Charting the Course of Creative Conquests: Self Vs. Competitors on YouTube

YouTube Analytics – How to analyze your and Competitor’s YouTube Video

Richard Bennett

Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions

Tracking your brand’s YouTube metrics is not enough to ensure success in YouTube. Unless you garner deep insights of your competitors. You must be thinking how can you gauge their company insights using YouTube and track the data movement as well. There is nothing to worry about, we have got you covered. We will show you how to analyze your own channel as well as that of your competitors’ YouTube analytics. Let’s now explore about it!

How to analyze your own YouTube channel/video?

It is important to have reliable YouTube analytics tools for your brand, as videos on YouTube are searchable through Google. They contribute to generate organic traffic for you using both Google and YouTube as a medium. YouTube has a default dedicated analytics mechanism to measure how the video fares in YouTube to gain the most out of it.

Here we have collated the broadly used YouTube insights to ensure that your highly equipped, SEO compatible video engages more audience and performs well. The matrix sums up the most essential parts of YouTube analytics. Let’s go through them.

1. Views

Though, views determine the number of people clicked on a certain video on YouTube, it’s impossible to figure out whether the video has been watched till the end or not. Moreover, they can be altered through clickbait tricks and hence YouTube doesn’t solely put much value on them.

Views along with watch time turn out to be the best bet. Watch time sums up the total amount of time spent (in terms of minutes) on your brand’ videos. With the updated dashboard it becomes easy to get the YouTube analytics and gauge the video’s performance. Using the average view duration, you can know whether your video is being watched till the end or not.

2. Playback Location

As ‘Playback locations’ of YouTube videos can reveal where does all the traffic come from, it would help your channel figure out for which location the video has fared well. It will guide you to reach the backlinks locations/sites. Knowing the popular locations for your YouTube video being played, you can know whether YouTube is the search engine or they have been diverted from somewhere else. Depending on the video playing locations, the views will be segregated in to embedded video, YouTube watch page, mobile devices, and YouTube channel page. Understanding location specific views would help you decide where should you focus to enhance the performance of your video.

3. Demographics

The demographics page helps you get YouTube insights, using them you can know the audience in a gender and location specific manner. For local businesses targeting a certain region, YouTube analytics would prove to be a boon. You can also know the geography and device used by the viewers with this feature. Understanding the gender and location of people will help you create dedicated product videos that would be helpful to them.

4. Traffic sources

Understanding the source of your YouTube video’s traffic would help you track the prominent keywords that viewers use for landing at your YouTube video. You can figure out their choice and their search patterns this way. The YouTube insights will show you whether the viewers found your video by searching YouTube, a channel on YouTube, through suggested videos, or an external link. The YouTube Analytics tool’s panel would assist you in finalizing the most beneficial traffic source for your brand. You can optimize your video and keyword strategy with this.

5. Audience Retention

This data explains how far your video has engaged your audience. Along with views, the duration that a viewer is on your video weighs too. From the audience retention page, you can find out the specific time that a viewer has exited your video and see what made them do so. There are 2 types of audience retention features – absolute audience retention and relative audience retention.

6. Devices

It is important to know which device is being used to watch the video. The metrics is distributed among mobile phones, computer, TV, tablet etc. you will be able to understand whether your video needs to be optimized for a certain video or not.

7. Likes and dislikes

YouTube insights gauge the audience acceptance for your video by the number of likes and dislikes. Videos with a huge number of like implies that it is loved by people, though, the quality of video can’t exactly be defined by the number of likes or dislikes. Even the best quality video created for asking opinions about a certain situation/issue might be good enough but still get dislikes.

8. Subscribers

YouTube analytics help you determine the engagement metrics to explain the origin of your subscribers. It includes both their geo-location, the date of subscription, and the source/medium they used to land with your video on YouTube. You can observe the number of people subscribing and unsubscribing from your YouTube channel.

The subscription stream enables your audience to get suggestions for new videos from your channel and offer better exposure to the service and products you offer.

You May Also Like : How to Get More Subscribers

9. Annotations

While considering YouTube Analytics, it is essential to understand that there are annotations to guide viewers to your business site for more content. It is not necessary that the content is video only, it might include a blog post as well. This will let you understand the click through rate and ‘close’ rates for every annotation. This in turn will assist you in optimizing how to reach your audience and where to place the annotations.

10. Comments

Audience engagement on any YouTube video can easily be gauged by using the vital aspect known as comments. Either it touched a chord in their heart, inspired or motivated them, or simply made them smile, the comments will say it all. Sometimes the audience simply taps ‘Like’ in place of commenting at their convenient.

11. Cards

Cards is a new feature in YouTube analytics and aimed at replacing annotations. This will improve user interactivity of any video and accelerate the engagement. They will act as call to action for informing visitors regarding playlists, videos, merchandising, fan funding, and associated website etc.

12. Sharing

This aspect sums up the amount of shares of the YouTube video across different social networks along with the share date. Google ranking is influenced with the share numbers, as higher the number more the chances of unique backlinks for your videos.

13. Videos in playlists

Favorites has been renamed to ‘Videos in playlists’. Your reach broadens as people keep marking your videos as favorites on their playlist. This is visible to the public on the YouTube channel itself.

How to analyze your competitors

Although, you can’t see the dashboard data of your competitor, there are still some ways to observe and study your competitors’ successful videos and from their views, favorites, ratings, and comments find out the driving force behind it.

For example, reading the comments and see what they are saying. Notice both the positive and negative ones so that you can incorporate the ideas in your videos. You can also make a better video by understanding what a specific demographic region is fond of watching in the said niche.

Or you can use those analyzing tools below to discover the more stats of your competitors.

1. InflueNex

InflueNex is a helpful influencer marketing tool for Analyzing, searching, and managing YouTubers. With the help of this YouTube analytics tool, you’re able to learn your competitors’ channels and videos with detailed information.

2. Rival IQ

This YouTube analytics tool helps you increase social media engagement, conduct competitive analysis to track competition, discovers new content ideas for your target audience. You can use it to leverage your foothold in YouTube.

3. SocialBlade

SocialBlade helps you gain YouTube insights and enables you to understand how your rival brands fare. You can learn from them and enhance your own strategy to beat them.

Read More to Get: 5 Methods to Go Frame by Frame on YouTube Video >>

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett

Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions

Tracking your brand’s YouTube metrics is not enough to ensure success in YouTube. Unless you garner deep insights of your competitors. You must be thinking how can you gauge their company insights using YouTube and track the data movement as well. There is nothing to worry about, we have got you covered. We will show you how to analyze your own channel as well as that of your competitors’ YouTube analytics. Let’s now explore about it!

How to analyze your own YouTube channel/video?

It is important to have reliable YouTube analytics tools for your brand, as videos on YouTube are searchable through Google. They contribute to generate organic traffic for you using both Google and YouTube as a medium. YouTube has a default dedicated analytics mechanism to measure how the video fares in YouTube to gain the most out of it.

Here we have collated the broadly used YouTube insights to ensure that your highly equipped, SEO compatible video engages more audience and performs well. The matrix sums up the most essential parts of YouTube analytics. Let’s go through them.

