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Video series on engineering life 2

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There's an experienced P.E. posting videos on how to grow an engineering career with good, insightful advice on the regular. Most of the engineering videos out there are aimed at technical explanations and attracting youth to engineering colleges - it's nice to see some content that is career-focused.

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I subscribed and watched them all. Nice content.

But recently he started to have YT "shorts" that repeat the already short videos. Shorts, if you don't know them, are YT attempt to do TikTok stuff. This is the new plaque on the Internet. I hate it if otherwise good channels try them out, my best hope is they give up on them soon.

It is clogging up my feed and if he continues with shorts, I unfortunately will have to unsubscribe.....

His videos are only 8 minutes. I wouldn't think an engineer would split them into gimmicky 1-minute videos.

 
@EnergyProfessional really, really appreciate you being a subscriber. It is actually my channel. Just trying to help out the young engineers and the students I teach as well. Recently hired a company to help cutup videos and post content. The shorts are definitely annoying. However, views are up 300% and we've added 20+ subscribers. So think it is just a sign of the times and what people are watching.

I talked to the video company and they are going to try to rearrange the videos sections so the shorts show in their own group. We are still figuring out how to do this so we can help more people. So hang in there for a little while with us?

Could use everyone's help for ideas for content?
trying to post on job hunting, and getting your finances straight, and how to deal with people .... all the things no one teaches these kids anymore.
Thoughts?

ZCP
 
zcp: thanks for responding. I really like the wisdom and stories you share. I'll stay subscribed for another while. You give us the advice to let our boss know what we think is wrong to give them a chance to improve. I'm applying this technique here :) and believe me, all my below comments are supposed to help and are meant to respect your hard work.

Here are the problem with shorts in general:
- most content is useless if it is just 1 minute. I subscribe to YT to learn and/or be entertained. None of that is accomplished by 1 minute videos.
- vertical video! I have never seen a portrait mode monitor or TV...
- they often repeat what was already said by regular videos of the channel.
- YT doesn't let me only show "regular" videos in my subscription feed. So they clog up my feed and I end up manually hiding them. So if I see 20 videos for the day, and 12 of them are shorts, I'm annoyed. I usually only subscribe to channels if ~90% of the videos are of interest to me or are at least made well.

I realize YT and creators introduced the shorts to add clicks. I'm subscribed to many channels. Some of them have started to do shorts as well. I hope that idea dies soon or YT gives us the option to filter them out (unlikely since it adds clicks).

I realize I'm just one user, and others may use YT differently and may like shorts.

I'm sure on your YT site you can separate shorts from regular videos. But this won't help with the subscription feed. Since I already watched all your videos, I don't go to your YT site, I just watch what shows up in my feed. Maybe you can create a separate channel for shorts. That way people who like shorts can subscribe to that and we short-haters can just subscribe the the regular videos.

And I don't know if this is feasible, practical or worth the effort. But a podcast also could be a good format for your content since it doesn't rely on pictures or videos. I listen to many podcast since, unlike videos, I can do that while driving, doing chores, working etc.
 
Thanks for joining us.
I watched a few and I think they're helpful. I hope they reach a lot of young engineers.
FWIW, I prefer depth, too.

While I do have a YT channel, I don't really use it for much except random things I see & do that I find interesting whether the rest of the world does or not. From that viewpoint I also don't have much control over some of the automatic formatting that YT does to them. I only learned about the "shorts" when I uploaded a quick video of a wind turbine in portrait profile and suddenly it sucked me down that rabbit-hole.

I don't think making 2 channels is a good idea. It just divides your subscribers in half. Many won't find the content on the "other" channel.

Thank you for sparing me the gimmicky intro. Just get into it.

Ideas?
You could put some written notes in overlays on the corners of the screen (not too much) to emphasize or summarize what you're saying. I've also seen some YT'ers that can put in overlays with links to their other videos when they reference them. For instance, you mention in one video about getting ready for an interview that you have another video about mistakes that job seekers make. That's a great moment to put a link in the corner because that might be what the viewer is actually looking for at that moment.
 
I agree the 2 channels likely won't work well from a click/subscriber point. But that may be the only way for me to not see the shorts. So the best is to ditch shorts entirely :)

I opened every single video and gave each of them a "like" (but only the ones in landscape mode :). I hope that helps spread the word.

