One of the updates that YouTube recently announced is the Hype leaderboard based on the country you’re in. YouTube has always prioritized viewer satisfaction and the audience has always had the final say about which videos got recommended to new viewers. Now, the average viewer has even more power to tell the YouTube algorithm which creators should get more exposure. Think of this new “hype” feature as the “like button” on steroids. When this new leaderboard shows up on the YouTube platform, the more your video is “hyped,” the higher up it gets featured among the top 100 hyped videos from the week. This unlocks 🔑 a whole new opportunity to get your content discovered by a much wider audience. See this as an incentive to be really viewer-focused more than ever before. You have to show up and deliver high value to your audience. These are exciting times to be on YouTube😀 I’ll keep you updated with more info as it becomes available.

According to Netflix, who also rely on Thumbnails to attract views, the average view time before making a decision to ‘watch or skip’ is a mere 1.8 seconds! Two important factors are the Title and the Thumbnail together - which MUST create curiosity - enticing the viewer to watch!