1. Views

Though, views determine the number of people clicked on a certain video on YouTube, it’s impossible to figure out whether the video has been watched till the end or not. Moreover, they can be altered through clickbait tricks and hence YouTube doesn’t solely put much value on them.

Views along with watch time turn out to be the best bet. Watch time sums up the total amount of time spent (in terms of minutes) on your brand’ videos. With the updated dashboard it becomes easy to get the YouTube analytics and gauge the video’s performance. Using the average view duration, you can know whether your video is being watched till the end or not.

2. Playback Location

As ‘Playback locations’ of YouTube videos can reveal where does all the traffic come from, it would help your channel figure out for which location the video has fared well. It will guide you to reach the backlinks locations/sites. Knowing the popular locations for your YouTube video being played, you can know whether YouTube is the search engine or they have been diverted from somewhere else. Depending on the video playing locations, the views will be segregated in to embedded video, YouTube watch page, mobile devices, and YouTube channel page. Understanding location specific views would help you decide where should you focus to enhance the performance of your video.

3. Demographics

The demographics page helps you get YouTube insights, using them you can know the audience in a gender and location specific manner. For local businesses targeting a certain region, YouTube analytics would prove to be a boon. You can also know the geography and device used by the viewers with this feature. Understanding the gender and location of people will help you create dedicated product videos that would be helpful to them.

4. Traffic sources

Understanding the source of your YouTube video’s traffic would help you track the prominent keywords that viewers use for landing at your YouTube video. You can figure out their choice and their search patterns this way. The YouTube insights will show you whether the viewers found your video by searching YouTube, a channel on YouTube, through suggested videos, or an external link. The YouTube Analytics tool’s panel would assist you in finalizing the most beneficial traffic source for your brand. You can optimize your video and keyword strategy with this.

5. Audience Retention

This data explains how far your video has engaged your audience. Along with views, the duration that a viewer is on your video weighs too. From the audience retention page, you can find out the specific time that a viewer has exited your video and see what made them do so. There are 2 types of audience retention features – absolute audience retention and relative audience retention.

6. Devices

It is important to know which device is being used to watch the video. The metrics is distributed among mobile phones, computer, TV, tablet etc. you will be able to understand whether your video needs to be optimized for a certain video or not.

7. Likes and dislikes

YouTube insights gauge the audience acceptance for your video by the number of likes and dislikes. Videos with a huge number of like implies that it is loved by people, though, the quality of video can’t exactly be defined by the number of likes or dislikes. Even the best quality video created for asking opinions about a certain situation/issue might be good enough but still get dislikes.

8. Subscribers

YouTube analytics help you determine the engagement metrics to explain the origin of your subscribers. It includes both their geo-location, the date of subscription, and the source/medium they used to land with your video on YouTube. You can observe the number of people subscribing and unsubscribing from your YouTube channel.

The subscription stream enables your audience to get suggestions for new videos from your channel and offer better exposure to the service and products you offer.

You May Also Like : How to Get More Subscribers

9. Annotations

While considering YouTube Analytics, it is essential to understand that there are annotations to guide viewers to your business site for more content. It is not necessary that the content is video only, it might include a blog post as well. This will let you understand the click through rate and ‘close’ rates for every annotation. This in turn will assist you in optimizing how to reach your audience and where to place the annotations.

10. Comments

Audience engagement on any YouTube video can easily be gauged by using the vital aspect known as comments. Either it touched a chord in their heart, inspired or motivated them, or simply made them smile, the comments will say it all. Sometimes the audience simply taps ‘Like’ in place of commenting at their convenient.

11. Cards

Cards is a new feature in YouTube analytics and aimed at replacing annotations. This will improve user interactivity of any video and accelerate the engagement. They will act as call to action for informing visitors regarding playlists, videos, merchandising, fan funding, and associated website etc.

12. Sharing

This aspect sums up the amount of shares of the YouTube video across different social networks along with the share date. Google ranking is influenced with the share numbers, as higher the number more the chances of unique backlinks for your videos.

13. Videos in playlists

Favorites has been renamed to ‘Videos in playlists’. Your reach broadens as people keep marking your videos as favorites on their playlist. This is visible to the public on the YouTube channel itself.

How to analyze your competitors

Although, you can’t see the dashboard data of your competitor, there are still some ways to observe and study your competitors’ successful videos and from their views, favorites, ratings, and comments find out the driving force behind it.

For example, reading the comments and see what they are saying. Notice both the positive and negative ones so that you can incorporate the ideas in your videos. You can also make a better video by understanding what a specific demographic region is fond of watching in the said niche.

Or you can use those analyzing tools below to discover the more stats of your competitors.

1. InflueNex

InflueNex is a helpful influencer marketing tool for Analyzing, searching, and managing YouTubers. With the help of this YouTube analytics tool, you’re able to learn your competitors’ channels and videos with detailed information.

2. Rival IQ

This YouTube analytics tool helps you increase social media engagement, conduct competitive analysis to track competition, discovers new content ideas for your target audience. You can use it to leverage your foothold in YouTube.

3. SocialBlade

SocialBlade helps you gain YouTube insights and enables you to understand how your rival brands fare. You can learn from them and enhance your own strategy to beat them.

Read More to Get: 5 Methods to Go Frame by Frame on YouTube Video >>

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett

Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions

Tracking your brand’s YouTube metrics is not enough to ensure success in YouTube. Unless you garner deep insights of your competitors. You must be thinking how can you gauge their company insights using YouTube and track the data movement as well. There is nothing to worry about, we have got you covered. We will show you how to analyze your own channel as well as that of your competitors’ YouTube analytics. Let’s now explore about it!

How to analyze your own YouTube channel/video?

It is important to have reliable YouTube analytics tools for your brand, as videos on YouTube are searchable through Google. They contribute to generate organic traffic for you using both Google and YouTube as a medium. YouTube has a default dedicated analytics mechanism to measure how the video fares in YouTube to gain the most out of it.

Here we have collated the broadly used YouTube insights to ensure that your highly equipped, SEO compatible video engages more audience and performs well. The matrix sums up the most essential parts of YouTube analytics. Let’s go through them.

1. Views

Though, views determine the number of people clicked on a certain video on YouTube, it’s impossible to figure out whether the video has been watched till the end or not. Moreover, they can be altered through clickbait tricks and hence YouTube doesn’t solely put much value on them.

Views along with watch time turn out to be the best bet. Watch time sums up the total amount of time spent (in terms of minutes) on your brand’ videos. With the updated dashboard it becomes easy to get the YouTube analytics and gauge the video’s performance. Using the average view duration, you can know whether your video is being watched till the end or not.

2. Playback Location

As ‘Playback locations’ of YouTube videos can reveal where does all the traffic come from, it would help your channel figure out for which location the video has fared well. It will guide you to reach the backlinks locations/sites. Knowing the popular locations for your YouTube video being played, you can know whether YouTube is the search engine or they have been diverted from somewhere else. Depending on the video playing locations, the views will be segregated in to embedded video, YouTube watch page, mobile devices, and YouTube channel page. Understanding location specific views would help you decide where should you focus to enhance the performance of your video.

