In the past couple weeks, YouTube has announced a couple different things that illustrate the direction that the biggest video site on the web is headed and that I think will ultimately have a big impact on your career if you embrace them. The first is that YouTube is rolling out live streaming on their site, and the second is that YouTube is embracing a new channels format designed to make the site function more like a traditional television viewing experience. Here’s the details…

YouTube Goes Live

With the rise of live streaming video online delivered through sites like UStream and Justin.tv, it was inevitable that YouTube was going to eventually get into the live broadcasting business and make that available to its users. After experimenting with live events in recent months, YouTube today announced its plans to expand the service and start rolling it out to select partners. While the service will be limited to select partners initially, there’s no doubt that it won’t be long before anybody can stream live on YouTube.

This is going to wind up being a huge development and will create a flood of new opportunities for comedians and new kinds of content you can broadcast. It will be interesting to see how it develops, but live streaming will allow you to better interact with your fans, it will potentially allow people all over the world to see you perform every time you go on stage, it will allow you to broadcast “live” from events or parties you go to, and it will allow you to let people watch your podcast as you record it, among countless other things.

While it’s true that all of this can be done now by using other live streaming services, those other services don’t have anywhere near the audience that YouTube does and that’s why this is such a big deal. Live video on YouTube is going to be huge and it’s coming – soon.

YouTube’s New Channel Strategy

The second major shift at YouTube hasn’t gone live yet, but it has been discussed in this Wall Street Journal article. Here’s an excerpt:

YouTube is looking to compete with broadcast and cable television, some of these people said, a goal that requires it to entice users to stay on the website longer, and to convince advertisers that it will reach desirable consumers.

The site is planning a series of changes to its home page to highlight sets of “channels” around topics such as arts and sports. About 20 or so of those channels will feature several hours of professionally produced original programming a week, some of these people said. Additional channels would be assembled from content already on the site.

It is planning to spend as much as $100 million to commission low-cost content designed exclusively for the Web, people familiar with the matter said.

This is huge for a couple different reasons. First, it shows that YouTube is really angling to become the equivalent of a TV network, competing with the NBCs and ABCs of the world for your attention on your Internet-connected TV (and yes, within 5 years you will have an Internet-connected TV). Second, it marks the first time that Google is getting into the content production (or at least content bankrolling) business.

As a comedian, this is yet another reason why you should be creating content and posting it on YouTube. Because in the very near future, that content will be able to be watched by people on their TV and YouTube will be looking to its own site to find people worthy of the content investment they’re going to be making in original content.

It will be interesting to see how this all plays out, but it’s clear that YouTube is about to become an even more important potential player in the development of your career.

Last week I came across an article that detailed the results of a recent study conducted by social media “scientist” Dan Zarella, through which he analyzed millions of tweets, Facebook updates, and email newsletter blasts to determine if there are better times of the day or week to get the most out of your social media promotion.

You can read the full article about Zarella “Science of Timing” study here, but in the meantime here’s a breakdown of the key points that I think will be most relevant to your interests.

Timing Matters

The big overall takeaway that you need to understand from the study is that timing does matter when it comes to using Twitter and Facebook. Depending on what you share and who your audience is, there will absolutely be better times of the day or week to get the most out of your updates and that’s something worth taking into account.

For example, if you’re on the West Coast and you’re planning to share a link to the new video you just posted on YouTube, it’s probably not the best idea to share that link at 10 pm because that’s 1 am on the East Coast and likely half of your potential audience is already asleep and will miss it.

Besides using common sense and thinking about when the most people are likely to see what you share, Zarella has created a cool little website called TweetWhen.com that allows you to enter your own Twitter account and see when your followers are most likely to retweet what you post. It doesn’t mean you shouldn’t tweet at any other time, but it’s a cool little stat to take into consideration.

Understand Your Audience

One of the things I’ve noticed has been very helpful for me is to understand your intended audience and think about their social media habits. For example, I know that my Connected Comedy readers are mainly comedians who are often out doing shows at night and who are likely sleeping late in the morning. As a result, I tend to post my most important social media updates in the afternoon hours, when the majority of my audience is awake and likely spending some time surfing around the web.

