YouTube is lowering the eligibility criteria for community posts, which will give many more creators access to a tool to better connect with their audiences.
Previously, YouTube channels had to have a minimum of 1,000 subscribers before they could publish community posts.
Starting October 12, that threshold is getting reduced to 500 subscribers. YouTube says this will gran access to millions more creators.
Posts live within a channel’s Community tab, but they’re also visible on subscribers’ home pages. You’ve likely run into them if you spend any time browsing the YouTube recommendation feed.
Community posts are an effective tool for keeping audiences engaged in-between videos.
The internet moves so fast that a YouTube channel may fall off peoples’ radar if it doesn’t upload new content every day or every week.
For a lot of creators it’s not feasible to produce that many videos. It’s much more likely they can keep up with publishing quick community posts, however.
These posts are also a great promotional tool for creators to hype up their next video or livestream. With the ability to add rich media and interactive polls, there’s a number of ways community posts can be used to create stronger audience connections.
Screenshot from support.google.com/youtube, September 2021.Note that it may take up to 1 week to see the option to create community posts after a channel passes 500 subscribers.
YouTube is working on bringing this feature to channels with fewer than 500 subscribers in the future.
Tips For Using Community Posts
The community tab is an opportunity for YouTube channels to create and publish content in other ways than uploading videos.
If you’ll soon have access to community posts starting October 12, you may not be familiar with what they can be used for.
The key is to not overthink it, or at least not any more than you would think about a Facebook post, for example.
Here are some ideas to start with:
- Polls: Running polls in community posts allows you to get an idea of what your audience cares about, which can inspire ideas for new content.
- Sharing: You can use community posts to share content from other creators or older videos in your archive that could use a boost.
- Rich media: You can add photos, videos, and GIFs to community posts to keep audiences entertained between videos. Same as the types of posts you’d create for sites like Facebook and Twitter.
- Updates: Keep your audience informed about important channel updates without creating an entire video.
For more ideas take a look at community posts from other channels and see what’s working for them.
Removing the Discussion Tab
When YouTube introduced the Community tab it was intended to eventually replace the Discussion tab.
Now that more creators will have access to community posts, YouTube is moving forward with its plans to remove the Discussion tab as it’s now obsolete.
The Discussion tab is an older feature that lets creators post text updates to viewers. The Community tab allows for text updates and a whole lot more, with the ability to add images, GIFs, polls, and videos.
YouTube is removing the Discussion tab for all channels on October 12, 2021. Until then creators can still access it from the channel page on desktop.
Source: YouTube Help
Featured Image: Mehaniq / Shutterstock
