YouTube Reveals What Viewers Crave: Understanding “Quality Content” in the Social Media Era

YouTube reveals insight into what viewers are seeking from YouTube social media content and other platforms. Most of us know, content marketing guides, and tips from the social media platforms themselves, often include vague notes like: “Make quality content.” But what does that actually mean? What, exactly, qualifies as “quality content” in a social media context?

The answer, of course, is subjective. Millions of young viewers, for example, will argue that “Skibidi Toilet,” in which heads pop out of toilets and come alive, is quality content, while to outsiders, that’ll make no sense. But even so, there are certain expectations and markers that point to content quality, which YouTube has sought to uncover in its latest report.

YouTube’s “Why We Watch 2.0” Report: A Deeper Dive

In YouTube’s “Why We Watch 2.0” report, the platform has incorporated survey and study insights from thousands of viewers to better understand what they’re looking for in YouTube social media content. The 32-page report is an expansion of the first “Why We Watch” report, which YouTube published last year, and looked at what people are looking for in YouTube social media content. This second overview takes a deeper dive into what keeps people watching and coming back to a channel for more.

Examining the Culture of YouTube Viewers

As noted, the main motivation of this new report is to examine the culture of YouTube viewers, and what keeps them coming back. According to YouTube’s data, community is a key motivator in this respect:

Community Connection Matters: “Across all platforms, more than half of viewers agree that their content selections collectively create a sense of belonging, while a majority of younger viewers say that watching content on platforms like YouTube and Twitch makes them feel seen and understood. Surprisingly, the platform least likely to make people feel this way was broadcast media. With only slightly more than a third of viewers saying that TV makes them feel part of something bigger.”

The Shift from Traditional TV to Online Communities

In this sense, YouTube says that the days of appointment television are over, with viewers now getting that same community engagement from online content, not TV events.

What Content Viewers Seek: Emotional Resonance Over Visual Effects

In terms of specifics, YouTube’s data shows that viewers are seeking high-quality content, though quality in this context relates more to emotional resonance than special effects. “All viewers agreed that the most important emotional marker is that content should capture and hold attention. But beyond that, viewers older than 35 valued trustworthiness and compelling storytelling, while younger viewers prioritized creativity and personal relevance.”

The Importance of Human-Centered Content

Now, this is similar to the “quality content” advice I noted in the intro, as it’s one thing to say “create engaging content” and another to actually do it. A key point here is that people are seeking well-written, human-centered content, which in the push towards generative AI, seems to increasingly be getting overlooked.

Why AI Can’t Replace Human Insight (Yet)

Because while the latest video creation tools can give you amazingly realistic and engaging results, they lack that key factor, the human insight that viewers are pointing to here. Indeed, as YouTube further notes:

Beyond Visuals: The Power of Human Stories “Where once people might have looked forward to the next big special-effects bonanza, our data suggests that the number of viewers who only care about visuals is now vanishingly small, at less than 1%. Audiences have come to crave a deeper connection with the content they consume, and even the most traditional media has had to adapt.”

The Human Touch: Why Pixar Still Reigns

It’s not just amazing visuals that engage, it’s human-centered stories, which generative AI tools cannot re-create. Yet. Maybe, in the future, generative AI will be able to put together resonant stories. But every time there’s a new breakthrough in AI animation, and somebody shares it on social saying that “Pixar is in trouble,” it’s worth noting that Pixar movies, and indeed all films, don’t work just because of technical budgets.

The Creative Process at Pixar: It takes Pixar’s writers two years, on average, to come up with the initial outline for each film, which is the bulk of production time for each project. And note, this is with a team of writers. That human center is the critical pillar of the entire process.

Creativity vs. Accuracy: What Different Audiences Value

Digging into more specifics of “quality,” YouTube also found that young viewers are more interested in creativity, while older viewers focus more on accuracy.

Community Engagement and Ads on YouTube

The report also looks at how this sense of community engagement relates to ads on YouTube, with viewers being increasingly receptive to ads on the service in support of the creators they like. Of course, the first point, “interesting and engaging,” is on YouTube’s targeting systems to ensure that you’re shown the right ads. But outside of that, as you can see, YouTube viewers are more open to ads than viewers on other platforms.

Defining “Quality”: A Changing Standard

There are some interesting considerations here, and some interesting notes on what “quality” actually means in a video content context. It’s not necessarily spelled out, and the definitions of such will vary from group to group, and topic to topic. But there are some helpful pointers here as to what helps build community around content, and how you can use that in your approach.

You can check out YouTube’s “Why We Watch 2.0” report here to gain deeper insights into what defines quality content and how you can adapt your approach.