Best Platform for Online Show

[Nelith Bandularatne]

Hello all,

At the moment I'm in the development stage of an online show for young people (age 14-25). The format basically entails me getting a young guest on (or potentially people tweeting in) and having a discussion on a current topic. So, from your knowledge, what would be the best platfrom to do this?

Would a podcast be ideal? Especially considering the lower costs?

Or potentially a YouTube show?

Or could I potentially do a website where young people run a column?

I'd love some advice on this. I'm in the process of completing market research with my partner and this will definitely be a question that I want to answer for this project.

 

[james_firmsites]

What kind of budget do you have, both in time and actual money as that will dictate quite a few things.

Youtube has a large time cost to get good looking videos and if you get decent cameras etc can be pricey (although I guess your expecting them to send stuff in themselves)

Website could be cheaper/faster

Podcast, probably the cheapest option as there are free podcast hosting services/aggregators.

What about twitch? that is more geared towards interactive live content and fits the demographic a bit better.

 

[Mr D]

OP, what is your aim with this?

Making money?
Reaching audience?
Other aim?

 

[Nelith Bandularatne]

James,
Well, my budget is quite limited, although I have most of the YouTube gear already through owning a channel a few years ago. It's something that I know too. Right now I'm swaying towards that. I'm 15 myself, so am really in this target demographic, and right now I'm thinking this in terms of the pros for YouTube:

In terms of podcasts and Twitch, the problem for me is that not many young people use it. It sounds weird but from experience most kids at school don't listen to podcasts and only a small minority watch Twitch streams. Also- in terms of Twitch, I watch it regularly to watch my favorite gamers. The problem I have with that is a question if it has a diverse range of user demographic? It seems to be gaming enthusiasts- mostly males. For this, I really want to appeal to ALL people in the above age range. Not sure if I've articulated my points too well there.

Anyway, thanks for the feedback- it has really opened my eyes and my business partner and I will discuss these options.

 

[Nelith Bandularatne]

Mr D,

I've started this with the idea of getting myself into the business world early and gaining experience early. I do truly believe that this has the potential to be a big money idea, so money is also a driving factor, I'm not going to lie. At the end of the day businesses are set up to make money, and this will be no different.

 

[Mr D]

Mr D,

I've started this with the idea of getting myself into the business world early and gaining experience early. I do truly believe that this has the potential to be a big money idea, so money is also a driving factor, I'm not going to lie. At the end of the day businesses are set up to make money, and this will be no different.

The aim you set will impact where you focus your efforts.
OK figure out which sites make the most money for a number of views.

AND

Figure out where the people likely to want to watch will congregate. If that's youtube then use youtube, if that's X site then use X site.

 

[DG web consultancy]

I don't know but here's what I think.

Starting with the most simple platform could help you build more initial traction and then be ready to expand on that. So you could re-purpose a column into both a website and videos but focus on just thing for a while before moving onto the next one.

My educated guess is that Youtube is where it's at for your target audience I think in a broad sense. Although that doesn't mean it's the best platform for the right kind audience.

When hearing the origin stories about how people succeed with this kind of thing the general message is to focus on finding the small number of super fans. The numbers don't matter so much if people aren't engaged or are indifferent.