3. Demographics

The demographics page helps you get YouTube insights, using them you can know the audience in a gender and location specific manner. For local businesses targeting a certain region, YouTube analytics would prove to be a boon. You can also know the geography and device used by the viewers with this feature. Understanding the gender and location of people will help you create dedicated product videos that would be helpful to them.

4. Traffic sources

Understanding the source of your YouTube video’s traffic would help you track the prominent keywords that viewers use for landing at your YouTube video. You can figure out their choice and their search patterns this way. The YouTube insights will show you whether the viewers found your video by searching YouTube, a channel on YouTube, through suggested videos, or an external link. The YouTube Analytics tool’s panel would assist you in finalizing the most beneficial traffic source for your brand. You can optimize your video and keyword strategy with this.

5. Audience Retention

This data explains how far your video has engaged your audience. Along with views, the duration that a viewer is on your video weighs too. From the audience retention page, you can find out the specific time that a viewer has exited your video and see what made them do so. There are 2 types of audience retention features – absolute audience retention and relative audience retention.

6. Devices

It is important to know which device is being used to watch the video. The metrics is distributed among mobile phones, computer, TV, tablet etc. you will be able to understand whether your video needs to be optimized for a certain video or not.

7. Likes and dislikes

YouTube insights gauge the audience acceptance for your video by the number of likes and dislikes. Videos with a huge number of like implies that it is loved by people, though, the quality of video can’t exactly be defined by the number of likes or dislikes. Even the best quality video created for asking opinions about a certain situation/issue might be good enough but still get dislikes.

8. Subscribers

YouTube analytics help you determine the engagement metrics to explain the origin of your subscribers. It includes both their geo-location, the date of subscription, and the source/medium they used to land with your video on YouTube. You can observe the number of people subscribing and unsubscribing from your YouTube channel.

The subscription stream enables your audience to get suggestions for new videos from your channel and offer better exposure to the service and products you offer.

You May Also Like : How to Get More Subscribers

9. Annotations

While considering YouTube Analytics, it is essential to understand that there are annotations to guide viewers to your business site for more content. It is not necessary that the content is video only, it might include a blog post as well. This will let you understand the click through rate and ‘close’ rates for every annotation. This in turn will assist you in optimizing how to reach your audience and where to place the annotations.

10. Comments

Audience engagement on any YouTube video can easily be gauged by using the vital aspect known as comments. Either it touched a chord in their heart, inspired or motivated them, or simply made them smile, the comments will say it all. Sometimes the audience simply taps ‘Like’ in place of commenting at their convenient.

11. Cards

Cards is a new feature in YouTube analytics and aimed at replacing annotations. This will improve user interactivity of any video and accelerate the engagement. They will act as call to action for informing visitors regarding playlists, videos, merchandising, fan funding, and associated website etc.

12. Sharing

This aspect sums up the amount of shares of the YouTube video across different social networks along with the share date. Google ranking is influenced with the share numbers, as higher the number more the chances of unique backlinks for your videos.

13. Videos in playlists

Favorites has been renamed to ‘Videos in playlists’. Your reach broadens as people keep marking your videos as favorites on their playlist. This is visible to the public on the YouTube channel itself.

How to analyze your competitors

Although, you can’t see the dashboard data of your competitor, there are still some ways to observe and study your competitors’ successful videos and from their views, favorites, ratings, and comments find out the driving force behind it.

For example, reading the comments and see what they are saying. Notice both the positive and negative ones so that you can incorporate the ideas in your videos. You can also make a better video by understanding what a specific demographic region is fond of watching in the said niche.

Or you can use those analyzing tools below to discover the more stats of your competitors.

1. InflueNex

InflueNex is a helpful influencer marketing tool for Analyzing, searching, and managing YouTubers. With the help of this YouTube analytics tool, you’re able to learn your competitors’ channels and videos with detailed information.

2. Rival IQ

This YouTube analytics tool helps you increase social media engagement, conduct competitive analysis to track competition, discovers new content ideas for your target audience. You can use it to leverage your foothold in YouTube.

3. SocialBlade

SocialBlade helps you gain YouTube insights and enables you to understand how your rival brands fare. You can learn from them and enhance your own strategy to beat them.

Read More to Get: 5 Methods to Go Frame by Frame on YouTube Video >>

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett

Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions

Tracking your brand’s YouTube metrics is not enough to ensure success in YouTube. Unless you garner deep insights of your competitors. You must be thinking how can you gauge their company insights using YouTube and track the data movement as well. There is nothing to worry about, we have got you covered. We will show you how to analyze your own channel as well as that of your competitors’ YouTube analytics. Let’s now explore about it!

How to analyze your own YouTube channel/video?

It is important to have reliable YouTube analytics tools for your brand, as videos on YouTube are searchable through Google. They contribute to generate organic traffic for you using both Google and YouTube as a medium. YouTube has a default dedicated analytics mechanism to measure how the video fares in YouTube to gain the most out of it.

Here we have collated the broadly used YouTube insights to ensure that your highly equipped, SEO compatible video engages more audience and performs well. The matrix sums up the most essential parts of YouTube analytics. Let’s go through them.

1. Views

Though, views determine the number of people clicked on a certain video on YouTube, it’s impossible to figure out whether the video has been watched till the end or not. Moreover, they can be altered through clickbait tricks and hence YouTube doesn’t solely put much value on them.

Views along with watch time turn out to be the best bet. Watch time sums up the total amount of time spent (in terms of minutes) on your brand’ videos. With the updated dashboard it becomes easy to get the YouTube analytics and gauge the video’s performance. Using the average view duration, you can know whether your video is being watched till the end or not.

2. Playback Location

As ‘Playback locations’ of YouTube videos can reveal where does all the traffic come from, it would help your channel figure out for which location the video has fared well. It will guide you to reach the backlinks locations/sites. Knowing the popular locations for your YouTube video being played, you can know whether YouTube is the search engine or they have been diverted from somewhere else. Depending on the video playing locations, the views will be segregated in to embedded video, YouTube watch page, mobile devices, and YouTube channel page. Understanding location specific views would help you decide where should you focus to enhance the performance of your video.

3. Demographics

The demographics page helps you get YouTube insights, using them you can know the audience in a gender and location specific manner. For local businesses targeting a certain region, YouTube analytics would prove to be a boon. You can also know the geography and device used by the viewers with this feature. Understanding the gender and location of people will help you create dedicated product videos that would be helpful to them.

4. Traffic sources

Understanding the source of your YouTube video’s traffic would help you track the prominent keywords that viewers use for landing at your YouTube video. You can figure out their choice and their search patterns this way. The YouTube insights will show you whether the viewers found your video by searching YouTube, a channel on YouTube, through suggested videos, or an external link. The YouTube Analytics tool’s panel would assist you in finalizing the most beneficial traffic source for your brand. You can optimize your video and keyword strategy with this.

5. Audience Retention

This data explains how far your video has engaged your audience. Along with views, the duration that a viewer is on your video weighs too. From the audience retention page, you can find out the specific time that a viewer has exited your video and see what made them do so. There are 2 types of audience retention features – absolute audience retention and relative audience retention.

