube Stories?
In case you already have a substantial audience (congratulations on that!), Youtube Stories tab will be visible and allow you to create video with just several touches, totally suitable for on-the-go content creation. Just a small notice that even if you already attract 10,000 subscribers, it may take up to 4 weeks before Youtube Stories shows up in your tab. Here are the steps, according to Youtube Help Centre:
- Sign in to Youtube and tap the camera icon.
- Tap Story.
- Tap the capture button to take a photo or hold it to record.
- You can also add music, filters, text and stickers before posting.
How Youtube Stories differs from similar features?
As a latecomer, Youtube Stories is normally compared to other platforms’ story formats. However, there are many differences to experience from the Google-owned video site. Firstly, each of your stories on Youtube lasts for 7 days rather than 24 hours. Then, you can create multiple stories to be live at the same time. This is quite distinct from Instagram or Snapchat in which all content are encouraged to be centralised into one story.
Overall, Youtube seems to target this story feature towards creators and influencers seeking to grow their channels, build communities and increase engagement rather than for general users to update their daily life events.
Youtube Stories allows brands to have more content, such as videos for influencer marketing
Which opportunities can marketers and brands get from Youtube Stories?
As the feature is still in the beta phase, it is hard to make any solid claims on its advertising opportunities. However, judging on the success and impact of Instagram Stories (with 1/3 of most viewed stories are from businesses), the experiment on Youtube sounds quite promising and considerable. Especially, stories lasting for 7 days do offer new opportunities and creative spaces for brands to reach and engage with a wide range of potential customers, hence another incentive for them to expand their marketing strategy to Youtube Stories. The strategies are quite diverse. You may give audience a behind-the-scene, reveal snippets of campaigns to come or bring fans along on a front-row seat to the action.