Here’s 11 more tips for YouTube storytelling, for better retention and therefore more views. Once again, it’s for new and seasoned YouTubers. 🧵/11 1. The opening visuals of the hook should match the thumbnail. That immediate feedback is already a mini-payoff in itself.
Above is @RyanTrahan’s beautiful thumbnail, but then incredibly the first shot is the actual thing from the thumbnail. When people feel the video matches what they wanted the video to be, then that’s how you get people to stay for a video.
4. Save The Cat. This is the name of book which is a staple in film storytelling, but it refers to the fact that it’s *extremely* important for the viewer to see something that makes a character likeable in order to become actually invested. Earlier is better. In fact…
4b. What’s unique to YouTube is that sometimes this Save The Cat moment already starts from the _thumbnail_. I just sorted Ali Abdaal’s channel by popularity, and here were the top three results. The more interesting the character, the better momentum you carry into the vid.
4c. The thing that gives you hope about YouTube is that it doesn’t matter what the size of your channel is. 1. packaging a story well 2. telling a really good story 3. that people want to hear 4. consistently …is basically the formula for growth. 4.26K subs, 497K views ⬇️
5. Don’t scuff the audio. Just a quick lesson from my own videos, but audio sequences that were too loud really mess up retention. You should absolutely be editing with headphones on, at least for when you’re finalising the audio of a video.
6. Avoid over-explanation at all costs! Whilst contextual clarity is important, you can definitely accidentally overdo it. This very often leads to a dip. It is tempting to provide lots of caveats, but they do NOT contribute much to story progression. Show, don’t tell.
7. Related to this, if you have a set of criteria you need to go through — let’s say for @nick_ar_ where he’s completing challenges that have certain criteria to fulfil in the game — just show the whole thing super briefly, then each part one by one. If necessary.
8. Visual dynamics are super important. If you record yourself gazing left to right in a mirror, you’ll notice your eyes jitter (saccade) even if you try to do it as smoothly as possible. But *not* if you’re following a pen or finger. We watch movement. So edit accordingly.
11. When analysing your retention graph, actually take notes on every little thing. Here’s my own note on my iPad tablet comparison video. ✅ for flat/spikes. ❌ for dips/declines. Every one of your videos should be better than the last.
Feel free to RT if you found this useful! I made a whole course about YouTube storytelling for retention too, which I’ll be adding even more to soon: go.dabido.com.au/storytelling You can also check out the original storytelling thread for the 11 original commandments below.
Here’s my 11 commandments for YouTube storytelling for better retention and therefore more views. I hope this is helpful to both new and seasoned YouTubers alike. 🧵/11 1. A banger title/thumbnail can’t arise from non-banger idea. Spending 10 minutes here can save 7 hours.