6. Devices

It is important to know which device is being used to watch the video. The metrics is distributed among mobile phones, computer, TV, tablet etc. you will be able to understand whether your video needs to be optimized for a certain video or not.

7. Likes and dislikes

YouTube insights gauge the audience acceptance for your video by the number of likes and dislikes. Videos with a huge number of like implies that it is loved by people, though, the quality of video can’t exactly be defined by the number of likes or dislikes. Even the best quality video created for asking opinions about a certain situation/issue might be good enough but still get dislikes.

8. Subscribers

YouTube analytics help you determine the engagement metrics to explain the origin of your subscribers. It includes both their geo-location, the date of subscription, and the source/medium they used to land with your video on YouTube. You can observe the number of people subscribing and unsubscribing from your YouTube channel.

The subscription stream enables your audience to get suggestions for new videos from your channel and offer better exposure to the service and products you offer.

You May Also Like : How to Get More Subscribers

9. Annotations

While considering YouTube Analytics, it is essential to understand that there are annotations to guide viewers to your business site for more content. It is not necessary that the content is video only, it might include a blog post as well. This will let you understand the click through rate and ‘close’ rates for every annotation. This in turn will assist you in optimizing how to reach your audience and where to place the annotations.

10. Comments

Audience engagement on any YouTube video can easily be gauged by using the vital aspect known as comments. Either it touched a chord in their heart, inspired or motivated them, or simply made them smile, the comments will say it all. Sometimes the audience simply taps ‘Like’ in place of commenting at their convenient.

11. Cards

Cards is a new feature in YouTube analytics and aimed at replacing annotations. This will improve user interactivity of any video and accelerate the engagement. They will act as call to action for informing visitors regarding playlists, videos, merchandising, fan funding, and associated website etc.

12. Sharing

This aspect sums up the amount of shares of the YouTube video across different social networks along with the share date. Google ranking is influenced with the share numbers, as higher the number more the chances of unique backlinks for your videos.

13. Videos in playlists

Favorites has been renamed to ‘Videos in playlists’. Your reach broadens as people keep marking your videos as favorites on their playlist. This is visible to the public on the YouTube channel itself.

How to analyze your competitors

Although, you can’t see the dashboard data of your competitor, there are still some ways to observe and study your competitors’ successful videos and from their views, favorites, ratings, and comments find out the driving force behind it.

For example, reading the comments and see what they are saying. Notice both the positive and negative ones so that you can incorporate the ideas in your videos. You can also make a better video by understanding what a specific demographic region is fond of watching in the said niche.

Or you can use those analyzing tools below to discover the more stats of your competitors.

1. InflueNex

InflueNex is a helpful influencer marketing tool for Analyzing, searching, and managing YouTubers. With the help of this YouTube analytics tool, you’re able to learn your competitors’ channels and videos with detailed information.

2. Rival IQ

This YouTube analytics tool helps you increase social media engagement, conduct competitive analysis to track competition, discovers new content ideas for your target audience. You can use it to leverage your foothold in YouTube.

3. SocialBlade

SocialBlade helps you gain YouTube insights and enables you to understand how your rival brands fare. You can learn from them and enhance your own strategy to beat them.

Read More to Get: 5 Methods to Go Frame by Frame on YouTube Video >>

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Richard Bennett

Plotline Path to YouTube Prosperity

The Best Storytelling Techniques to Grow Your YouTube Channel

Richard Bennett

Oct 26, 2023• Proven solutions

0

In the distracting world, we live in, you need to be a good storyteller to grow your YouTube channel. Your audience is not going to stick around to watch your whole video if your content isn’t enticing or relatable. If you want to get people to watch all your videos, you need to get them emotionally invested with your stories.

Here are 3 methods for creating an awesome story:

• Method 1: CREATE SUSPENSE
• Method 2: USE EMPATHY
• Method 3: TAKE THE AUDIENCE ON A MEANINGFUL JOURNEY

1. Create Suspense

The hero has an objective, but the plan might fail.

The likelihood of something going wrong is what makes a story suspenseful. When you tell a suspenseful story, your audience will have a heightened focus and a strong motivation to continue listening. They want to know if the hero succeeds. Keep the audience waiting and expecting. Don’t give away the ending right away.

What Does a Suspenseful Story Sound Like?

When we talk about a story that is dragging on, it is because there is no suspense. There is nothing at stake, there are no obstacles, there is no problem and, with no problem, there is no promise of resolution.

Here are a few examples you can use to pump more suspense into your story:

- Address a fear (example: being alone for the prom)

- An objective (example: asking the crush out to the dance)

- Consequences of failing (example: being embarrassed in front of the whole school)

- Limited time (example: prom is next week)

- Obstacles (example: the crush has an aggressive ex.)

You can feel your heart rate speeding up simply thinking about the character’s story in the example. Does it have a happy ending or not? We want to know!

Raise Questions After Questions

A good storyteller knows that as soon as they answer a question for their audience, they need to present another one. The audience will always need to have a puzzle in their mind, one that needs to be solved. That is what will keep their interest.

For example: If the hero ends up going to the prom with his crush, the next big question can be: Will they kiss at the last dance?

This continues building on the tension and increasing the stakes evermore.

Check out the suspenseful story from YouTuber, MissRemiAshten . The way she tells the story, we discover more and about her psycho neighbor and the incident gradually. A little bit of information about the neighbor is revealed at a time… not all at once.

Include a Cliffhanger

We’ve all had those moments at the end of an intense television show where we are shouting at the screen because it suddenly cut to black as the main characters were left in a precarious position. That emotional outburst is brought to us by a good cliffhanger, and a good cliffhanger can assure us that the audience will return for more.

But there needs to be more! A cliffhanger is a promise to the viewer that eventually they will be rewarded for their patience and it will be satisfying.

In this cliffhanger from Casey Neistat, he simply asks us a question, “Was that good?” This calls upon us to recall all the awesome YouTube videos we have seen created by filmmakers that aren’t considered “prestigious.” A cliffhanger does not have to end with an epic reveal; it can wrap up with loose ends and allow the audience to tie it up themselves.

How to Deliver a Good Cliffhanger

Applying good cliffhangers to your YouTube videos is a balancing act. You want to draw your audience in, but you also need to have a payoff that is worth the wait.

Done well, a cliffhanger will leave your audience wanting more. Done poorly, a cliffhanger will leave your audience feeling to mislead and a little ripped off, hesitant to listen to more stories from you.

A good cliffhanger does not have to be life or death, but it does have to be the moment the story has been leading up to.

Before you start telling your story, consider the key details that are most impactful.

Once you have the points you want to hit, plan out the reveal. Weave the story together, but withhold the pivotal details until the cliffhanger. Thendeliver it on camera confidently .

Here are two ways you can present your cliffhanger for amplified effect:

1. Slow Down and Have Pauses

As your story intensifies, bring the pace down — or stop completely. The silence becomes the cliffhanger. It can last a second or more, depending on how confident you are in the tension you have built.

