Ever wonder how some creators become the go-to channel in their niche, amidst a sea of YouTube channels? In October, I attended VidSummit where thousands of creators attended and it got me thinking: With the amount of creators on YouTube accelerating, how do you stand apart and become an authority in your niche? Is it possible? I say that it is and I’ll tell you how to make it happen for you.
Knowledge
People come to us all they time with the same story. They truly are the expert in their field, but other channels are gaiting 10x the subs, even though their information is just surface level. They can’t understand why that is happening.
First of all, we must realize that YouTube is very different than TV. With TV, people are often passively watching. But with YouTube, viewers have a lot more agency over what they watch and who they watch. They choose the people that they resonate with the most.
Because of this, knowing more than anyone else on a specific topic is not really the most important thing: Passion and connection is. Knowledge is far less important than this. But if you have both, you are guaranteed to be the top channel in your niche.
Connection
If you have the knowledge and need the connection there is help! You just need to invest more in the connection with your viewer. To dig into this, really focus in on a deeper why behind your channel. What is your value proposition? Make sure it is something that your ideal viewer resonates with.
As Tamsen Webster said, “It’s not just what you do. It’s not just why you do what you do. But it’s why you do what you do the way that you do it.” If you want your viewers always coming back to you, they need to love not just what what you’re talking about or why you want to talk about it. They need to connect with the reason you talk about it in your specific way. And for them to understand this, you need to have understood this yourself. (Confused by all of this? Listen this podcast here.)
Passion
We talked to Rob Wilson about being THE authority figure in your niche and he cautioned us to not think of ourselves as experts in our fields or “gurus.” Instead, think of yourself as a “passionate educator” in your field. This is going to put you in a very different mindset.
Perceived authority can actually be a weakness for you. If you feel like you have your topic mastered, you may never be open to changing or learning more. Channels who have this mindset may do well for a time, but then they just decline no matter how many new videos they release. They really need to reinvent themselves or look at the topic differently if they want to keep their content new and interesting to their viewers.
Think about the Blackberry. When the Blackberry phone came out, they were at the top of their game. Then when the iPhone was released, they had no desire to change because in their mind they were the best. Failing to reevaluate and change with the times is never going to lead to success. Because of this, perceived authority can be a major blindspot.
If you are feeling like you might need to reinvent yourself, ask yourself what are your topic buckets? It could be really refreshing to hit these same topics and fulfilling the same value proposition but in a slightly different way. It’s going to feel weird and uncomfortable at first but be okay with experimenting and giving it some time.
Power Tip
YouTube is coming out with a new editing software called “YouTube Creates.” If you have an Android this is already available. But us apple users have to wait until January. (Boo.) But, this is a mobile editing suite that is completely free and includes YouTube’s entire royalty-free music library and editing features for horizontal (long-form) content or vertical (shorts) content. Give it a try!
Keep Changing Lives!
Tim Schmoyer
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