YouTube Stories
As YouTube continues to improve and expand user experiences with features such as YouTube Shorts, YouTube Studio, and YouTube Premium, now the network is adding YouTube Stories.
The social networks are playing off each other, so YouTube Stories may sound like a familiar concept. However, there are some differences in Stories on this platform compared to other networks.
What are YouTube Stories?
This feature is only available on the mobile version, but are images or short-form videos, that will live on your channel for 7 days.
Stories are currently in beta and only available to those channels that have over 10,000 subscribers.
You are not able to access Stories if your channel’s audience is intended for children, or if you’re using YouTube through a supervised account.
Stories will appear on the Stories page on your channel. They also may appear on your subscriber’s feed, on the Home page, or on some watch pages. To view your own Story, you simply can tap on your profile picture to view the image or video.
How to upload YouTube Stories
If you meet the requirements to access Stories, simply login to your account on the app:
- Find the create icon
, and then click on Add to your story.
, and then click on Add to your story.- The record button will be at the bottom, where you can snap a photo or hold down the button or record a video.
- You can also upload images and videos from your device to your story.
- Add filters, stickers, and text to your content. You can also trim your Story and save it to your device.
- Tap Post and your Story will be published!
As you can see, this process is identical to how it works on other social networks like Instagram and Facebook.
After posting, users are able to react to your content with a comment. You can reply to these comments via another story, which I will explain next.
Replying to YouTube Story comments
Within YouTube Stories, you can stay connected with your audience by responding to their comments, via another story. This means that after a user leaves a comment, you can select a specific comment, and choose Reply in Story.
To do this, go to your Story and tap the comments. Once you find the comment, you can tap Reply in Story, where you can take a photo or video and tap Post to upload the reply.
This further fosters communities between creators and subscribers, allowing for a more interactive way to communicate.
As the creator, you can also remove or report any comments. Since this content only lasts for 7 days, comments will also expire after the week period.
How to delete YouTube stories
If you want to remove a story from your channel, simply click on the story you want to delete, and tap the Menu 
option. You will see a Delete option, and after that, your story will be removed from your channel.
YouTube Stories analytics
After your story has been uploaded, you can access analytics with information about your views, comments, and likes. You will be able to view these numbers of your own story at the bottom of the page.
If you want to see more data about your stories from the previous 14 days, navigate to the Stories section on the Home page, or head into YouTube Analytics where your data will be in the Overview section.
Only the creator will be able to see the number of views, likes, and comments on their Story.
Tips for using YouTube Stories
If you are wanting to test out this new YouTube feature, here are a few tips that can help you boost engagement and interactions with your audience.
Utilize stickers
In order to encourage creators to reply to comments in their stories, they have created a few different types of stickers. These are all available in the stickers section:
- Video sticker: You can only share one video sticker on your YouTube story every 7 days.
- Mention sticker: Search for a creator that you want to mention and select their channel from the list.
- Location sticker: Search for a place or location and choose from the list.
These stickers can facilitate your messaging, allow you to bring another creator into the conversation, and ultimately make stories for interactive.
Share exclusive deals, content, or discounts
Since YouTube Stories only live on your channel for a limited time, sharing time-sensitive deals, discounts, or promoting an upcoming event are all great options.
This proves to users that you value their engagement with your content, plus they get rewarded for being part of your community!
Go behind the scenes of creating your videos
If you are a YouTube native, stories are a great opportunity for you to show your audience what goes into making a video, what processes you use, and how you organize your work.
This is a chance for you to address your audience in a more casual manner, as YouTube videos are usually more one-sided.
As you can see, YouTube Stories are very similar to those on Instagram and Facebook, with exceptions to the 7-day expiration, compared to 24 hours on other platforms.
However, this may open a lot of opportunities and conversations on the platform, which is huge for creators that want to stay engaged with their audiences.
To facilitate your marketing endeavors on YouTube, I will leave this marketing guide, from us here at Metricool.
