Road to 1 million subscribers with Spencer Barbosa
Mar 10, 2023 – minute read
You may know Spencer Barbosa from her lifestyle channel or her apparel brand “You Are Something Bigger,” a project she developed to create clothes that everyone can feel beautiful in. She started her channel when she was just an eighth grader, and posted all throughout high school. That consistency has led to Spencer to make content as a full time job. Now, at 1.3 million subscribers and counting, we asked her to share our tips to building community on YouTube.
Connecting with your community
While it may seem like growth is the end goal, Spencer advises that gaming the algorithm is often unsustainable. "It is so easy to get sucked into posting trends or adding hashtags in hopes of going 'viral, and gaining subs," she says. Instead, work on building a tight knit community and comment back to followers who already care about you. "The subs will naturally grow as you nurture your existing following."
And how exactly do you do that? Well...
Use the Community Tab
"The Community Tab is underrated and under used!" Spencer says. "I actually only recently learned about it, but is is a great place to post your thoughts, get your subscribers opinions — you can post polls! — and share quotes and motivation, post reminders of your new videos coming out or even redirect your subscribers to other platforms." When you don't necessarily have a video to share just yet, it's a fun place to post, promote and connect.
Lean into a series
After you begin posting for a while, it's important to look back at your content and see what's performing to recreate what resonates with the audience. "If you notice a video is doing above average... make it a series," she says. "Obviously viewers are loving it so give them what they want. Milk it, make five-parts and just post it."
This idea came to her when she noticed that one of her videos talking about rules she would implement when she becomes a mom went viral. "I ended up making it a series with over 50 parts — and I’m still making more)."
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Post on schedule
"Consistency is the most important thing you can do. Post every day (or at least create a post schedule) so that your followers can know when you are posting, when they should show up to see your content and show them you are taking this serious and love making content," she advises.
The more you post, the more chances for future subscribers to come across your platform so when it doubt, get your content out there.