# The Case for YouTube as a Social Media Channel

- Link: https://chatterblast.com/blog/the-case-for-youtube-as-a-social-media-channel/
- Published: 2019-09-20T18:08:44-04:00
- Author: Stephen Tornetta

Over the last month, our team conducted a variety of interviews to find our latest
group of interns. During these interviews, we often ask candidates what their favorite
social media platform is and why. Lately, several have responded with [**YouTube**](https://chatterblast.com/is-a-new-youtube-on-the-horizon/),
and I can’t lie: It surprised me.

If you’re like me, you don’t think about YouTube as a _purely_ social network in
the same way we think about **Facebook** and **Instagram**, mostly because it functions
differently than other platforms. There isn’t a homepage, you don’t really have 
networks of friends, and text doesn’t play a big role—only video. People view it
more as a place where video content is stored and created, but not shared laterally
from person to person.

When I started thinking about it, though, I realized that YouTube really _is_ a 
social media platform, and we should consider that as we interface with it. Here’s
why YouTube is more than just a place to watch fun cat videos and instead a place
for us to expand our brands and get more social. 

## **YouTube is inherently social**

Watching someone else’s video is a social action, even if you’re doing it alone 
on your couch. After all, you’re sharing another person’s human experience—even 
if that person is a YouTuber with a massive amount of followers and subscribers.(
At this point, you can mention a “famous” YouTuber with millions of subscribers—
shoutout to **[Jenna Marbles](https://www.youtube.com/user/JennaMarbles)** and her
100 coats of nail polish challenge—and chances are good that the person you’re talking
to hasn’t even heard of them. The YouTube social world is _that_ large!)

This is the point: Different people subscribe to different YouTubers, and then they
tell their friends about the fun things they watch. They share videos personally
or through other social media networks like Facebook. The videos trickle into pop
culture, and then we’re all standing around the water coolers at work talking about
them. 

You see that pattern? These are all examples of social networking. Creating content
that inspires this type of sharing is what helps YouTubers grow their audiences.

## **There’s tons of room for audience growth**

_Reminder__:_ There are [7.7 billion humans ](https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/)
on the planet. A person with a hefty 3 million followers is still only speaking 
to minuscule part of the that total human audience—not taking into account the inequities
of internet access and demographics, obviously—which means that there is still a
lot of room for expansion. 

[[

##### _Really makes u think._

This is why brands should think about YouTube as part of their marketing and advertising
plans. Creators on YouTube have influence over their followers, and they have power
to promote products through sponsorships and endorsements. Brands should think about
pairing up with likeminded creators to produce video content both for their own 
channels and for their target audiences. (Easier said than done, I know.)

## **But, there are still barriers to entry**

One caveat to YouTube—and perhaps the biggest reason why we don’t associate it with
other social media networks—is that for creators, the platform comes with a higher
barrier to entry. Unless you possess the skills and resources needed to produce 
video content on your own, you’re pretty limited with what you can do on YouTube.

Plus, even if you are the **Steven Spielberg** of self-produced videos, you still
have to _constantly_ produce sophisticated content—i.e. professional quality videos—
to gain serious traction. Maintaining a consistent schedule of video content can
be a very heavy lift, especially when it comes to editing, equipment, and simple
subject matter. Then, you have to get people to watch and share your videos on a
platform that doesn’t let you share content natively within the app or on the website.
You need to create a true following, which is much harder than it seems.

Of course, the great thing about YouTube is that you don’t _need_ to be a Spielberg—
or anywhere close to that level. You can make videos with a cheap tripod and an 
iPhone, and you can learn how to edit them from a tutorial on, well, YouTube.

So get creating, people, and don’t forget to give YouTube the credit it deserve 
as a true social network.