Last updated on June 5th, 2024
On the Tube Labs Podcast with Rosh Sillars, we talked about our study with TubeBuddy “Harnessing the Power of YOU in YouTube,” where we found that saying “You” in the first few seconds of a YouTube video can get you more views, and why this happens.
TRANSCRIPT
Welcome YouTube creators to the Tube Labs Podcast because you can’t experiment enough or talk too much YouTube.
Rosh Sillars:
I would like to welcome Dane Golden to the Tube Labs Podcast. He is a video marketing specialist. He helps companies, businesses with YouTube and we have a fun topic today because we’re going to talk about you. Dane, welcome to the show and tell us a little bit more about yourself.
Dane Golden:
Hello Rosh. It’s so good to see you.
Rosh Sillars:
Good to have you here.
Dane Golden:
We have a company called VidAction, VidAction.tv and we’ve just changed the name from VidAction.tv after many years, which is how people may know us. And we simply help businesses do YouTube better, using largely a helpful how-to video technique. We don’t produce videos generally, but we do work with the companies that are all ready doing helpful how-to videos and just want to find the right topics, right strategy, right approach to how to do the videos, and then bring in customers that are searching for what they’re talking about and say, “Hey, these are the type of companies we want to work with.”
Rosh Sillars:
Excellent. And you’ve been doing this for quite a while, haven’t you?
Dane Golden:
In YouTube years, yes, quite a while.
Rosh Sillars:
Yes, in YouTube years.
Dane Golden:
In real years. Not quite so long.
Rosh Sillars:
Okay. All right, that’s fair. So we were talking about a good topic, something that I’ve actually seen you talk about in the past and it’s a helpful topic. It’s the topic of the word, you. Using the word you. And I know there are many different ways to go about this in terms of your videos, why you might want to acknowledge the viewer, “Hey, there’s something you could do.” I just kind of want to leave this in your hands. What are some of the things you’d recommend? How do you approach this topic of making sure you’re using the word, you, as part of your strategy?
Dane Golden:
Right. Well, I’ll tell you how this started.
Rosh Sillars:
Sure.
Dane Golden:
In working with businesses and analyzing a lot of business channels, and you could call them business creators if you like. But on YouTube, a lot of companies are still doing what they’ve been doing forever on TV or in corporate videos. And some of that is there’s two main faults I have with this approach. And one of those is they’re mostly talking about themselves, instead of about what the viewer wants to know and how to solve their problems. And I think of the viewer as a single person, not an audience.
Dane Golden:
And the second thing is that when they’re doing this talking about themselves, sometimes they have interviewers who are asking them questions. We’ve all seen videos where someone, much like they do on ESPN or Ken Burns videos, they look off an angle, not directly at the camera, right?
Rosh Sillars:
Right, yeah.
Dane Golden:
Well, and that’s all fine and good on television and I love watching ESPN and I love watching these types of Ken Burns videos for hours and hours. But when I’m on YouTube, I want to know how someone’s going to help me right away. And I noticed in helping companies with their videos anecdotally, meaning just video by video, I could see that videos that looked at the camera and often said the word you or some version like that, or addressed the viewer directly, right at the beginning, those tended to do better, but I couldn’t prove it. I couldn’t come up with numbers. And as we know, businesses want numbers to prove something.
Rosh Sillars:
Absolutely. Yeah.
Dane Golden:
So I worked with Phil Starkovich at TubeBuddy, and we looked at 30,000 videos across more than 50 different factors and variations of the word you, in the first 30 seconds of a video. Okay?
Rosh Sillars:
Okay. Okay.
Dane Golden:
And the reason we looked at the word you is because what I realized is that you couldn’t say the word you as a on-camera person, and not be looking at the camera. It just doesn’t make sense.
Rosh Sillars:
Oh okay. Yeah, that makes… Yeah.