For yourself, you should consider who your audience is and when they’re likely to be the most tuned in to social media. For example, I spoke to one person who runs a blog that’s hugely popular among moms recently and he told me that his audience is much more active early in the morning – likely because later in the day they get busy having dinner with their family or taking care of their kids after school. Everybody’s audience is different, but the chances are your audience has a distinct time at which you can best reach them.

More Tweets = More Followers

This is one of the most interesting findings in the study in my opinion. Zarella found that Twitter accounts with the most followers tend to tweet an average of 22 times a day and that, in general, the more you tweet the more followers you get. This makes sense to me because the more you tweet, the more opportunity there is for people to respond to you or share what you said which in turn grows your following. However, I would caution you that you still shouldn’t just tweet for the sake of tweeting – you want to concentrate on providing value and interaction, whether you’re tweeting once a day or 30 times a day.

One other interesting finding related to this is that Zarella found that you should be careful when sharing links to content elsewhere on the web – if you share two or more links an hour, your clickthru rate drops dramatically compared to people who shared no more than one link an hour. But in an interesting twist, the study also found that you should…

Tweet Your Links More Than Once A Day

Since it’s so easy for people to miss your tweets, Zarella found that you’re actually helped by tweeting links to the same content multiple times a day (or week). Again, different people are online at different times, and the study found that you’ll receive almost the same amount of clickthrus on your link the second and third time you post it as you did the first. However, it’s recommended that you switch up the title or language of the link as opposed to literally reposting the exact same thing.

Also, Zarella points to an interesting experiment where a guy posted the exact same link every day for 9 days in a row and didn’t show any dropoff in clickthrus. You can read all about that here.

Your First Email Blast Is Your Most Important Email Blast

As part of this study, Zarella analyzed a whopping 9.5 billion email newsletter messages and found that the most important email you send to somebody that joins your mailing list is the first one that they get. He found that people are much more likely to click links in that first email than they are future emails, and that most people who are going to unsubscribe do so after receiving your first email if they don’t like it.

But the other thing Zarella points out about email newsletters which I think is worth noting is that “Unsubscribers are doing you a favor” because they don’t want to hear from you anyway. That’s actually a pretty smart way to look at it in my opinion.

YOUR TURN: Have you noticed any trends about the timing of your social media updates? Leave a comment and tell me what you’ve found have been the best (or worst) times for you to share stuff with your followers…

Every weekend I break down the 10 things I think you most need to see this week, including a mix of posts on this site and other stuff from around the web that I think should be on your radar. Here’s this week’s countdown…

10. The 4 Most Common Mistakes I Found While Browsing 50 Comedians’ Websites

In this Connected Comedy post, I break down some of the missed opportunities I saw after reviewing websites from comedians across the country.

9. What It Was Like To Attend The First Annual Comedy Awards

Connected Comedy reader and comedian Derik Boik had the opportunity to attend the Comedy Awards in New York and posted this interesting writeup about the experience.

8. 5 Free Tips To Get The Most Out Of A Road Show

In this Connected Comedy post, I offer some free advice for how you can maximize the benefits of performing on the road.

7. The Value Of Sharing On Facebook vs. Twitter

Mashable breaks down the statistics about what’s more valuable to you – having somebody share your content on Facebook or Twitter?

6. The Comic’s Comic Launches A Tumblr Page

You know this if you’re following me on Tumblr, but if not, the fantastic Comic’s Comic blog has now launched a Tumblr page.

5. The Importance Of Credibility and Patience

In this Connected Comedy post, I weigh in on a recent post by Bob Lefsetz that shares some excellent advice.

4. Another Big Acquisition By The Cheezburger Network

The Know Your Meme video series gets snapped up by the crew behind LOLCats in yet another viral content deal.

3. 5 Ways The Internet Has Changed What People Find Funny

In this Connected Comedy post, I examine some of things that have impacted the taste of comedy audiences.

2. How To Go Viral

Buzzfeed founder Jonah Peretti gave another talk recently and it include this interesting comment: “…publishers who want their content to go viral need to stop thinking about it as ‘information to get into people’s heads’ and more as ‘an excuse for social action.’

