Over the last few months, YouTube has made some huge announcements about the changes it will be making to the platform throughout the rest of 2022. From shopping integration to editing tools to increased commitments to creators, anyone making and sharing content on YouTube can stand to benefit from these changes.

But what are they, when are they coming, and what do they mean for creators? Here, we’ll break down the key things you need to know about each of YouTube’s announced changes, and how you as a creator can benefit from them.

YouTube’s new Creator Liaison

With a mission to "help creators better understand YouTube", the creator liaison position is proof that the platform is finally making good on its goal to help creators succeed on YouTube. The channel’s new Creator Liaison is Rene Ritchie, a tech YouTuber with over 328,000 subscribers and over 50 million views who clearly understands not only YouTube’s platform, but the challenges and issues faced by other creators who use it.

Richie’s appointment was announced in a video featuring some of YouTube’s biggest stars, including MKBHD and MrBeast. As a self-proclaimed …"person who advocates for creators inside of YouTube to help them better understand us and empathize with us,” Richie’s position holds a lot of potential.

But how will this help creators?

Richie says the only thing that’s off the table for him in this role is “individual creator support”. For that, you’ll need to go to the YouTube support team. But otherwise, everything that affects the creator community from burnout and stress to spam, transparency, scams, and the algorithm, are within his remit. He even aims to help creators connect with YouTube via collabs, podcasts, newsletters, social media, and ‘town halls’.

YouTube’s new Shorts editing feature

If you’ve been creating YouTube Shorts, you’ll know they’re a great way to attract new viewers and subscribers to your channel. In fact, YouTube’s algorithm is strongly in favor of creators that take advantage of its Shorts feature, as the platform joins in the race to become the most like TikTok. But one downside of Shorts for creators is that it can be time-consuming to add an extra load of content creation to the to-do list on top of longer videos.

That’s where the new editing feature comes in: it allows YouTubers to edit down old videos into 60-second clips, highlighting previous content and republishing it as a Short. Unlike its existing video remixing tools, YouTube’s new feature will allow creators to sample their existing content for longer than 5 seconds at a time.

But how will this help creators?

As well as being a quick and easy way to promote and repurpose older content, new Shorts published through this editing tool will automatically link back to the original video they sample. So viewers that enjoy your Short can easily find and view your original, longer video.

As well as driving views to content you might like to present to new audiences, it also makes an easy way for creators to get into creating shorts without spending too much time creating extra original content.

YouTube x Shopify integration

Eligible creators will be able to promote and sell products via their videos thanks to a new partnership between YouTube and Shopify. It will allow viewers to view and buy stock in real-time while watching videos, without even leaving YouTube.

Products will be ‘pinned’ in live streams, linked in sections below videos, and displayed as a ‘shelf’ at the end of videos featuring the creator’s products. It will include “real-time inventory syncing” so any sold-out items won’t show in the videos to prevent disappointment, and orders from U.S. creators can all be completed within YouTube’s platform. A smart move, since Shopify’s shares have fallen whilst orders placed through Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook have quadrupled.

But how will this help creators?

Monetizing videos in this way takes a step away from ads and branded partnerships and presents an opportunity for creators to seamlessly promote and sell their own products. For those who don’t have their own merchandise, it elevates opportunities for brand deals, paving the way for new and exciting ecommerce options for just about all kinds of creators.

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