Before I joined the Intercollegiate Studies Institute (ISI), the organization had never had a dedicated marketing director. Marketing efforts were typically handled as a secondary responsibility, which meant that digital growth was often deprioritized.
One of my primary focuses as the new Director of Marketing was to revitalize ISI’s presence on YouTube. Given ISI’s role as an educational nonprofit, YouTube was a natural platform to leverage for promoting learning and reaching a broader audience. This led us to embark on a comprehensive effort to grow the YouTube channel.
YouTube Growth Results
When I began, the ISI YouTube channel had 5,331 subscribers—a modest number that had accumulated slowly over 13 years. Today, that number exceeds 30,000, with most of the growth occurring in 2023. In just over a year, we achieved a sixfold increase in subscribers, gaining five times more followers in one year than in the previous five years combined.
This remarkable growth is a testament to the focused strategies we implemented.
Building a Relationship with the Algorithm
Before my tenure, ISI’s YouTube posting was sporadic and inconsistent. Videos were often uploaded in batches—4-5 at a time—followed by months of inactivity. Additionally, these uploads were low-effort, with generic titles, default thumbnails, and minimal descriptions. This approach signaled to the YouTube algorithm that ISI was not serious about its channel, resulting in minimal algorithmic support.
One of our first priorities was to establish a consistent posting schedule to signal to the algorithm that ISI was committed to the platform. We began “effort posting,” ensuring that new content was uploaded several times a week. This included releasing new podcast episodes and sharing 5-10 minute clips from our video archives.
This strategy was crucial for two reasons: first, it helped boost our content’s visibility by improving its baseline performance; second, it positioned us to capitalize on potential viral content by ensuring that the algorithm was primed to promote our videos more aggressively.
Elevating Content Quality
While ISI’s content is inherently academic, we recognized that even scholarly material should be presented in the most engaging way possible. We undertook a comprehensive overhaul of all previously posted videos, enhancing their thumbnails, optimizing titles for higher click-through rates, and expanding descriptions to improve SEO.
Our goal was twofold: to demonstrate to YouTube that we were serious about our content and to make our videos easier to find for those actively searching for the topics we cover. Although our content is less likely to go viral, improving its discoverability was essential for long-term growth.
Leveraging YouTube Shorts
To further ingratiate ourselves with the YouTube algorithm, we committed to posting at least one YouTube Short daily. YouTube Shorts, introduced as a competitor to Instagram Reels and TikTok, represented a new feature that YouTube was eager to promote.
The general rule is that when a platform introduces a new feature, it’s crucial to adopt it early. Platforms typically boost content that uses new features to encourage widespread adoption. Understanding this, we focused on creating and sharing Shorts, which played a pivotal role in achieving our first million-view video.
Achieving Virality
While steady, consistent posting is key to gradual growth, viral videos are what drive significant spikes in subscriber numbers. Our strategy for virality was simple: we focused on identifying and sharing the most compelling clips, knowing that some degree of luck is involved in achieving viral success.
However, by building a strong foundation with the algorithm, we increased our chances of “getting lucky.” Our efforts paid off, as we managed to go viral multiple times, each instance contributing to substantial subscriber growth.
Conclusion
I am incredibly proud of the progress my team and I have made in growing ISI’s YouTube channel. Among my proudest achievements is the fact that eight of the top ten videos on the channel were produced during my time at ISI.
By implementing best practices and establishing consistent systems, we were able to achieve significant success on YouTube. I look forward to continuing to build on this momentum and exploring new ways to expand our reach and impact on the platform.