1. The Launch of The Gorgeous Ladies Of Comedy

The Comic’s Comic interviews Glennis McMurraym about a new site she’s launched to feature a group of female comedians who have joined forces to create content. Should be interesting to see how it develops.

Looking for more? Check out these previous Connected Countdown posts.

Lost amongst all the hype about how the Internet has changed the business and promotion of comedy content is the fundamental ways in which the Internet has actually changed what people find funny.

Obviously, there’s no real science to figuring out what is funny and that’s a very subjective topic, but I do believe that the Internet has ushered in some cultural shifts that have affected what the comedy audience in general finds funny and that are worth considering as you think about how you try to make people laugh.

Here’s a few things that I think have changed what people find funny…

1. Everybody Thinks They Can Be A Comedian

It’s probably not a shocker that just about every person in the world thinks they’re funny. That’s not new. But what is new is that new technology now allows anybody with a cell phone camera or a laptop computer to actually be a comedian who can reach the entire world with their comedy. In essence, the average Joe has the same potential to reach people with their comedy as a professional comedian does.

Of course, the professional comedian will be much more likely to succeed at making people laugh, but that’s not the point. Because the ability to “be a comedian” has been democratized, that changes the way the average person will perceive your attempts to make them laugh.

Years ago, if you were a “professional” comedian, there was an assumption that you were funny – you got the benefit of the doubt from your audience. But now, audiences are much more skeptical because literally anybody can create a YouTube channel and call themselves a comedian. As opposed to assuming you will be funny, people are now skeptical of your talent until you prove to them that you are.

2. It’s Tougher To Shock People

Not all comedy is based on shock value obviously, but shocking people is often an element in your comedy arsenal. And the Internet has made it virtually impossible to shock people because anything you will say or do has likely been said or done before online.

Years ago, when the average comedy viewer was only exposed to what they saw on television, it was much easier to grab their attention by saying things that they were shocked to hear somebody say. Even 15 years ago, it was a big deal to see somebody’s HBO special in part because it was the only venue outside of a club where you could really see a comedian say anything they wanted. But now, that element of shock is basically gone from comedy. When was the last time you saw an HBO special that included a bit that you were shocked to hear?

3. Audiences Are More Informed And More Fractured

Once upon a time you could use basically the same material and act for a long time in different venues without anybody knowing the difference. But now, thanks to clips of your act appearing online and any television appearances being archived online forever, audiences are much more likely to know your catalog of material. As a result, you’ll have to create more fresh material and update your act more often.

Additionally, the Internet and the wide array of options for people has splintered what was once the broad mainstream audience into a million niches. People can now control where they get their news, what they focus their interests on, and there’s a lot fewer shared references for a comedian to reference. While this can make it harder for comedians who are trying to establish middle-of-the-road, mainstream appeal, it can actually create a lot of new opportunities for comedians appealing to niche audiences like geeks, specific ethnicities, etc.

4. Comedy Fans Want To Participate As Much As They Want To Be Entertained

If you look at just about any of the most popular comedy sites on the Internet, they inevitably will have an element of crowdsourced content. This is because the Internet has created an expectation among comedy fans that they can be a part of the process – that they can create funny things just as well as you can. Whether it’s on a website, or in a video series, or even in your stage act, comedy fans will flock to opportunities to participate in your comedy and the more you let them become a part of what you create, the more bonded and passionate they will feel about your comedy.

This is a very different way of thinking about comedy than the pre-Internet model where no comedy fans felt enabled or interested in becoming a part of the show or comedy they’re consuming.

5. Comedy Fans Have Shorter Attention Spans

This one’s pretty obvious – when was the last time you watched a 10-minute video on YouTube? It’s probably been a while. The most popular form of comedy on the Internet is funny pictures and that’s because they are incredibly quick to look at and browse.

For better or worse, the Internet has led comedy fans to have a much shorter attention span than they used to. So, if you’re planning on putting out a video, you better have a joke in the first 20 seconds because if you don’t, most people will have already bailed before you even get to the funny stuff.

As I’ve mentioned before, I’m a huge fan of music industry guru Bob Lefsetz. His daily newsletter is packed with inspirational and thought-provoking takes on the changing nature of the music industry and how the game has changed for artists and creators. Even though it’s ostensibly about music, almost everything he says is directly applicable to comedians as well.