Dane Golden:
So, it was a proxy. So we said, “Okay well, that’s something we can track. I don’t have any AI at my disposal. I can’t find out where people are looking in their video. But if they say the word you, that’s something we can measure because we can look at transcripts.” Right?
Rosh Sillars:
Right, right.
Dane Golden:
We can look at captions. So I wanted to prove that you could do better in YouTube if you said the word you. And in these 30,000 videos, we found that the videos that said you in the first 5 seconds, 10 seconds, 30 seconds did better. They got more views.
Rosh Sillars:
Oh wow. Okay.
Dane Golden:
Simply put, so if you want more views and you just want to do one thing, that on average is going to help your videos do better, say the word you as soon as possible. Now I want to give you some numbers on this-
Rosh Sillars:
Sure.
Dane Golden:
Do you have a question Rosh? Go ahead.
Rosh Sillars:
Yeah, I do. It’s something I want to dig into a little bit further, but I want you to share your numbers first.
Dane Golden:
Okay. So the shortest numbers and the easiest numbers to say is if you say the word you, we did this a median, not an average, but a median, meaning the center number. If you said the word you, of 30,000 videos, if you said the word you in the first five seconds, just once, the videos did 66% better in views. So that means if you’ve got 100,000 views, you’d get 166,000 views. And if you’re counting on that for dollars, if you made $100 now, you’d make $166 if that click through works out in the same way.
Rosh Sillars:
Sure, sure.
Dane Golden:
If you said the word you twice in the first five seconds, you would get 97% more views.
Rosh Sillars:
Wow. Now those are real numbers. I mean, especially I think when you say it twice, I mean, that’s something you can really say, “Okay. Once, was it really the real factor?” But maybe there’s something else in there, but I would think if you say that twice, now you’re showing some real progression here.
Dane Golden:
We have charts and you can go to VidAction.tv and look in the harnessing the value of you in YouTube. But what do I mean by saying the word twice? People say, “How are you going to say the word you twice in five seconds?”
Rosh Sillars:
Sure.
Dane Golden:
Well, we cheated sort of, not really. And we added every word that was a variation of you, like your, you’ll, Y-O-U apostrophe R-E, yourself, yourselves. We said basically anytime you say that word, you’re really talking to the person using the word you somewhere in there. We even tracked the word y’all.
Rosh Sillars:
And how’d that go?
Dane Golden:
I tracked them all as one thing. I didn’t really worry too much, which one that they were using. But if you think about it, I could say in the first five seconds I’m going to say, “Today I’m going to show you how to fix your car. Today I’m going to show you how to make yourself happier. Today I’m going to show you how you will win at blackjack.” That’s actually three. “Show you how you will win at blackjack.” That’s three.
Rosh Sillars:
Any data on the three?
Dane Golden:
Well, I don’t think it did any better generally with three. It was really hard to say that-
Rosh Sillars:
Diminishing returns once you got past number two.
Dane Golden:
I think it was just really hard to find videos that said it that often.
Rosh Sillars:
That’s true. That’s very true.
Dane Golden:
So I tracked the first five seconds, the next five seconds, so six to 10 seconds, and 11 to 30 seconds. And the videos that did best were the ones that said you in each one of those areas. So you said once in the first five, once in the second five and once in the next 20.
Rosh Sillars:
Okay. Very good. Very good.
Rosh Sillars:
There’s one thing that I’ve thought about because I certainly have seen, and of course, I’ve actually watched some of your work related to this topic and even tested it out a little bit through the years. There’s one thing though that I think about. The difference between somebody who doesn’t know you, you specialize maybe in search for a business. Someone wants a solution to their problem and they use YouTube to find the answer and hopefully your client’s answer is that answer.
Rosh Sillars:
Down the road, is there a point at which, yes I care about me, but I’m really interested in you and your opinion. In other words, the personalities opinion. What’s their opinion on this topic? And if they say, My opinion or my idea or my…” Is there a point in which there’s a tipping point? I know you probably don’t have data specifically on this, I’m just asking for your opinion. Have you seen anything where maybe clients get to a certain level that sometimes, not all the time, but once in a while it’s important to say me or my to pull people in for specific reasons?
