Earning a ton of YouTube subscribers doesn’t culminate your social media journey. In fact, it’s just the beginning of the user engagement process; and it’s going to be a long long way to go from here.

Posting new content is not enough when everyone can actually do the same thing. You need to form a community – a family of like-minded individuals who agree to be part of your social life.

With this, the YouTube Community tab saves the day. You probably saw this on your dashboard already. Of course, it’s there for a purpose, not just for display. It’s understandable if you don’t have any idea how this works; that’s why we’re here to guide you.

In this post, you’ll discover how to explore the YouTube channel Community tab. You may apply these tips at your disposal to engage your subscribers effectively. You can even earn income and promote your business with this tool. Isn’t that amazing?

What Is The YouTube Community Tab?

If you’ve seen the old YouTube, you’ll realize that the Community tab has replaced the Discussion tab. Like its predecessor, the Community tab lets channel creators to post notifications, generate polls, and mingle with both subscribers and visitors.

The main improvement Community tab has over Discussion tab is its posting potential. The latter only let creators, subscribers, and visitors to post stuff in text form. On the other hand, the new Community tab allows you to do the same thing but in various ways. These include texts, images, links, and GIFs.

Even if this is purely an optional feature, many YouTubers have been using it already. You don’t want to be the last user who’s unaware of its perks, right?

At the moment, the Community tab feature is available to YouTube channels with more than 10,000 subscribers. If you’re a newcomer in the industry, then you should grow your channel right away. It could be challenging at first, but with dedication, you can accomplish such a feat easily. There will be more updates in the future, so watch out for them.

For starters, you can visit other channels which you are subscribed in to be able to take inspiration for your own community posts.

Once you can access your channel’s Community tab, you can use it to reach audiences in a myriad of ways. Here are some of the most prevailing methods you can try.

1. Launch in video form

Naturally, you’d want to update your subscribers in a way they are used to. Introduce them to your Community tab, of course, by posting a video! The delivery is up to you, really. But you definitely enjoy doing it creatively, for an added flavor.

Post the link of your Community tab in the video description. You may paste it on any of your videos, but to speed up the process, paste it only on your most viewed ones.

2. Motivate People to Enable Notifications

You might have seen this already: Your favorite YouTubers requesting you to enable the notification bell beside the Subscribe button. They prompt you to do this to notify you about their latest channel activity. Of course, you can do the same thing to your subscribers as well. You don’t want your followers to miss out on your newest videos anyway.

3. Explain the Purpose

The first post on your Community tab should ideally be about welcoming your YouTube audience and letting them feel the community vibe. Also, the video must contain everything your subscribers can expect in the community. For instance, what they can do to engage with your channel, an overview of your plans, the direction you’re going, and more.

4. Market Your Merchandise

As our channel grows, the need to maintain it also increases. Many channel creators have thrived well by marketing and selling their products and services to visitors and subscribers. You can freely do this as well on the Community tab, aside from posting ads on the video description or sneaking them into your video.

The process is simple. You just have to post a status update to the tab with a photo of your merchandise. Don’t forget to post the link to the product’s sales page as well. For efficiency, create a website and put up a landing page there for your channel subscribers.

5. Regularly Endorse Your Most Recent Video

If the notification bell isn’t enough, then you may ensure your subscribers to get updates with the Community tab. YouTube will include the following as part of the link preview:

• thumbnail image
• title
• number of views
• age of your video

6. Show a Sneak Peek of Your Next Video

Isn’t it exciting when you watch a movie thriller? It provides you with something to look forward to. That works as well with YouTube videos. Posting a sneak peek or a teaser on the Community tab is a delightful treat on its own. It piques your subscribers’ interest, making them want to click through to your video link. The best thing about this is you can do it retroactively. This means you can promote past popular videos to new members of the community.

7. Make Use of Polls

Automated analytics tools may get the job done, but it’s not perfect all the time. Additionally, you don’t get meaningful conversations or interactions with it. By putting up polls or surveys on your Community tab, you hit two birds with one stone.  

8. Host a Q&A Session

There’s a reason why your viewers clicked that Subscribe button. Maybe it’s your quirky, cool demeanor, or probably your exceptional editing skills. Either way, letting your subscribers know you more is one way to bind them further as a community.

The tab is wide open for such activity. Inform them beforehand that you’re going to host a Q&A session and encourage them to leave questions in the comments section. The number of questions you’re going to answer will depend on you. However, if your following is already huge, then expect a full serving right your way.

9. Get Inspiration for Your Next Video

Even the most artistic and innovative personalities could still run out of creative juice. It happens to all of us, and sometimes we just need to rely on someone to help us out. It’s amazing to know that the Community tab enables you to borrow new ideas from devoted followers. This is also the perfect time to interact with them, as they’ll appreciate your presence even more. Of course, don’t forget to give them credit and express gratitude for saving your behind.

10. Share Relatable GIFs and Memes

Again, the Community tab is an enhanced Discussion tab since you can express yourselves in many ways. GIFs and memes seem to be the trend today, as they are more visually entertaining than just mere words. Make the most out of these posting methods and surely, your subscribers can relate to them.

11. Gather Your Community

As a community, your aim is to help each other. When you’re in a bind, you can leverage this following to your advantage. For instance, if you have an advocacy that needs support, you can rally your people for such a cause.