A couple days ago, Lefsetz wrote a fantastic piece about the importance of credibility for an artist these days and I wanted to share some of it with you here. I highly recommend going and reading the full article, but in the meantime here’s some highlights from what he wrote and my take on them.

In a news cycle on steroids everybody gets five seconds, not fifteen minutes.  And then you’re forgotten, for months, if not forever.  How long does a movie play?  If you’re not constantly stunting, the mainstream doesn’t care.  But the mainstream doesn’t count, your audience does.

Before you sign anything, do anything, look at it through the eyes of your audience.  Is it going to bring your core closer to you or push it away?  And don’t think casual fans can replace your core.  Casual fans come and go.  The core is there forever, if you treat it right.

Trying to go “viral” is great, but it’s meaningless if you don’t use your viral content to build a core base of fans. Don’t measure the success of your creations by how many views you get, or how many retweets you get – measure it by how many true fans you get from it. What’s important is not how many people see something you do, but rather how many of them stick around to see the next thing.

Gain fans.  You do this by allowing them to partake of your art for free.  And giving them tools to spread the word.  Know where to charge in the food chain. At first you pay your fans, then they pay you, it’s not the other way around anymore.

He’s absolutely right. You don’t build your career by putting up barriers to people engaging with your content. The more you give away, the more people will connect with you. There’s plenty of time to monetize them later by offering them things they will then value more. Personally, I’ve discovered this first-hand through Connected Comedy. I give 99% of my content away for free and the more I give the more fans I attract. And many of those fans eventually become clients.

Continue to reward the core with product and access.  If you aren’t reachable by your fans, you’re too big in the head.

It’s not about being a “celebrity.” It’s about bringing your fans into the process. The more they feel a part of your success, the more they’ll want to help you succeed.

Don’t try to blow it up too soon!  If you’re not willing to wait, you’re not willing to have a career.

I understand the frustrations of trying to build a comedy career – it’s not easy. But I also think that too many comedians are looking for that instant success and waiting for somebody to hand it to them, as opposed to going out and concentrating on slowly growing their fanbase. Do you have more fans than you had a month ago? If so, you’re succeeding. Be proud of that and be patient. If not, did you do anything to attract new fans this month? Why not?

TV is overrated.  Only do it if you want the YouTube video.  You’ll sound bad, you’ll have no charisma, and you’d be stunned how few are watching.  It’s broadcasting in an era of narrowcasting.  It’s controlled by a man who just needs to air something, who doesn’t care about you.  And you look hungry for fame like the idiots on reality shows.  Anybody can be on TV, few can hold an audience captive live.  Focus on the latter.

I agree 100% and I think the same goes for the comedy festival circuit and bookings at comedy clubs. Those things meant more in the old media world than they do now. They’re great for your ego, but essentially meaningless for your career. I’m not saying that getting cast in a TV show or landing your own sitcom is overrated, but booking a 10-minute standup set on Comedy Central or getting into the Just For Laughs festival isn’t going to change your life as much as you think it is.

Know that now, more than ever, rewards come to those who wait.  YouTube is filled with rockets into space that have fallen back to earth in locations we do not know and do not care about.  When few could play, in the MTV era, this instant stardom paid dividends.  Now, it doesn’t.

The game has changed. You no longer need somebody to give you permission to have a career. But along with that incredible freedom and opportunity comes a responsibility – it’s up to you to create your own career now. And that will take time. Be patient. And persistent.

Every weekend I break down the 10 things I think you most need to see this week, including a mix of posts on this site and other stuff from around the web that I think should be on your radar. Here’s this week’s countdown…

10. Win $250 In The First Connected Comedy Contest!

There’s still one week remaining in my first ever contest, where you can win some money for uploading a funny argument to Squabbler.

9. How Rebecca Black Has Changed The Internet Fame Game

Techcrunch looks at the remarkable viral success of Rebecca Black’s “Friday” song and explores what it means for the changing nature of fame on the Internet.

8. 5 Things You Need To Know About Hollywood Development Deals

In this Connected Comedy post, I explain how movie and TV development executives work and what they look for in projects.