Dane Golden:
Yeah, and you’re right, we didn’t test those words, and I think that would be interesting. It just took us so long to test this other thing.
Rosh Sillars:
Sure, sure, sure.
Dane Golden:
But I think that what’s the point of saying you. I mean clearly if you just said, “You, you, you, you.” That’s not going to get people to watch. It has to be in context and have value. But the point of saying the word you, it’s a proxy. I can’t know that you Rosh are watching this particular video unless it’s alive video. So it’s a proxy for your name, which is your favorite word. It’s everyone’s favorite word.
Dane Golden:
And if you can show as a YouTube creator or brand that you have the best interests of the viewer at heart and that it’s designed to help them, you do that by saying the word you, and then you can go on and tell them what you need to tell them.
Rosh Sillars:
Now, that’s a good point. And obviously very important I would think that most people starting off in YouTube would probably want to take that approach versus making it all about me and my opinion until they have an audience. But I do wonder about that once in a while, because some of the people that I’ll follow, if I hear about something or there’s a thought, I want to know their opinion and I just kind of had that in my head.
Rosh Sillars:
I think something also that’s really important, especially when dealing with business that you were talking about is that one, when you have the client say the word you, again, you can’t look off in the distance. You got to engage that camera in some way like somebody is there and I think that would be very helpful.
Dane Golden:
I would go even further.
Rosh Sillars:
Sure.
Dane Golden:
I would go even further and tell businesses that if you can’t look into the camera, don’t do any YouTube videos.
Rosh Sillars:
Good point.
Dane Golden:
I think it’s that important because each video, and you know this and you’ve attended all the conferences. If each video is not adding value, it’s taking away value from your channel. It’s either increasing the ranking or lowering the ranking. And every poor video, and I mean poor, I don’t mean costs little. I mean it just does not resonate with the viewer. That actually lowers your video GPA. Right?
Rosh Sillars:
Yeah, right.
Dane Golden:
And so don’t do it. Don’t do it. And there are ways… There’s not expensive ways. I’ve interviewed these guys on my podcast, there are ways and tools of getting very unprepared people to look directly in the camera. So one of these, and not sponsored, I just found these guys and liked them.
Rosh Sillars:
Sure, sure.
Dane Golden:
It’s called the Eye Direct. If you’re a pro and you have a real nice camera and you have a whole kit and everything, either buy one of these things or rent them. There are about $1,000. And what it is, it’s a sideways Periscope. And basically the person is both looking at the camera and looking at the interviewer at the same time. It’s totally natural. But if you’re a hacker, you can totally do this with just $150… What’s the thing where you read? The teleprompter.
Rosh Sillars:
Teleprompter. Yeah.
Dane Golden:
So instead of doing that, you put the teleprompter in there, and then just be on a phone right next to it doing a FaceTime call to that little a iPad. They can see your face, and instead you’re just talking to the FaceTime.
Rosh Sillars:
Okay. Interesting.
Dane Golden:
And that’s what gets you to look directly at the camera. We have these subtle tips that we look for, these body language cues. And if you’re not looking directly at the customer, they think you don’t care about them. I mean, what if you had a salesperson and you were selling vacuum cleaners or whatever, and you said, “I’m want to sell you 100 vacuum cleaners for your hotel.” And you walked into their office and you looked over their shoulder, how many sales do you think you’re going to get? Does that make any sense? Did what I say make any sense? Let me explain then if people didn’t get it.
Dane Golden:
The idea is that your video is your number one salesperson. Look at your customer.
Rosh Sillars:
Absolutely.