Your next words or shots can be the reveal. If you are skilled enough, you can lead into another story one that connects to the previous. If you are trying this, make sure that in the end, the payoff has double the impact. The reveal needs to be twice as powerful if you are going to take the audience on another journey before wrapping up and answering the long-awaited questions.

2. Use Repetition

Whether you want to misdirect your audience or hammer home a point, using repetition throughout your story will help you build the tension you need to establish the cliffhanger.

In this example, we see YouTuber, A little bit of Monika uses both pace and repetition in her storytelling method.

The video starts off at a speedy pace, all the way until the last scene where the confrontation occurs. That’s her slowing down the story so that we are all anticipating the reveal. Is she or is she not actor, Saoirse Ronan?

Through this short video, the repetition of the name is used to show her confidence that her roommate is not who she said it is. The more affirming she becomes, the more likely we as the viewers are going to side with her. This is a simple example of misdirection.

The more you say something or show something, the more important it becomes for the audience — at least, you want it to appear important.

2. Use Empathy

A storyteller must be empathetic.

If your audience cannot empathize with what you are communicating, it would not have the intended effect. Storytelling is all about taking people out of their bodies and putting them in someone else’s.

If you are telling a story about the time your car broke down, you want people to empathize and feel the helplessness of being stuck on a highway, waving cars down to help.

Empathy makes people feel more human. Telling a story people can relate to, even if it didn’t happen to them, is a sign of a quality storyteller.

Don’t Use Too Many Facts and Figures

If you began your story by saying that 1/1,000 cars on the highway break down, that doesn’t evoke any major emotion. There is nothing human about it.

It’s an interesting stat, sure, but the audience is unsure how they should respond. Is that a lot? Is that because of the highway? Is it because of the drivers? Nobody knows… it’s numbered with no context.

However, if you told the story about that time you had to abandon your vehicle and walk down the highway in order to make your important appointment. Suddenly, the audience can empathize with the tribulations you have gone through.

Facts and figures are useful in reports, but not as much in compelling stories.

Evoke the Senses

If I talk about hot melting chocolate, standing in the rain, or the smell of your grandmother’s bedroom, your senses are activated. From all your life experiences, your brain is able to form familiar sensations without any physical changes to your surrounding. That’s the power of storytelling.

Good storytellers use these sensory details and descriptive imagery to spice up a story. This draws the audience in and gives them a more immersive experience when listening to your stories.

Ask yourself these questions:

- What does it smell like?

- What can you hear?

- What do you see?

- What can you physically feel?

This example from YouTuber, Kiril Dobrev perfectly exemplifies what sensory igniting storytelling can do. He illustrates the sensation of being in Hong Kong, not simply through visuals but physical motions and audio effects.

Use Metaphors

As a YouTube storyteller, sometimes you will have to communicate complex ideas. When that happens, use a metaphor to increase the impact.

If you are telling a story about how much you dislike your teacher, you can list off all the ways she is unlikable or you can sum it up with a line like this: “My teacher makes the school a prison.”

That is a metaphor comparing school to prison. Most people haven’t been to prison, but understand what the metaphor is insinuating. School is not a fun place to be because of that teacher.

By connecting two different things, you allow the audience to paint the image in their mind quickly. It doesn’t take a lot of words to create a memorable metaphor. I encourage you to use metaphors anytime you need to address something complicated.

3. Take the Audience on a Meaningful Journey

Perhaps the most important element of a good story is that the journey is meaningful.

- Is it educational?

- Is it entertaining?

- Is it motivational or inspiring?

Knowing how you want to leave your audience feeling is foresight that will improve your YouTube storytelling abilities. Before you start telling your tale, ask: How do I want to change my audience?

YouTuber, Jamie Windsor tells a few stories connected to creativity and plagiarism. Anyone who has ever created anything can relate to his story and thus his audience can empathize.

It is also clear as a viewer that at the end of this 15-minute long video, his audience will have gone on a meaningful journey with him.

His story is a cautionary tale. He wants to educate us so that we can avoid making the same mistakes he did. He used his real-life experience to teach us and that makes it a meaningful video to watch. That was a good story.

Are there any YouTubers that you consider to be fantastic storytellers? Please share it in the comments box below.

Select a Versatile Video Editing Software to Stand Up from Numerous YouTubers

Users worldwide highly recommend Filmora because it comes loaded with various features, which helps to discover the editing skills, add an image to the imagination, and empower creativity.

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett

Oct 26, 2023• Proven solutions

0

In the distracting world, we live in, you need to be a good storyteller to grow your YouTube channel. Your audience is not going to stick around to watch your whole video if your content isn’t enticing or relatable. If you want to get people to watch all your videos, you need to get them emotionally invested with your stories.

Here are 3 methods for creating an awesome story:

• Method 1: CREATE SUSPENSE
• Method 2: USE EMPATHY
• Method 3: TAKE THE AUDIENCE ON A MEANINGFUL JOURNEY

1. Create Suspense

The hero has an objective, but the plan might fail.

The likelihood of something going wrong is what makes a story suspenseful. When you tell a suspenseful story, your audience will have a heightened focus and a strong motivation to continue listening. They want to know if the hero succeeds. Keep the audience waiting and expecting. Don’t give away the ending right away.

What Does a Suspenseful Story Sound Like?

When we talk about a story that is dragging on, it is because there is no suspense. There is nothing at stake, there are no obstacles, there is no problem and, with no problem, there is no promise of resolution.

Here are a few examples you can use to pump more suspense into your story:

- Address a fear (example: being alone for the prom)

- An objective (example: asking the crush out to the dance)

- Consequences of failing (example: being embarrassed in front of the whole school)

- Limited time (example: prom is next week)

- Obstacles (example: the crush has an aggressive ex.)

You can feel your heart rate speeding up simply thinking about the character’s story in the example. Does it have a happy ending or not? We want to know!

Raise Questions After Questions

A good storyteller knows that as soon as they answer a question for their audience, they need to present another one. The audience will always need to have a puzzle in their mind, one that needs to be solved. That is what will keep their interest.

For example: If the hero ends up going to the prom with his crush, the next big question can be: Will they kiss at the last dance?

This continues building on the tension and increasing the stakes evermore.

Check out the suspenseful story from YouTuber, MissRemiAshten . The way she tells the story, we discover more and about her psycho neighbor and the incident gradually. A little bit of information about the neighbor is revealed at a time… not all at once.

Include a Cliffhanger

We’ve all had those moments at the end of an intense television show where we are shouting at the screen because it suddenly cut to black as the main characters were left in a precarious position. That emotional outburst is brought to us by a good cliffhanger, and a good cliffhanger can assure us that the audience will return for more.

But there needs to be more! A cliffhanger is a promise to the viewer that eventually they will be rewarded for their patience and it will be satisfying.

In this cliffhanger from Casey Neistat, he simply asks us a question, “Was that good?” This calls upon us to recall all the awesome YouTube videos we have seen created by filmmakers that aren’t considered “prestigious.” A cliffhanger does not have to end with an epic reveal; it can wrap up with loose ends and allow the audience to tie it up themselves.

