Vidcon Thoughts: Today's Cutting Edge is Tomorrow's Stone Age

I'm mid-way through the first day of Vidcon, the YouTube content creator's conference being held this year at the Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles.  This second annual event is an opportunity for content creators of all types share experiences and gain a sense of how to succeed in this rapidly changing field.  At six years old, YouTube, and the online video world, is still fairly new - but the evolution of the content and the audience has been huge.  The challenge content creators face is staying ahead of the curve  - when the curve is constantly changing.

Jim Louderback, CEO of Revision3, an Internet Television network that creates, produces and distributes web television, presented his views on where television has been - and where it's going.  Revision3, like the media conglomerates,bundles a variety of niche programming under their umbrella, building a central brand identity and standard to help build audiences for the individual video products, and the overall Revision3 brand.

The questions relating to building an audience are on everyone's mind here.  As some of my friends here have pointed out, those are tricky questions.  While some successful YouTube personalities offer advice based on their experience - the rapid growth of YouTube has changed the nature of how producers go about marketing their channels. What worked in 2007 may be completely unrealistic in 2011 - the media world has changed that much.  The best that Vidcon attendees (and YouTubers in general) can do it absorb as many of those stores as possible, learn and brainstorm with their fellow YouTubers, and try to understand and design a catered approach for their specific audience.

But that's the challenge- and the excitement - of creating in the YouTube community.  At six years old, this is still brand-new.  Every channel - every brand - is unique.  Every pathway to success is new.  What's possible today in promoting with social media wasn't even possible when YouTube began.  Stats weren't available to the extent they are today.   The channel-building strategies shared at Vidcon three years from now will be so far removed from today's stories, this will seem like the stone age.