Rosh Sillars:
What are some other things that you would recommend for say even a business or even somebody who’s just starting to dabble in YouTube, how they would approach… Maybe some thoughts on how they would approach just engaging with the camera. Because obviously we’ve established this is really important because there is somebody on the other side there. What are some things you might recommend that would be helpful?
Dane Golden:
Well, you mean getting comfortable with the camera type of thing?
Rosh Sillars:
Yeah, yeah. Because a big part of this I think is really you’re making a very strong point that you need to not only be comfortable, but you have to make the person on the other side of that camera comfortable too and engage with you. And so as you work with businesses, are there some things that you’ve done with people who are not used to being in front of the camera that have helped them out?
Dane Golden:
Well, here’s some techniques that I recommend.
Rosh Sillars:
Sure.
Dane Golden:
One, you’re not permitted to be self-critical until you’ve done it 20 times. You’re just not permitted. You just have to keep doing 20 different videos. But one of the other ways of getting comfortable that I’ve done over in the past, is I just had like a live podcast that people didn’t really know about. I just had it every night. At that time, I had it on something called Ustream, which is an old streaming tool.
Rosh Sillars:
Yeah, I remember that well.
Dane Golden:
I would just have it on and I would just talk to the camera and there was a small group, and you can do this today, tonight with your Facebook friends. You can be at home and just go live and talk to any of your friends who happen to be there and you just sort of get comfortable. It’s easier than the higher production stuff and you just get comfortable knowing that there’s a camera there. Then you have to listen back to it, which is the hardest part. And it’s actually a lot harder than talking because you realize you say, “Um, uh,” a lot and that you don’t look at the camera, and your eyes are going all over the place. Or maybe if you’re someone who really wants to look good, you didn’t look good as you had hoped. And you say, “Oh, you know what, I need to clean my glasses or put on some lipstick or comb my hair,” or whatever your thing is.
Rosh Sillars:
Comb what? I don’t know you’re talking about.
Dane Golden:
Yes. You and I don’t have any hair.
Rosh Sillars:
Let’s swing back around. We’ve talked about saying you in the video. Did you make any note in terms of using the word you say in titles, or even in descriptions, or anything related to other thumbnails? Because obviously those are hot topics these days. Have you any experience in that realm?
Dane Golden:
I think that sometimes the word you or variations of it can be helpful in titles, but we didn’t test it. I think sometimes shorter titles, more succinct can be better. But we did do a little bit of research. I’m not a copywriting expert, but I did find some classic ads that use the word you over the years. For instance, just some examples over the years that we found. Volvo, an old ad, “You could be driving one years before unloading it.” McDonald’s, “You deserve a break today.” Uncle Sam, “I want you to join the US Army.” Travelers Insurance, “Your life insurance should be too.” Whatever that meant. It’s just an ad… Oh, you’re unique, that’s what it said. It said it twice, “You’re unique, your life insurance should be too.” Infomercials say you, Dollar Shave Club says you right in the first sentence, all those things. Squatty Potty.
Rosh Sillars:
Yeah, now you’re making a good point in terms of the power of the word you, obviously the most important person in the world. And to use that as part of your strategy in a real, genuine way of course. And to get that engagement, to build that audience, to build that community, you need to pay attention to them and you make a good point, especially on YouTube, especially on YouTube.
Dane Golden:
Yeah. The you in YouTube is not the subject. It’s the viewer.
Rosh Sillars:
Right.
Dane Golden:
This dovetails into what we believe as a business that most of the time businesses, they do what they do because they want to help people. And businesses have been doing this in, we’ll call it traditional content marketing, which is blogs, and they talk about what people want to know. Suddenly, they get on YouTube and they’re like, “Look at all these bells and whistles and all these great things.” And I’ll tell you as a customer, I really don’t care. I just want to know how you can solve my problem right now. And if you’re talking about yourself, I’m out of here. Talk about me.
Rosh Sillars:
Make this video about me. And there we go to YouTube. That’s right on.