How to Deliver a Good Cliffhanger

Applying good cliffhangers to your YouTube videos is a balancing act. You want to draw your audience in, but you also need to have a payoff that is worth the wait.

Done well, a cliffhanger will leave your audience wanting more. Done poorly, a cliffhanger will leave your audience feeling to mislead and a little ripped off, hesitant to listen to more stories from you.

A good cliffhanger does not have to be life or death, but it does have to be the moment the story has been leading up to.

Before you start telling your story, consider the key details that are most impactful.

Once you have the points you want to hit, plan out the reveal. Weave the story together, but withhold the pivotal details until the cliffhanger. Thendeliver it on camera confidently .

Here are two ways you can present your cliffhanger for amplified effect:

1. Slow Down and Have Pauses

As your story intensifies, bring the pace down — or stop completely. The silence becomes the cliffhanger. It can last a second or more, depending on how confident you are in the tension you have built.

Your next words or shots can be the reveal. If you are skilled enough, you can lead into another story one that connects to the previous. If you are trying this, make sure that in the end, the payoff has double the impact. The reveal needs to be twice as powerful if you are going to take the audience on another journey before wrapping up and answering the long-awaited questions.

2. Use Repetition

Whether you want to misdirect your audience or hammer home a point, using repetition throughout your story will help you build the tension you need to establish the cliffhanger.

In this example, we see YouTuber, A little bit of Monika uses both pace and repetition in her storytelling method.

The video starts off at a speedy pace, all the way until the last scene where the confrontation occurs. That’s her slowing down the story so that we are all anticipating the reveal. Is she or is she not actor, Saoirse Ronan?

Through this short video, the repetition of the name is used to show her confidence that her roommate is not who she said it is. The more affirming she becomes, the more likely we as the viewers are going to side with her. This is a simple example of misdirection.

The more you say something or show something, the more important it becomes for the audience — at least, you want it to appear important.

2. Use Empathy

A storyteller must be empathetic.

If your audience cannot empathize with what you are communicating, it would not have the intended effect. Storytelling is all about taking people out of their bodies and putting them in someone else’s.

If you are telling a story about the time your car broke down, you want people to empathize and feel the helplessness of being stuck on a highway, waving cars down to help.

Empathy makes people feel more human. Telling a story people can relate to, even if it didn’t happen to them, is a sign of a quality storyteller.

Don’t Use Too Many Facts and Figures

If you began your story by saying that 1/1,000 cars on the highway break down, that doesn’t evoke any major emotion. There is nothing human about it.

It’s an interesting stat, sure, but the audience is unsure how they should respond. Is that a lot? Is that because of the highway? Is it because of the drivers? Nobody knows… it’s numbered with no context.

However, if you told the story about that time you had to abandon your vehicle and walk down the highway in order to make your important appointment. Suddenly, the audience can empathize with the tribulations you have gone through.

Facts and figures are useful in reports, but not as much in compelling stories.

Evoke the Senses

If I talk about hot melting chocolate, standing in the rain, or the smell of your grandmother’s bedroom, your senses are activated. From all your life experiences, your brain is able to form familiar sensations without any physical changes to your surrounding. That’s the power of storytelling.

Good storytellers use these sensory details and descriptive imagery to spice up a story. This draws the audience in and gives them a more immersive experience when listening to your stories.

Ask yourself these questions:

- What does it smell like?

- What can you hear?

- What do you see?

- What can you physically feel?

This example from YouTuber, Kiril Dobrev perfectly exemplifies what sensory igniting storytelling can do. He illustrates the sensation of being in Hong Kong, not simply through visuals but physical motions and audio effects.

Use Metaphors

As a YouTube storyteller, sometimes you will have to communicate complex ideas. When that happens, use a metaphor to increase the impact.

If you are telling a story about how much you dislike your teacher, you can list off all the ways she is unlikable or you can sum it up with a line like this: “My teacher makes the school a prison.”

That is a metaphor comparing school to prison. Most people haven’t been to prison, but understand what the metaphor is insinuating. School is not a fun place to be because of that teacher.

By connecting two different things, you allow the audience to paint the image in their mind quickly. It doesn’t take a lot of words to create a memorable metaphor. I encourage you to use metaphors anytime you need to address something complicated.

3. Take the Audience on a Meaningful Journey

Perhaps the most important element of a good story is that the journey is meaningful.

- Is it educational?

- Is it entertaining?

- Is it motivational or inspiring?

Knowing how you want to leave your audience feeling is foresight that will improve your YouTube storytelling abilities. Before you start telling your tale, ask: How do I want to change my audience?

YouTuber, Jamie Windsor tells a few stories connected to creativity and plagiarism. Anyone who has ever created anything can relate to his story and thus his audience can empathize.

It is also clear as a viewer that at the end of this 15-minute long video, his audience will have gone on a meaningful journey with him.

His story is a cautionary tale. He wants to educate us so that we can avoid making the same mistakes he did. He used his real-life experience to teach us and that makes it a meaningful video to watch. That was a good story.

Are there any YouTubers that you consider to be fantastic storytellers? Please share it in the comments box below.

Select a Versatile Video Editing Software to Stand Up from Numerous YouTubers

Users worldwide highly recommend Filmora because it comes loaded with various features, which helps to discover the editing skills, add an image to the imagination, and empower creativity.

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett

Oct 26, 2023• Proven solutions

0

In the distracting world, we live in, you need to be a good storyteller to grow your YouTube channel. Your audience is not going to stick around to watch your whole video if your content isn’t enticing or relatable. If you want to get people to watch all your videos, you need to get them emotionally invested with your stories.

Here are 3 methods for creating an awesome story:

• Method 1: CREATE SUSPENSE
• Method 2: USE EMPATHY
• Method 3: TAKE THE AUDIENCE ON A MEANINGFUL JOURNEY

1. Create Suspense

The hero has an objective, but the plan might fail.

The likelihood of something going wrong is what makes a story suspenseful. When you tell a suspenseful story, your audience will have a heightened focus and a strong motivation to continue listening. They want to know if the hero succeeds. Keep the audience waiting and expecting. Don’t give away the ending right away.

What Does a Suspenseful Story Sound Like?

When we talk about a story that is dragging on, it is because there is no suspense. There is nothing at stake, there are no obstacles, there is no problem and, with no problem, there is no promise of resolution.

Here are a few examples you can use to pump more suspense into your story:

- Address a fear (example: being alone for the prom)

- An objective (example: asking the crush out to the dance)

- Consequences of failing (example: being embarrassed in front of the whole school)

- Limited time (example: prom is next week)

- Obstacles (example: the crush has an aggressive ex.)

You can feel your heart rate speeding up simply thinking about the character’s story in the example. Does it have a happy ending or not? We want to know!

Raise Questions After Questions

A good storyteller knows that as soon as they answer a question for their audience, they need to present another one. The audience will always need to have a puzzle in their mind, one that needs to be solved. That is what will keep their interest.

For example: If the hero ends up going to the prom with his crush, the next big question can be: Will they kiss at the last dance?

This continues building on the tension and increasing the stakes evermore.

