How to find ideas, select topics and interact with the audience

Modern consumers of content are very demanding, and it is becoming increasingly difficult to win their attention. Many bloggers burn out. The creators we work with at AIR Media-Tech often talk about the lack of inspiration, about how difficult it is to maintain the interest of the audience.

We dedicated our last meeting with AIR Influence MeetUp bloggers to the topic of content creation. We invited YouTube expert Max Yakovlev and author of the ND Production channel Andriy Nemodruk. Based on their advice, we tell creators how to create really decent content.

Where to get ideas and how to implement them correctly?

I like to think that creativity, like talent, is not the default setting, but the result of some effort. We ourselves can teach our brain to generate ideas, we just need to provide it with the right conditions. What are they for a YouTube blogger?

  • Visual experience. The broader your horizons and the more diverse information you consume, the easier it will be to find inspiration. A blogger should always stay “on topic”, follow what is happening in his niche and in the neighborhood, know global trends and respond to trends in a timely manner. This is not possible without regular consumption of content. Here’s the paradox: to create, you need to consume. Make it a rule to watch at least 1-2 videos of your subject a day, and you will see how much easier it will be to brainstorm.
  • Environment. The blogging community is the most favorable environment for searching for muse. Being in a party, you can not only find a companion for collaborations, but also continuously share experiences, gain support and receive unique information. One head is good, and many heads of inspired creators are much better. Remember how long you met or just talked to colleagues? Are you in blog chats and publics? Do you attend thematic events? Correct the situation if the answers do not please you.
  • Foreign bloggers. Trends come to us late, and the West sets the tone for everything that happens in the world. If you watch foreign creators, you can see future innovations earlier than others. Subscribe to bloggers from other countries who shoot in your subject, and watch what they do. All this can be easily adapted to yourself. Just do not re-shoot brazenly, but be inspired and multiply their ideas to their uniqueness.

Watch not only for niche representatives, but also for the giants of the industry. In them you can both see ideas and understand trends, and learn a huge number of priceless things: filing, shooting and editing chips, techniques of interaction with the audience. Learn from the best. In addition, looking at their results, you will always have the motivation to grow.

My colleagues and I watch these guys: Casey Neistat, Mr.Beast, Peter McKinnon, Jenna Marbles, Emma Chamberlain.

How to choose themes for videos to be in the top of search engines

There are various techniques and tools you can use to hack inspiration and find ideas.

  • YouTube Analytics. Basically, but many people forget about it. First, keep track of which of your videos appeal to the viewer the most, and try to continue the fun — pack them into headlines, create serial content, or just focus on what gets the best results. Secondly, watch the report “Other videos of interest to your viewers” — there are videos on the channels of other bloggers who watch your subscribers. This information allows you to understand what they are interested in and implement similar topics or formats in your channel.
  • VidIQ. Why it is needed: helps to research keywords and optimize videos, identify the most popular content in the topic and analyze competitors. We recommend the following action plan:
  • add channels similar to yours to your competitor tracking tool;
  • select the videos that work best;
  • Check Google Trends for demand for these topics.
  • take note of the idea and shoot something similar.
  • Tubular – a tool for the most advanced, which allows you to receive invaluable reports. To find ideas, our experts recommend paying attention to the following:
  • a report on videos that quickly gained views (analyze by topic and country) — these are topics that are in demand among viewers;
  • report the intersection of the audience with a particular channel and specific videos. We are talking not only about competitors, but also about various other channels and segments on YouTube. With this you will be able to understand what other interests your subscribers have. Using this in your videos, you will be able to get much closer to the audience and find additional points of contact.

Access to these tools is available only by subscription. AIR Media-Tech provides these services to its partners, so if you are interested in learning more about them, write to us and we will come up with something.

In addition to services, there are various techniques and exercises for generating ideas. By practicing them, you will definitely not be left empty-handed when it comes time to shoot content. It would be difficult to describe them here, so I recommend watching the record of our meetup, where I explain them in detail and with examples.

How to stay relevant to your audience?

In addition to hype topics, there is an important point — the interests of your viewers. They do not always want to see what is now at the peak of trends, so focusing on external sources is not entirely appropriate. Your viewers are the end consumer of your content, so first of all you need to focus on them, staying in touch with them constantly and fueling their interest.

How to do it?

  • Have a constant dialogue with the audience. Address them from the frame, respond to comments, create surveys. Take the time to spend with subscribers, and do not procrastinate, because deprived subscribers can become haters or just stop watching your channel. At best, you become like television to them, and on YouTube, people come to a living person.
  • Create and maintain a community. It can be a real chat, public or fan page, or just a conditional army of your fans, which can be accessed from the frame. Don’t skip this item if your channel is still small. By creating a community in the early stages, you allow subscribers to feel involved in your success (“We’re with the first thousand subscribers together!”). Motivate them to create custom content for your channel, mention them in your videos, come up with incentives for reposts, arrange challenges, contests and even meetings.
  • Adapt to change. If you want to maintain the affection of your viewers, keep up with their maturity and development.

For example, if you run a beauty blog and you have an audience of girls 20-35 years old, you need to constantly update the list of brands that do not test cosmetics on animals, and follow global trends in this topic. Your audience is an eco-conscious segment, and such people pay a lot of attention to the issue of ecological cosmetics.

If you have been running a literature channel for schoolchildren for 5 years, then, most likely, your fans have already grown up, and school literature is gradually beginning to exhaust itself. So, you can move on to more serious works to stay interesting for viewers who have been with you for a long time.

There are exceptions to this point. For example, children’s channels. If you choose a strategy to maintain a particular segment of CA, the old subscribers will always be replaced by new ones, and you do not have to grow with them, like Harry Potter. But even in this case, you need to constantly keep your hands on the pulse and watch what is quoted in this particular segment now, as its benefits and habits change. To exaggerate: do not review “Well, wait a minute!” for modern five-year plans.

  • Add novelties gradually. Simple instructions on this:
  • run a survey among subscribers, what they would like to see new on your channel (it is desirable to limit the options or natively push thoughts);
  • select the two top offers and ask everyone to vote again. Emphasize that now they decide the fate of your channel and you will do what they say;
  • announce the winning option and arrange noise / intrigue around the first video on this topic;
  • after publication, say that you will continue to shoot if subscribers like it. To be fair, determine the number of likes / comments that should be collected for the video so that it is considered a good idea.
  • if successful, continue shooting videos in this format.

Importantly! Do not change the direction of your channel abruptly. Introduce new products gradually. This way you will not intimidate existing subscribers and attract a new audience.

I can bet that if you implement at least one of these tips on your channel, your business will be more fun. And if you implement everything and nothing changes, then look for me in AIR Media-Tech to call for a conversation.

You can learn more from our YouTube Content Creation myth: invent, create, package. It’s free, you just need to register to instantly get a recording of the broadcast, a presentation and a checklist based on the meeting.