I also sent the channel link to some co-workers.
 
lots and lots of work to do ....

eventual podcasts, interviews, adding graphics so i can do a 'lecture style' video on 'how to negotiate your job offer' ..... want to bring in several things i did while teaching university engineering classes...

we are working on grouping the shorts so they don't clog. the level of views they get is crazy. subscriber count is up. so we need them, just need to figure out HOW to do them right...

i've been asked for 20 to 25 minute versions, those are in the works.
agree on intro ... get to work, ask for like, provide value, get out.
can't stand those recipe videos where you have to go through 12 minutes of the person's aunt's cat's life story to find out how many eggs to get out of the fridge

written note overlays are coming. they are trying to teach me how to use all this technology!

@energyprofessional, really really appreciate the help! just need to get the word out there. SO many people need help.

got to grow our profession!!

ZCP
 
IRstuff: videos of subscribed channels show up based on time they were posted/uploaded. So if a channel has them, they will appear at the time they are posted like the regular videos. AFAIK YT pushes them on us like regular videos and there is no option to not show them in the subscription feed.

If you have a method to not see them I'm all ear (I use chrome on my PC, and Adblock browser on my phone). A while ago when some of the channels I subscribed to started with shorts, I tried to find a plugin or some other solution. Unfortunately I haven't found one. I have add-ins to skip the YT commercials, one to hide videos i already watched, and one to skip commercials within the videos. So my YT viewing experience is pretty good.... except I haven't found a way to automatically block out shorts.

I'm subscribed to 80+ channels and often subscribe/unsubscribe depending on my interest or how the channel evolves or if there is a better option competing for my time. I don't understand this 1-minute TikTok mania.... but apparently this is a thing.

For me a 1-minute video in portrait mode just isn't useful. I think the "up to 10 minutes" format Zane has works well for the snippets of wisdom and anecdotes. Long enough to make it worthwhile to watch, but not too long to require a time commitment. Time is a finite resource.

Zane hasn't done this. But another annoyance are the channel update videos some creators post when they haven't posted one for a while. If I'm subscribed, I will see the next useful video. I don't need an update that you will post one soon, I don't have sleepless nights wondering when your next video shows up (subscribed to many anyway). But what will happen if a creator posts a useless update video in my feed, I'm more likely to unsubscribe.

I'm not a creator, I'm just a user. So I have no right to complain and get what I paid for.

I'm applying similar critique to podcast. If they post many 1-minute "update" episodes or too many "re-broadcasts" I unsubscribe.

 
Amazing value in your post! Thank you! Will get this info to my media peeps. They did some rearranging over the weekend. Lots to do here.
Could use ALL the advice and suggestions we can get!

Right now they are working through the analytics for engagement ... how long someone stays on a video. Then they are passing that info back to me to try to keep the content in line and structured to be most helpful to people.

It is really cool seeing how different people interact and then trying to help them more.
Appreciate you all! Keep the ideas flowing and this thread going. Maybe more young engineers will see it?
I'll be bold and ask for help sharing on linkedin! We get a LOT of views from my stuff there.

ZCP
 
It also would be nice if any channel updates or asking us to subscribe would be at the end of the video. That way I can skip to the next video without having to hear it. As someone who already subscribed, I don't want to be reminded to subscribe again.

Maybe good idea to remind us to like the video before asking to subscribe. But the asking to "like" should be towards the end because at the beginning of the video I don't know yet if I like it.

I probably need a reminder to like videos since YT forces me to exist full-screen to "like" a video. When I watch a queue I tend to forget that. It is better on my phone where I can like a video while watching. Actually I just went back to today's "2-week notice" video since I forgot to like that this morning. And many videos have thousands of likes, so my "like" isn't important to them. But for your channel I will be a bit more diligent.
 
Interestingly, if you can get people ALL the way to the end, YT will display you more. So watch to the end (mute), then go to next video. Helps us a LOT.

Those that put 'like and subscribe' near the end.... well people skip to the next one and YT doesn't get their ad money, so they dock you.

Getting started w/o a big intro, and slipping the like reminder in the middle seems to be the current 'best'. (all likely to change over and over again)

Learning a moving algorithm (just so you can help people). Good times!

ZCP
 
I'm curious how far to the end they consider the video to be fully watched? Do they really only count it as fully watched if I literally let it run to the end?