Rosh Sillars:
One thing, I want to just know a little bit more about you. Now that we’re into that, tell us a little bit about more about you and your day to day? What you’re doing as you’re working with clients and working with people with video? I think sometimes we get little nuggets when we hear what people do on the day-to-day basis and help businesses or other YouTubers, obviously depending on the conversation. But what is it that Dane does each day?
Dane Golden:
Well, it varies sometimes more than I’d like, but step one is we practice what we preach. We create videos that help businesses learn what we know because we want to help people. Anytime we help one more person, that’s a good day for us. Another person, that’s a good day for us.
Dane Golden:
When we are helping clients, it really depends on what level and what degree they want help with. So if they want a channel that’s optimized and an overall strategy and tracking numbers and clicks and how the videos are doing on a granular level, we love doing that. But if they just want some training, we’ll do that too. We’ll train them, maybe do a call every week with them. How’s it going? And then that’s done because they want to do it internally.
Dane Golden:
We’ve started an entirely new business with some partners in Singapore. What this business is, it’s called VidTarget.io, and it is a tool for paid ads. So while VidAction focuses on organic growing your channel, the YouTube ads section of our businesses through VidTarget. And what we’ve done is created a tool so that businesses can waste less money on bad views. Because when you do an ad, sometimes your targeting is all over the place. And so what this helps you do is target just the placements on what types of videos, what types of channels or keywords. And that’s for small businesses or in an economy that we’re not really sure if it’s going to go up or down. Let’s save some money and target the right people. And so a lot of my time goes also to marketing that tool and helping us refine it. It’s sort of had a soft launch, but we’re launching it in a larger way over the next few months.
Rosh Sillars:
Well, that sounds exciting. That sounds interesting.
Rosh Sillars:
If somebody is interested in connecting with you, what’s the best way to contact you?
Dane Golden:
If you’re a business, find me on LinkedIn, Dane Golden, D-A-N-E G-O-L-D-E-N. And I always used to say VidAction.tv-
Rosh Sillars:
I know.
Dane Golden:
… but now it’s VidAction.tv.
Rosh Sillars:
Why did you switch over? Because I mean, obviously the branding of VidAction.tv has been so solid through the years. Obviously you had a good reason to switch it over. What was that?
Dane Golden:
Really, we just wanted to focus more on video and the name VidAction.tv is great, but Vidi and Up, we felt is better for our customers and for people finding us. It had greater clarity and it’s a positive message Vidi and Up.
Rosh Sillars:
Awesome. All right, so one last question. If somebody was going to flip that camera on the first time and consider going onto YouTube today, what would be your advice? Your first just couple bits of advice as they begin?
Dane Golden:
Well, know number one, nobody’s going to watch it, first of all. You think it’s going to be a million people watching it? The stakes are very low because it’s a crowded field.
Rosh Sillars:
That’s fair.
Dane Golden:
So until you do it 100 times, you’re not going to get a ton of viewership. So just know the stakes are low and think about things that your customers want to know. If you’re a business or if you want to help people with something else like cooking or whatever, think of the things that you know that other people would like to know and also know that you don’t have to be the only one doing it. If there’s somebody doing something that’s your idea, there’s plenty of room for other voices. Like I said, until you’ve done 100 or so of these, you’re not going to get a lot of watching. These are the types of things that grow over time. These become assets like inventions that your company makes that you can reuse time and time again.
Rosh Sillars:
Right.
Dane Golden:
But the same thing, it also takes a while to figure them out, so it’s a long-tail approach. It takes a while, but that’s good because you’re not ready yet at the beginning, and the most important thing there was the philosopher called Gerta a couple of hundred years ago. He said, “Just begin,” essentially.
Rosh Sillars:
Very good. Dane Golden, thank you so much for taking the time to visit the Tube Labs Podcast. It was a pleasure to have you.
Dane Golden:
Thank you, Rosh. It was great.
Announcer: The Tube Labs Podcast is hosted at thetubeblog.com.