YouTube has promised to add new features to its Shorts video format, a range of fresh shopping capabilities and new analytics insights for content creators as part of its roadmap for 2022.
In a blog post titled “Community, Collaboration, and Commerce”, YouTube Chief Product Officer Neal Mohan has given brands a first look at some of the “highly requested” tools and features that will be rolled out before the end of the year.
With TikTok now dominating the short-form video format on social media, it’s no surprise to see YouTube flesh out its Shorts format, which will see the addition of new editing tools, effects, comment options and, for the first time, monetisation.
Shopping experiences are being given a boost too, with the launch of shoppable videos and Live Shopping, with both of these being accessible from the main UI on the YouTube app.
Perhaps most interesting for content marketers is the addition of new data analytics in the form of insights, which will be presented in YouTube Studio.
While Mohan did not cover this addition in detail, he did say they will be a very useful tool for coming up with “concrete ideas for upcoming videos”.
These insights could also help creators to brainstorm topics and ideas for writing content on other platforms.
For those working with influencers, YouTube is also bringing collaborative live streaming to the platform, which will enable multiple creators to live stream together.
Brands and creators may also soon get the chance to set guidelines so viewers understand the type of content and tone of conversations that will be presented on a channel.
One final interesting stat from the blog is that while YouTube is synonymous with mobile content consumption, viewers are now watching 700m hours of content on TVs each day.