Check out the suspenseful story from YouTuber, MissRemiAshten . The way she tells the story, we discover more and about her psycho neighbor and the incident gradually. A little bit of information about the neighbor is revealed at a time… not all at once.

Include a Cliffhanger

We’ve all had those moments at the end of an intense television show where we are shouting at the screen because it suddenly cut to black as the main characters were left in a precarious position. That emotional outburst is brought to us by a good cliffhanger, and a good cliffhanger can assure us that the audience will return for more.

But there needs to be more! A cliffhanger is a promise to the viewer that eventually they will be rewarded for their patience and it will be satisfying.

In this cliffhanger from Casey Neistat, he simply asks us a question, “Was that good?” This calls upon us to recall all the awesome YouTube videos we have seen created by filmmakers that aren’t considered “prestigious.” A cliffhanger does not have to end with an epic reveal; it can wrap up with loose ends and allow the audience to tie it up themselves.

How to Deliver a Good Cliffhanger

Applying good cliffhangers to your YouTube videos is a balancing act. You want to draw your audience in, but you also need to have a payoff that is worth the wait.

Done well, a cliffhanger will leave your audience wanting more. Done poorly, a cliffhanger will leave your audience feeling to mislead and a little ripped off, hesitant to listen to more stories from you.

A good cliffhanger does not have to be life or death, but it does have to be the moment the story has been leading up to.

Before you start telling your story, consider the key details that are most impactful.

Once you have the points you want to hit, plan out the reveal. Weave the story together, but withhold the pivotal details until the cliffhanger. Thendeliver it on camera confidently .

Here are two ways you can present your cliffhanger for amplified effect:

1. Slow Down and Have Pauses

As your story intensifies, bring the pace down — or stop completely. The silence becomes the cliffhanger. It can last a second or more, depending on how confident you are in the tension you have built.

Your next words or shots can be the reveal. If you are skilled enough, you can lead into another story one that connects to the previous. If you are trying this, make sure that in the end, the payoff has double the impact. The reveal needs to be twice as powerful if you are going to take the audience on another journey before wrapping up and answering the long-awaited questions.

2. Use Repetition

Whether you want to misdirect your audience or hammer home a point, using repetition throughout your story will help you build the tension you need to establish the cliffhanger.

In this example, we see YouTuber, A little bit of Monika uses both pace and repetition in her storytelling method.

The video starts off at a speedy pace, all the way until the last scene where the confrontation occurs. That’s her slowing down the story so that we are all anticipating the reveal. Is she or is she not actor, Saoirse Ronan?

Through this short video, the repetition of the name is used to show her confidence that her roommate is not who she said it is. The more affirming she becomes, the more likely we as the viewers are going to side with her. This is a simple example of misdirection.

The more you say something or show something, the more important it becomes for the audience — at least, you want it to appear important.

2. Use Empathy

A storyteller must be empathetic.

If your audience cannot empathize with what you are communicating, it would not have the intended effect. Storytelling is all about taking people out of their bodies and putting them in someone else’s.

If you are telling a story about the time your car broke down, you want people to empathize and feel the helplessness of being stuck on a highway, waving cars down to help.

Empathy makes people feel more human. Telling a story people can relate to, even if it didn’t happen to them, is a sign of a quality storyteller.

Don’t Use Too Many Facts and Figures

If you began your story by saying that 1/1,000 cars on the highway break down, that doesn’t evoke any major emotion. There is nothing human about it.

It’s an interesting stat, sure, but the audience is unsure how they should respond. Is that a lot? Is that because of the highway? Is it because of the drivers? Nobody knows… it’s numbered with no context.

However, if you told the story about that time you had to abandon your vehicle and walk down the highway in order to make your important appointment. Suddenly, the audience can empathize with the tribulations you have gone through.

Facts and figures are useful in reports, but not as much in compelling stories.

Evoke the Senses

If I talk about hot melting chocolate, standing in the rain, or the smell of your grandmother’s bedroom, your senses are activated. From all your life experiences, your brain is able to form familiar sensations without any physical changes to your surrounding. That’s the power of storytelling.

Good storytellers use these sensory details and descriptive imagery to spice up a story. This draws the audience in and gives them a more immersive experience when listening to your stories.

Ask yourself these questions:

- What does it smell like?

- What can you hear?

- What do you see?

- What can you physically feel?

This example from YouTuber, Kiril Dobrev perfectly exemplifies what sensory igniting storytelling can do. He illustrates the sensation of being in Hong Kong, not simply through visuals but physical motions and audio effects.

Use Metaphors

As a YouTube storyteller, sometimes you will have to communicate complex ideas. When that happens, use a metaphor to increase the impact.

If you are telling a story about how much you dislike your teacher, you can list off all the ways she is unlikable or you can sum it up with a line like this: “My teacher makes the school a prison.”

That is a metaphor comparing school to prison. Most people haven’t been to prison, but understand what the metaphor is insinuating. School is not a fun place to be because of that teacher.

By connecting two different things, you allow the audience to paint the image in their mind quickly. It doesn’t take a lot of words to create a memorable metaphor. I encourage you to use metaphors anytime you need to address something complicated.

3. Take the Audience on a Meaningful Journey

Perhaps the most important element of a good story is that the journey is meaningful.

- Is it educational?

- Is it entertaining?

- Is it motivational or inspiring?

Knowing how you want to leave your audience feeling is foresight that will improve your YouTube storytelling abilities. Before you start telling your tale, ask: How do I want to change my audience?

YouTuber, Jamie Windsor tells a few stories connected to creativity and plagiarism. Anyone who has ever created anything can relate to his story and thus his audience can empathize.

It is also clear as a viewer that at the end of this 15-minute long video, his audience will have gone on a meaningful journey with him.

His story is a cautionary tale. He wants to educate us so that we can avoid making the same mistakes he did. He used his real-life experience to teach us and that makes it a meaningful video to watch. That was a good story.

Are there any YouTubers that you consider to be fantastic storytellers? Please share it in the comments box below.

Select a Versatile Video Editing Software to Stand Up from Numerous YouTubers

Users worldwide highly recommend Filmora because it comes loaded with various features, which helps to discover the editing skills, add an image to the imagination, and empower creativity.

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett

Oct 26, 2023• Proven solutions

0

In the distracting world, we live in, you need to be a good storyteller to grow your YouTube channel. Your audience is not going to stick around to watch your whole video if your content isn’t enticing or relatable. If you want to get people to watch all your videos, you need to get them emotionally invested with your stories.

Here are 3 methods for creating an awesome story:

• Method 1: CREATE SUSPENSE
• Method 2: USE EMPATHY
• Method 3: TAKE THE AUDIENCE ON A MEANINGFUL JOURNEY

1. Create Suspense

The hero has an objective, but the plan might fail.

The likelihood of something going wrong is what makes a story suspenseful. When you tell a suspenseful story, your audience will have a heightened focus and a strong motivation to continue listening. They want to know if the hero succeeds. Keep the audience waiting and expecting. Don’t give away the ending right away.

What Does a Suspenseful Story Sound Like?

