6 tricks that YouTube uses to 'hook' your attention

Among the most consumed social networks is YouTube, the most famous platform for viewing videos and the second most visited website in the world. And it is that, giving the possibility of generating content to all people, it is possible to watch any type of video on this website, from a person cleaning her house to a video clip of your singer favorite.

In this article you will find a summary of The tricks YouTube uses to get your attention and keep your interest in what happens on the screen.

• Related article: "9 keys to Psychology applied to Marketing and Advertising"

6 Tricks YouTube Uses to Get Your Attention

YouTube is available in more than 100 countries, amassing close to 2 billion active users each month. 62% of its users are men and around 50% are between 25 and 44 years old. With so many video consumers a day, it is not surprising that this platform carries out different persuasive strategies to engage the attention of its users, encouraging them to spend more hours on the platform and thus generating more views and, in the long run, money.

Persuasion is defined as the ability to get a person to act or think in a certain way. In advertising and marketing, persuasion is constantly used to increase sales and profits for a particular brand. At present and with the generation of an entire world digitally, practically all Social networks make use of persuasion strategies to achieve more users and more profits economic.

In this article we are going to discuss 6 tricks that YouTube uses to engage our attention. Excessive consumption of screens is becoming a problem of increasing interest, so if you are worried about your consumption of Youtube, the first step is to identify in what ways you could reduce your viewing minutes and free yourself from mobile dependency.

1. personalized recommendations

One of the main reasons why YouTube has become such an online entertainment giant is because of its great ability to suggest your users personalized content recommendations based on what they have consumed previously. Behind this function operate complex algorithms that develop display patterns, searches and interactions within the platform to find out how users relate to the platform.

This recommendation algorithm has the main goal of keeping viewers engaged. showing them content that matches their personal interests and preferences. For example, if you watch a cooking or recipe video, YouTube will start suggesting content related to the cooking and culinary techniques, and thus attract your attention so that you consume more content related to this.

This is a very effective strategy to keep users within the platform, since, when a video, these automatic suggestions appear tempting to click on the following related content that may be attractive. Often this degenerates into finding yourself immersed in a video sequence that you had not planned to view, but which keeps us connected for long periods of time.

2. Autoplay

Autoplay is another way YouTube manages to grab and hold our attention, and it's an almost imperceptible strategy. Once you finish watching a video, if you have autoplay turned on, without having to do anything starts playing the next recommended video based on the algorithms mentioned above. This keeps viewers in a spiral of continuous content consumption.

The anticipation generated by knowing that another similar video will be played after the video you are watching and the absence of a long pause lasting are the main responsible for this mechanism working to make content consumers stay watching and waiting for more content. Autoplay is based on the principle of convenience and continuity; without having to make an active decision about which video to watch next, it makes it easier for us to continue consuming content.

The negative consequence is that we can easily lose track of time while browsing these endless automatic video lists. It can be a trap that leads us to an excessive consumption of content and time. To avoid falling into this type of cycle, it is advisable to establish time limits for the use of YouTube, which do not allow us to remain on the platform for more than a certain time.

3. Attractive thumbnails and titles

The thumbnails are the covers that the videos have and represent them. They are designed to be visually appealing and often feature exciting moments or highlights from content. These images are usually made to arouse curiosity and motivate you to want to know more about what is happening in the video. In addition, they act together with the titles, having these a fundamental role when clicking on a video. Headlines are usually persuasive and short, interesting enough to capture your interest from the very first moment.. If a title seems intriguing or promises relevant information or entertainment, you're more likely to give it a try.

YouTube is a very competitive platform where its content creators compete for this attention in order to reach more views and more subscribers. Thumbnails and titles are powerful tools that allow content to stand out from the rest to attract more viewers. In addition, the platform also uses algorithms through data and metrics to assess how effective thumbnails and headlines are and how consumers interact with them.

4. Video duration

Video length is another crucial factor that YouTube carefully considers to keep attention on your content. Although, as we have commented, the variety of content that it houses is very wide, from short clips to very long documentaries, algorithms have shown that YouTube is more interested in promoting and consuming videos shorter.

This algorithm that we have been talking about favors the consumption of shorter videos, giving value to the idea that in these times what generates more attention and interest is immediacy. We want to consume content that is short and continuously entertaining, and this is more difficult to achieve with excessively long or detailed videos. The optimal length of a video depends on the content and interests of the target audience, but creators have found that the platform rewards what is shortest and most entertaining, which is why this type of video has increased significantly and is thus another way of promoting attention and making people spend more time on the platform.

5. notifications and reminders

Using push notifications on your mobile device, YouTube notifies you when a content creator you follow has shared a new video that may interest you, or even when any content has been uploaded that, based on your algorithm, the platform understands to be yours. interest.

These notifications work as a persuasive technique because they make us constantly aware of the existing content on this platform and make us develop the tendency to not wanting to miss anything or be "out of orbit". Therefore, notifications and reminders are very important for content creators so that their followers generate a commitment with them and their videos greater than consuming them sporadically and without being earrings.

6. Feedback and community

Finally, on YouTube a whole community is generated in the comments section of each video. This works as a persuasive strategy to the extent that content consumers develop a greater or lesser sense of engagement with their favorite creators and with the need to be part of his community of followers. Through these comments, people with similar interests can interact and start conversations, which keeps them coming back every time. who want to read new comments to the video they are in, thus generating more views and more possibilities to see more videos after this.

The importance of noticing persuasive inputs

In conclusion, we hope that this article serves to make us aware of the diversity of ways in which digital platforms such as YouTube develop strategies to keep their consumers and generate engagement with their favorite content creators and the platform in general. This does not have to be bad, the consumption of videos can be very nutritious when done with topics of interest, but you have to be careful in not establishing relationship patterns with this platform that may be harmful to our daily lives or waste too much time.

Don't torture yourself if you ever spend too many hours hooked on YouTube either. The productivity wheel of our capitalist systems can make you feel like you're wasting your time, but it can also consider watching videos on Youtube as part of your break or as a way to discover new knowledge that can help you interest. If, on the contrary, you believe that your use is excessive and you feel the need to reduce your consumption, look for strategies to do so; set temporary limits, delete the application from your mobile or cancel notifications.