You Believe the Algorithm Is At Fault, Why Not Us As Well?
Who is really at fault for slim to no views of your content?
Image from Unsplash
I promise you, this is not a guide filled with numbers, stats and other confusing terms and elements. I'd like to discuss what I notice as I upload and question the lack of feedback on my content. Maybe you’ve noticed this too?
Just the other day, I uploaded a YouTube short featuring a digital coloring app I us. It had stunning artwork, and contemporary music playing in the background. Typically, this earns me thousands of views and I’ve only started the coloring channel last month!
I tattled to ChatGPT
The last few uploads generated maybe 5- 50 views and in my opinion, they were perfect: they last 15 seconds, had great music, colorful and hard to skip by.
Feeling forlorn, I consulted ChatGPT.
Yes.
I consulted AI. I don’t have dollars to consult a human marketer from Fiverr right now.
ChatGPT told me something utterly shocking, yet plain common sense. It said,
“Erica, 4 views in 1 hour is not the end of the world. It is not unusual because YouTube tests your video to a tiny segment of audience first, watches how they behave, then decides whether to push it further.”
This is in itself makes sense. I heard the same thing from bonafide content creators who are making it big right now.
Then, ChatGPT said something that irked me: “If viewers don’t instantly feel curious or understand–they swipe, and if they swipe too soon, YouTube stops all distribution of that particular content.”
ChatGPT also said that my videos are very aesthetic, but aesthetic is not good enough if there is no immediate HOOK. My niche is too calm (shouldn’t coloring book channels be calm anyway?)
YouTube shorts are designed for quick hooks of drama and intrigue. It favors fast movement (my digital coloring shorts are FAST but whatevs).
The harsh truth about your content and quick scrollers
Even good content loses if it doesn’t interrupt scrolling.
The average attention span, apparently is two seconds and the algorithm notices this.
I think I’ve done well, shortening my content and keeping it meaningful at the same time.
I’m the gal who enjoys long-form content like novels and YouTube documentary-style videos, so I can handle 15-55 minutes of content. In fact, my very first YouTube content was around 30 minutes and when I was on Podbean, it ran around 30 minutes once per week, which I thought was pretty short and easily manageable.
What I did not bank on was the ever devolving human brain and a little thing called dopamine.
Your era determines your dopamine?
I’m an 80’s baby, but a 90s lady.
During that time, we had books, television, radio, and cool places to hang out.
Around 1996, my father bought a computer and signed up for America Online or AOL.
Even with all of my hobbies and cool things to do, I still had a pretty long attention span. Even as I got older, I went online more, but mainly for emailing, setting up Myspace or listening to music.
The longest I’ve been online in the mid 2000s, was maybe for a Netflix movie or documentary, but offline, I could write a story for hours with soft music playing in the background.
Is this your story too?
Do you remember hanging out at the library or drawing at home without looking at your phone all day?
Wasn’t it lovely?
We can’t miss what we never had, but now that we have social media and we can basically conduct all business via the phone– why leave it?
We can’t. We can't see ourselves without it.
Not completely.
There are so many content creators now talking about this. They are steadily promoting offline hobbies. Cozy hobbies. Anything to get off the phone and stop scrolling. I appreciate them because they get what is happening, and they keep it real too: We can’t stay completely off, but we need to stretch out those dopamine hits.
What is dopamine?
“Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that creates pleasure and motivation. Social media platforms trigger dopamine release through unpredictable rewards (likes, comments, shares) using variable ratio reinforcement schedules—the same mechanism found in slot machines. Each notification or interaction creates anticipation that drives compulsive checking behavior.” [src]
What’s interesting is these are the same mechanisms that occur with any addiction, whether it is sex, drugs, food, or other.
Here is a chart from Net Pychology.org showing the platforms and their key dopamine triggers.
Screenshot from Net Psychology.org
Dopamine, unfortunately, has been simplified as a “pleasure transmitter,” but instead, it is more like a “motivational signal” driving us towards potential awards.
To demonstrate this, or better yet– to help me understand this, I had to look to my own social media behaviors:
When I post a new short video on YouTube, after about two minutes, I check to see how many views and clicks I received.
I literally drop EVERYTHING I am doing and zoom in on those five views. But last month, for each video, I would get 1k views in less than two hours, which further fueled me to keep checking every 30 minutes. It fueled me to create more.
The rush of someone liking my videos was like a hit of caffeine directly in my veins. I felt buoyant and validated.
This same physiological reaction affects viewers, too.
When I am scrolling on my phone and see a popular YouTube short that’s recommended to me, I take two seconds to decide if it is worth the rest of my time.
I did this with Facebook Reels and Instagram too(I no longer have Instagram).
This proves my attention span is waning also.
Now back to my own content.
To be quite frank, I prefer writing content for the web versus creating videos. Creating videos take way too much time and I do not have the proper equipment to make my videos as crisp as other content creators. I stick to podcasts–but who’s listening to bookish podcasts these days?
My coloring content is designed to be LoFi and for people who like fresh, daily content that captures their attention in the first three seconds. So I spend an awful amount of time on music choice, captions, and titles.
These videos are roughly a total of 15 seconds.
But what ChatGPT is telling me, is that it is not the content that is the problem. The content is fresh and creative. Beautiful, even.
People just make quick decisions in SECONDS. If you do not hook them in that time, then all that work is for nothing and what happens is we end up leaving the platforms feeling we are failures.
I’m here to tell you, you are not a failure. You are an amazing artist/podcast(insert other skill here).
People just have shorter attention spans.
I do believe there are people out here who have attention spans longer than 15 seconds and who still respect book reviews, but I think the algorithm is bypassing them because the pool of long attention spanners is getting low.
I don’t want to quit YouTube.
Just like I don’t want to quit writing for Medium.
It is just harder to grab people’s attention and keep it there.
A great tip to explore (because I believe in doing things the Atomic Habits way), is to focus on captions and headlines. Get some training in that area. Watch videos from the experts. Experiment with A/B testing on titles. Consult AI if you have to.
I would start there. It may work.
It may not.
Thank you for reading.
Want more?These articles below are essays about algorithms, web content, and how things are evolving:
