Creator’s Life: YouTube Shorts Not Flexible
Being a product coach has thrust me into the world of a Creator. To build and monetize my business, I have to leaverage Creator tools. I need to post stories and videos. I need to create courses and relentlessly promote myself. Doing this as a product manager means that everytime I run into a problem, I can’t help but deconstruct the product. I speculate (1) why did they make this decision and (2) how can they improve it.
I have just begun to post on TikTok and YouTube. I feel I have no choice. People who know less than I do in my field are better known because they can be found on these channels. And so, I have forced myself to experiment.
This is week one with YouTube Shorts, and here is what I have discovered:
YouTube is struggling to deliniate between Shorts and YouTube proper.
YouTube is making some prioritization decisions I would question on Shorts, but I need to learn more.
The limits I have encountered:
Control of Landing Page I can’t edit my cover image on Shorts. I will learn work arounds, but it is a real pain point for me. From one video to the next, the content isn’t that different visually. I am posting education drills. I have no control on what they users see when they land on my page so it is visually difficult for them to distinguish one video from another.
No Single Landing Page It seems that when people follow me they follow YouTube but maybe not Shorts. When I go to my YouTube home page it only lists videos, not Shorts. Which I hate. I am using Shorts in case TikTok doesn’t make it. It could be a real advanatage if YouTube let me have a landing page for ALL content.
One 60 Seconds and NO Warning YouTube will not let me post a Short that is 61 or more seconds long. It turns it into a video rather than a Short automatically. I only realized what was going on when the short showed up on my home page… or so I though. YouTube turns it into a video without telling me. I have not control, I can’t tell YouTube this is meant to be a Short. If TikTok gets regulated out of being, YouTube is NOT prepared. From a strategy POV, this seems crazy to me. I was ready to drive my users to Shorts and not experiment as much with TIkTok, instead, the lack of features is driving me to TikTok!!
