3 Steps To Mastering The Art of YouTube Collaborations for Creators
Take a moment to consider why you were drawn to this blog.
Perhaps you’re a YouTube creator looking to collaborate with others, or perhaps you’re just curious and don’t actually want to share the stage with others at all…
…but whatever your angle, I’m here to give you three tips that will help you to master the art of collaboration for creators on YouTube.
Sit down and listen up, ’cause you could bag yourself some serious views!
Step 1: Do your research!
All too often, in a desperate attempt to reach a new audience, a creator will pick another creator to collaborate with possessing little knowledge of what the other creator’s audience actually is.
To ‘stalk’ is such an unforgiving phrase, but it will benefit you greatly to employ your finest Social Media Detective skills to find out basic information about the general fan base, such as age group, gender, language etc!
Once you’ve sussed out the fan base, ask yourself whether these fans would be interested in the content you have to offer.
Pro tip: If your potential collaborator’s fanbase are heavily into folk music, there’s a good chance they won’t be all that interested in your death-punk-metal-prog-fusion four-piece.
Being able to determine who will and won’t appreciate your content could save you time and money!
Step 2: Stop, Collaborate and Listen!
Stop: Once you’ve got a small selection of potential collaborators at the ready, stop looking for others and focus on these for the time being.
Have an idea in your head of how best you could compliment each other’s content and set out a list of ways they could benefit from having you to collaborate with!
Just as much as you want to gain attention from their audience, your potential collaborator will want some of your audience in return.
Collaborate: Now that you’ve got your collaborator at the ready, it’s time to think up some great ideas for your video — if you haven’t already!
Cover songs will usually give the views an extra boost, but try and come up with some new ideas that will entice and intrigue your audiences, for example: take one song from each artist and perform a mash-up of the two. The possibilities are endless!
Listen: At this point, your collaboration will be up on YouTube — congrats! Sometimes the most exciting part of collaborating with other artists is watching the way the end product affects the popularity of your channel.
It’s important at this stage to listen to what the fans have to say. Did they enjoy the video? Did they think you and the other creator were a match made in heaven?
The fans’ opinions will not only be voiced in their comments, but also in their viewing habits.
For example: In the Audience Retention report in the video analytics, look out for a steep drop in viewers at any point in the video. This is a point at which users have clicked away from the video — did the content change at this point? Was it your collaborator’s first line in the song? Was there any kind of visual change at this point in the video?
This report will help you to determine what your audience do or don’t want to see in your content.
Step 3: Maintain relationships with your collaborators
The process of collaborating is a simple one, so why not do it over and over again if it boosts your views?
If joining forces with a certain artist on YouTube is really working for you, keep up a relationship with that artist. Offer to do more collaborations, tag them in relevant social media posts, comment on and like their content regularly and ask them to do the same for you!
This will create a lasting relationship, not only between you and your collaborator, but between you and your collaborator’s fans as well.
Finally, keep looking for other creators you’d like to work with in the mean time! You never know what opportunities could present themselves, so keep working hard.
If you’d like any further advice on collaborations or how we at Laika Network can help you to make money from your YouTube videos, click here to visit our website!