When we talk about a story that is dragging on, it is because there is no suspense. There is nothing at stake, there are no obstacles, there is no problem and, with no problem, there is no promise of resolution.

Here are a few examples you can use to pump more suspense into your story:

- Address a fear (example: being alone for the prom)

- An objective (example: asking the crush out to the dance)

- Consequences of failing (example: being embarrassed in front of the whole school)

- Limited time (example: prom is next week)

- Obstacles (example: the crush has an aggressive ex.)

You can feel your heart rate speeding up simply thinking about the character’s story in the example. Does it have a happy ending or not? We want to know!

Raise Questions After Questions

A good storyteller knows that as soon as they answer a question for their audience, they need to present another one. The audience will always need to have a puzzle in their mind, one that needs to be solved. That is what will keep their interest.

For example: If the hero ends up going to the prom with his crush, the next big question can be: Will they kiss at the last dance?

This continues building on the tension and increasing the stakes evermore.

Check out the suspenseful story from YouTuber, MissRemiAshten . The way she tells the story, we discover more and about her psycho neighbor and the incident gradually. A little bit of information about the neighbor is revealed at a time… not all at once.

Include a Cliffhanger

We’ve all had those moments at the end of an intense television show where we are shouting at the screen because it suddenly cut to black as the main characters were left in a precarious position. That emotional outburst is brought to us by a good cliffhanger, and a good cliffhanger can assure us that the audience will return for more.

But there needs to be more! A cliffhanger is a promise to the viewer that eventually they will be rewarded for their patience and it will be satisfying.

In this cliffhanger from Casey Neistat, he simply asks us a question, “Was that good?” This calls upon us to recall all the awesome YouTube videos we have seen created by filmmakers that aren’t considered “prestigious.” A cliffhanger does not have to end with an epic reveal; it can wrap up with loose ends and allow the audience to tie it up themselves.

How to Deliver a Good Cliffhanger

Applying good cliffhangers to your YouTube videos is a balancing act. You want to draw your audience in, but you also need to have a payoff that is worth the wait.

Done well, a cliffhanger will leave your audience wanting more. Done poorly, a cliffhanger will leave your audience feeling to mislead and a little ripped off, hesitant to listen to more stories from you.

A good cliffhanger does not have to be life or death, but it does have to be the moment the story has been leading up to.

Before you start telling your story, consider the key details that are most impactful.

Once you have the points you want to hit, plan out the reveal. Weave the story together, but withhold the pivotal details until the cliffhanger. Thendeliver it on camera confidently .

Here are two ways you can present your cliffhanger for amplified effect:

1. Slow Down and Have Pauses

As your story intensifies, bring the pace down — or stop completely. The silence becomes the cliffhanger. It can last a second or more, depending on how confident you are in the tension you have built.

Your next words or shots can be the reveal. If you are skilled enough, you can lead into another story one that connects to the previous. If you are trying this, make sure that in the end, the payoff has double the impact. The reveal needs to be twice as powerful if you are going to take the audience on another journey before wrapping up and answering the long-awaited questions.

2. Use Repetition

Whether you want to misdirect your audience or hammer home a point, using repetition throughout your story will help you build the tension you need to establish the cliffhanger.

In this example, we see YouTuber, A little bit of Monika uses both pace and repetition in her storytelling method.

The video starts off at a speedy pace, all the way until the last scene where the confrontation occurs. That’s her slowing down the story so that we are all anticipating the reveal. Is she or is she not actor, Saoirse Ronan?

Through this short video, the repetition of the name is used to show her confidence that her roommate is not who she said it is. The more affirming she becomes, the more likely we as the viewers are going to side with her. This is a simple example of misdirection.

The more you say something or show something, the more important it becomes for the audience — at least, you want it to appear important.

2. Use Empathy

A storyteller must be empathetic.

If your audience cannot empathize with what you are communicating, it would not have the intended effect. Storytelling is all about taking people out of their bodies and putting them in someone else’s.

If you are telling a story about the time your car broke down, you want people to empathize and feel the helplessness of being stuck on a highway, waving cars down to help.

Empathy makes people feel more human. Telling a story people can relate to, even if it didn’t happen to them, is a sign of a quality storyteller.

Don’t Use Too Many Facts and Figures

If you began your story by saying that 1/1,000 cars on the highway break down, that doesn’t evoke any major emotion. There is nothing human about it.

It’s an interesting stat, sure, but the audience is unsure how they should respond. Is that a lot? Is that because of the highway? Is it because of the drivers? Nobody knows… it’s numbered with no context.

However, if you told the story about that time you had to abandon your vehicle and walk down the highway in order to make your important appointment. Suddenly, the audience can empathize with the tribulations you have gone through.

Facts and figures are useful in reports, but not as much in compelling stories.

Evoke the Senses

If I talk about hot melting chocolate, standing in the rain, or the smell of your grandmother’s bedroom, your senses are activated. From all your life experiences, your brain is able to form familiar sensations without any physical changes to your surrounding. That’s the power of storytelling.

Good storytellers use these sensory details and descriptive imagery to spice up a story. This draws the audience in and gives them a more immersive experience when listening to your stories.

Ask yourself these questions:

- What does it smell like?

- What can you hear?

- What do you see?

- What can you physically feel?

This example from YouTuber, Kiril Dobrev perfectly exemplifies what sensory igniting storytelling can do. He illustrates the sensation of being in Hong Kong, not simply through visuals but physical motions and audio effects.

Use Metaphors

As a YouTube storyteller, sometimes you will have to communicate complex ideas. When that happens, use a metaphor to increase the impact.

If you are telling a story about how much you dislike your teacher, you can list off all the ways she is unlikable or you can sum it up with a line like this: “My teacher makes the school a prison.”

That is a metaphor comparing school to prison. Most people haven’t been to prison, but understand what the metaphor is insinuating. School is not a fun place to be because of that teacher.

By connecting two different things, you allow the audience to paint the image in their mind quickly. It doesn’t take a lot of words to create a memorable metaphor. I encourage you to use metaphors anytime you need to address something complicated.

3. Take the Audience on a Meaningful Journey

Perhaps the most important element of a good story is that the journey is meaningful.

- Is it educational?

- Is it entertaining?

- Is it motivational or inspiring?

Knowing how you want to leave your audience feeling is foresight that will improve your YouTube storytelling abilities. Before you start telling your tale, ask: How do I want to change my audience?

YouTuber, Jamie Windsor tells a few stories connected to creativity and plagiarism. Anyone who has ever created anything can relate to his story and thus his audience can empathize.

It is also clear as a viewer that at the end of this 15-minute long video, his audience will have gone on a meaningful journey with him.

His story is a cautionary tale. He wants to educate us so that we can avoid making the same mistakes he did. He used his real-life experience to teach us and that makes it a meaningful video to watch. That was a good story.

Are there any YouTubers that you consider to be fantastic storytellers? Please share it in the comments box below.

Select a Versatile Video Editing Software to Stand Up from Numerous YouTubers

Users worldwide highly recommend Filmora because it comes loaded with various features, which helps to discover the editing skills, add an image to the imagination, and empower creativity.

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

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