YouTube Social Media

YouTube is a social media platform that influenced drastic changes in the way we watch videos and consume online content ever since its launch. If you have plans on building your own YouTube channel, make sure that your content is worth sharing to the world; however, you can only do so by presenting yourself with quality.Worry not for in this article, we are giving you the basics, plus, YouTube channel content templates and design inspirations to help you get started.

Elements of a Successful YouTube Channel

Whether you want to create a YouTube channel for personal purposes or for business promotions, you must ensure that you have these essential elements to make your YouTube successful.

1. Your branded logo:

If you want to have something that represents the entire look, style, or theme of your channel or your channel’s niche, your branded logo can help you with it because it is an effective way for your viewers to easily identify and distinguish your channel from the rest of your competitors.

2. Have a compelling introduction:

Whether you are going to have a written introduction or a video introduction, make sure it is something that would make your viewers interested. This is why you have to ensure that you will create a compelling introduction that will make them stay and keep watching your content.

3. Include a CTA or a Call-to-Action:

If you want to convince your viewers to do something, make sure that you will include a CTA or a call-to-action wherein they will be encouraged to support you or your business by subscribing to your YouTube channel, watching every single video you have, and liking all these videos.

4. Suggest or offer related videos:

Your YouTube career goals may include keeping your audience hooked to your channel to the point that they will subscribe to your channel, like your videos, and most of all, make them stay for more of your content. Give them a reason to do so by offering them more videos to watch from you.

5. Incorporate background music:

Music will always set the mood and if you will choose boring and inappropriate ones, this will not create an emotional connection between you and your viewers. If you could not afford to use copyright music yet, you can make use of tons of good copyright-free music that you can easily find online.

10+ Famous YouTube Social Media Examples

Apple YouTube Channel Art

The Tonight Show Youtube Channel Art

Steps in the YouTube Channel Art Design Process

When a viewer would visit your channel, the first thing they would notice is the channel art. And with that, we give you simple steps on how to create your own YouTube channel art to make the best out of every viewer’s first impression of you.

1. Know your purpose and your audience:

Before the actual creation process of your channel art, it is imperative that you have already determined specifically what your purpose is and who your audience is. It is through this that you will be able to easily brainstorm ideas and concepts for your channel art. Knowing your goals will help you know exactly what you want to achieve out of your channel art and knowing your audience will help you know whether or not the channel art design you have decided upon is something that will be appealing to them.

2. Decide on your channel art size:

Do take note that you cannot design an effective channel art without setting its proper size which includes the dimensions and the file size. Unfortunately, “one size fits all” do not fit when it comes to the channel art design. But on a good note, Google has given recommendations that you should consider adopting on your channel art:

Recommended file size: 4 MB or smaller
Recommended dimensions:
- The optimal and ideal size is 2560 x 1440 pixels.
- For text and other design elements to get cut off, choose 1546 x 423 pixels.
- The recommended height you can consider should not be less than 423 pixels
- The maximum width you can consider for your channel art is 2560 pixels.

3. Brainstorm channel art design concepts and ideas:

For this step, you have to brainstorm of all the possible ideas and concepts you can think of for your channel art design. Aside from considering your goals and your audience, it is also suggested that you consider the following:

Your brand and your values. It is important that you would incorporate these in your channel art as this is important for your overall branding and identity that helps your viewers to easily identify you and/or your values.
Images in high-resolution. Any design element you include in your channel art, aside from the background you will use, should be of high-quality. Any pixelated or blurred design element ruins your viewers’ first impression of you.
Make sure it represents who you are. Whatever you are planning to incorporate on your channel art, make sure it will effectively represent who you are as an individual or what your business is all about. Anything else will only confuse your viewers.

4: The creation process

This is the step that you have been waiting for—the actual creation process of your channel art. Now that you know what your goals are, who your audience is, what size your channel art will be, and what your design concept is, you are ready for this step. For this step, there are two options you can choose in the manner that you will be creating your channel art:

Designing “from zero”. Designing your channel art “from zero” means that you will be designing the entire channel art from start to finish. You will then need to download design software such as Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator if you haven’t already. This option can be quite tricky especially if you have no idea how to use these design software.
Designing using templates. Compared to the other option, this is easier since you really do not have to start from zero in order to create your channel art. You may download the channel art design templates that we have collected and compiled here in this very article you are reading now.

Tips for Building Your Own YouTube Channel

Determined to finally start your YouTube career or to build a channel for your own business? Do take note of these simple but effective tips to help you so:

1. Determine your goals:

Keep in mind that starting to build a YouTube channel is no joke and requires a lot of work. So before you would even start making one, determine what your goals are for your YouTube. If you do not set your goals beforehand, you will most likely get lost in the middle. Your goals serve as your guide to this journey to ensure you’d really set your goals beforehand.

2. Do not just invest in equipment:

You might get intimidated about starting a YouTube channel because of all the equipment you think you need such as lighting and high-end cameras. Guess what? You should not be bothered at all with your equipment, because chances are, you already have the thing you need the most and that is a smartphone.

3. Invest in video ideas and concepts:

While it is not entirely a bad thing to invest in equipment, there are other matters you need to invest in and that is ideas and concepts of the videos you are to upload in your YouTube channel. Keep in mind everything will boil down to the content you upload.

4. Always engage with your audience

Engaging in YouTube is pretty easy—the comment section! No matter how good your content is but you do not engage with your viewers, then consider your venture a failure because keep in mind that the lifeblood of YouTube is not the videos uploaded in it but the viewers.

Types of YouTube Channel Content

When you open or log-in YouTube, you may encounter some of these famous types or categories of channel content.

Beauty
Comedy/Skit
Cooking
DIY
Fashion
Gaming
Health & Fitness
Learning
Lifestyle
Music and Dance
Pranks/Challenges
Sports
Technology/Gadgets
Travel
Vlogging

Sizes for the Design Elements in Your YouTube Channel

The design elements in a common YouTube channel includes the user’s profile photo or the channel icon, banner or channel art, and the video thumbnail sizes of the videos.

1. Profile photo or Channel Icon: The ideal size for your profile picture or your channel icon in YouTube is 800 x 800 pixels.

2. Banner or Channel Art: The optimal and ideal size of the banner or channel art of your YouTube channel is 2560 x 1440 pixels.

3. Video Thumbnails: The size of your video thumbnail must be as large as possible because this can also be seen as the preview image when it is embedded. The recommended size is 1280 x 720 pixels and keeps the width at a minimum of 640 pixels.

YouTube FAQs

What is YouTube?

YouTube is a social media platform that specializes in video sharing. Like any other social media platform, users can create one’s profile (called a channel), upload videos and photos (recent update), watch other users’ videos, like and dislike videos, and comment on other users’ videos.

What is the purpose of YouTube?

For most individuals, YouTube can be a source of entertainment where they get to watch myriad of videos of their liking. For some, YouTube is a career since they can earn from it through monetization. For established and even start-up business, YouTube can be a way to market their businesses.

Do you want to build your own YouTube channel? Fear not for having read this article, you are already good to go and become the next YouTube sensation!

YouTube Social Media