7. 3 Easy Ways To Increase Your Album Sales

This post from the Head Above Music blog is geared for musicians, but it’s just as relevant for comedians with albums to sell.

6. 17 Traffic Building Tips From The World’s Most Popular Bloggers

This is a great roundup of advice about how you can get more people to read your blog, from a collection of bloggers who really know what they’re doing.

5. Why You Shouldn’t Do What Jay Mohr Just Did

In this Connected Comedy post, I explain why Jay Mohr’s decision to abandon Twitter is a terrible one.

4. The 5 Rules Of How To Be A Standup Comedy Audience

This article was written by comedian W. Kamau Bell and I’m guessing a lot of you can relate to it.

3. How To Brand Your YouTube Channel

This post from ProBlogger is a fantastic step-by-step guide to how you can get the most out of the design of your YouTube channel.

2. Why It’s Time To Stop Calling Yourself A Standup Comedian

This Connected Comedy post has stirred up a lot of discussion already – check it out and weigh in yourself in the comments.

1. Highlights From The SXSW Comedy Social Media Panel

The Comic’s Comic blog has been kind enough to post highlights from this year’s social media panel and it’s definitely worth a few moments of your time.

Looking for more? Check out these previous Connected Countdown posts.

When I have conversations with people pursuing a career in comedy, one of the things I always ask them is how they define themselves and their “job.” Essentially, what do they tell people that they do?

Inevitably, they often respond that they are (or they’re in the process of becoming) a standup comedian. I understand this, but I also have a problem with it because I don’t really believe that the career of “standup comedian” actually exists. And if it does, the ceiling for that particular career choice is incredibly low so it’s probably not the best way to define yourself. Here’s what I mean…

When you define yourself as a standup comedian, you’re essentially saying to yourself and the world that standup comedy is what you do and how you make a living. The problem with that is that in order to make a living as a standup comedian, you’re going to have to succeed at doing something other than standup comedy. The vast majority of successful standup comedians wind up having that success as a result of something they’ve done other than standup. Their success in acting, or writing, or creating content on the web, is what ultimately winds up earning them more money than their standup or getting them the notoriety/fanbase that allows them to make good money performing standup.

Very few comedians are able to have standup careers by only doing standup comedy, and those that are able to “make it” doing that inevitably earn a fraction of what comedians who have leveraged their skills in other mediums to fuel their standup career make.

You may think this is obvious and that when people describe themselves as standup comedians it’s implied that they’ll do other stuff as well, but in most cases I don’t think it is. Words are powerful – they can help motivate you, but they can also hold you back.

If you tell people you’re a standup comedian, that means that you’re thinking of yourself as a standup comedian. And if you’re thinking of yourself as a standup comedian, you’re focusing your efforts on being a standup comedian. And if you’re spending all your time working on your standup act, you’re not spending nearly as much time working on your writing, or acting, or creating other forms of comedy content – all of which you will ultimately need in order to enable you to have the standup comedy career you think you want.

By now, you either think I’m crazy and you’ve tuned me out, or you’re wondering what I think you should call yourself other than a standup comedian. I think that you should just call yourself a comedian. And more importantly, you should think of yourself as a person who gets paid to make people laugh through a variety of different mediums.

I believe you should approach your comedy career as if every medium is a weapon you have at your disposal and that all of them are equally valid in terms of growing your fanbase and career. Every possible outlet for you to be funny presents you with an opportunity to gain exposure and earn money – and none of these outlets is necessarily more important than another. Your standup act is just as important as your writing, which is just as important as your podcast, which is just as important as your YouTube channel, which is just as important as your acting.

It’s impossible for you to know exactly how your career will evolve and you won’t know where your breaks will come from, so you need to be committed to exploring all of these creative outlets. Too many comedians focus 90% of their energy on their standup, and basically ignore all these other elements which are just as vital to their career as a comedian. And the reason they ignore them too often is because they think of themselves as a “standup comedian,” so they convince themselves that the other stuff doesn’t really matter.

But it does. It matters a lot.

Think about it: if your goal is to build a career in which you get paid to make people laugh, are you currently doing everything you can to make that happen? Or are you just doing everything you can to make it happen in one way?

Click here to get more valuable comedy career tips!