How My YouTube Channel surpassed 100K Subscribers
Last week, my YouTube channel surpassed 100K subscribers and 130 million combined views! 🥳 I've been creating branded video content for many years, but in 2020, I began experimenting with TikTok. Since day one, I have focused on posting primarily skateboarding-related content, and with the help of several TikToks that each received several million views, I was able to grow my TikTok to 50K followers in less than two months and 100K followers in less than a year.
In 2022, Google noticed what I was doing on TikTok and hired me to create short-form, vertical skateboarding videos to help promote their latest tool, YouTube Shorts. Before YouTube contacted me, I had very little interest in creating original YouTube content for my channel, which had been dormant for over a decade. Luckily, my agreement with Google required me to post the Shorts they hired me to create on my channel.
After several months of posting weekly YouTube Shorts, this video I posted on August 10th, 2022, featuring adaptive skateboarder Justin Bishop, went viral. This video is by far the most viral video I have ever created, with over 87 million views and counting. This video has become so popular that within weeks of posting it on YouTube, it quickly made its way to both Instagram and TikTok, where media companies like CBS News, Complex, and High Snobiety reposted it. Sadly, it was around this time that I started seeing diminishing returns from my TikTok content, which was largely due to the release of IG Reels and the mounting political pressure to shut down TikTok in the U.S. These developments led me to shift more of my time and energy into creating Shorts.
Due to the rapid growth of my channel, YouTube invited me to join its content creator partnership program in January 2023, providing me access to a dedicated YouTube community partner manager. In September 2023, award-winning journalist and writer Maria Shriver hired Shusterman Media to help scale her YouTube channel. My first order of business was to create and implement a comprehensive YouTube strategy that focused on producing several YouTube Shorts each week. In less than a year, I helped Maria's channel grow from 19K to 69K subscribers, which led to the channel receiving both a verification badge and an invitation to join the YouTube partnership program.
If your brand is not prioritizing YouTube Shorts in its existing YouTube strategy or you're not seeing success from your current Shorts, please feel free to reach out to me (andrew@shustermanmedia.com). I am currently accepting new clients and would love to explore how we can use Shorts to bring more views and meaningful engagement to your brand's channel. I'm still a huge proponent of TikTok and IG Reels, but ALL brands need to harness the power of YouTube Shorts to expand the reach of their video content and potentially breathe new life into their older YouTube videos.
