YouTube recently announced new features at its “Made On YouTube” event, designed to help creators maximize their audience. Among them is the Hype feature, specially designed to highlight small and medium-sized creators.
Hype is designed to help boost video engagement for small and medium-sized creators. In concrete terms, this new feature enables artists with between 500 and 500,000 subscribers to add a “Hype” button that is larger and more visible than the likes buttons on their recent videos of less than 7 days.
When users “hype” videos, these earn points that can be included in a weekly ranking of the 100 most “hyped” videos specific to the creator’s country, offering a unique chance to meet a whole new audience, attract new subscribers and increase the reach of their content.
But how many “hype” points are needed to enter the ranking of the most hyped videos? While YouTube plans to notify the number of points for the latest videos in the ranking, this number is likely to fluctuate from week to week.
Users can “hype” videos up to 3 times a week, and YouTube plans in future updates to allow fans to purchase additional Hypes, providing creators with a new source of revenue.
This feature offers a unique opportunity to compete with the biggest names in the industry. Indeed, YouTube’s algorithm tends to favor channels with large audiences and high engagement rates, making it difficult for emerging artists to compete. Thanks to Hype, these creators can get noticed, even with a more modest subscriber base.
While Hype is a particularly interesting feature, it’s also worth noting the addition of Communities, also announced at the “Made On YouTube” event, which allows creators to interact directly with their subscribers in a dedicated space. This feature is certainly similar to Discord, but could prove to be a useful complement to Hype, offering fans a space to discuss your videos and strengthen their long-term commitment.
Today, YouTube is already testing Hype in several countries, including Brazil, Turkey and Taiwan, with expansion planned for the coming months. The positive feedback from these initial phases shows that this feature has the potential to become a major tool for emerging creators.