When I watch on a PC (living room, or desk) I usually make a queue with the videos I subscribed to. Once one video is going towards the useful end (before credits or anything else) I either touch the "skip to next" button (desk with 2 monitors) or use the arrow keys (living room with just one TV) to skip 5 seconds at a time. The (to me) useful content often ends 1-2 minutes before the end of the video. On my phone I can't make a queue, and just hit the back button once the video (to me) reached its end.

On the PC (not on my phone) I also have an add-in that automatically skips over in-video commercials, self promotion etc. I don't know how it detects that, but it works surprisingly well for most channels. Out of a 15 minute video it often cuts out 2 minutes. I realize this doesn't help you making money, but I also doubt you have the channel to make the big bucks advertising. It seems the big bucks are with reviewing sponsored products or product placement.

I also often watch some YT channels at 1.25 x speed, but not all. I listen to podcast at 2.1 speed!!

I realize you have to put the "asks" somewhere and you have to follow the YT algorithm if you want to reach many people. Many of the channels I like obviously put their stuff in somewhere, and occasionally have a short. If the ratio is 10 regular videos to 1 short, it isn't a big deal. Wherever you put the "ask to subscribe and like", keep it short.

Edit: I also noticed the large established YT channels show a new topic/content in their shorts. So in theory I could watch their regular videos, and the shorts, and don't have duplicates. But your shorts seem to be snippets of the original videos. So a viewer who watches the regulars videos and shorts (as they show up in the feed) would see the same topic twice. That seems to make the shorts even worse and wasteful to someone who already is subscribed and watches the original 8-miute videos.
Do with it what you want - I just noticed this as a major difference. Maybe the shorts get you new viewers, but they don't benefit existing viewers. As it is, there is one good video, and maybe 5 shorts telling me the same thing again.
 
Awesome feedback! ... the initial thought was to just start cutting things up ..... try to get as many shorts as we could from the stuff we had. Get our video count over the threshold needed to get to some of the better analytics tools available...

As we go forward, we'll get better at helping the user experience side of it. Don't want to just be a boring, repetitive blowhard. Trying to help people!
Your feedback helps SO SO much!

Keep kicking our tail. Am excited about where we can have this in 6 months.

Could use ideas for topics and shares to communities where we could get some eyeballs!
Reddit? FB? Forums like this? Open to ALL ideas and possibilities!

ZCP
 
I don't recall if you already covered this. Advising young engineers that start their career and want to learn technical skills would be good. Like a young engineer could start at a firm where there are no knowledgeable (in that field) senior engineers or for some reason they don't provide good mentorship. Also the question if a young engineer should go to grad school or do some other schooling while working.

I myself started 16 years ago. Where I work there is no one who does what I do. Over the years I had to teach myself about building envelope upgrades, Lighting design, HVAC design, develop my specs, learn Revit, find (and learn) software, learn about all codes and so on. I ended up going to grad school while working to learn more and I still don't have anyone in the company I work for to ask specific questions. Often I wished someone could teach me something. But often I was happy I didn't learn an old out-dated way of doing things. Overall it turned out fine. But I think it often was harder than necessary and I explored many dead ends (but those dead ends also taught me much!).

In addition my (foreign) undergraduate degree was in a different field of engineering than I work in (My master's degree is more in the field).

Most young-engineer advice is based on just start to learn from the old guys. I didn't have old guys....

I noticed some YT channels I follow started with more shorts, but they cut back on those (or it is just wishful thinking on my side). But whatever shorts they still do are distinctive topics/videos. On the other hand those are established channels with 100K, or million subscribers. So what they do may not apply to you.
 
Will you still make regular videos, or shorts only? Looks like only the Friday video is a regular video now.

Whatever is in the shorts likely is valuable (didn't watch, and wont), but an 8 minute video in interviewing may make more sense instead of 8 1-minute videos.

I won't participate in this "shorts" mania. Even if they contain next weeks actual stock exchange data.
 
@energyprofessional just did a longer one on doing video interviews. yes, have several in the pipeline. editors have been building out tiktok and instagram accounts, so we needed a lot of reels and shorts. long form coming.

self learning tips would be a good video. how to court a mentor as well.
keep the ideas coming! SO many people to help!

ZCP
 
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