John Shahidi
Co-Founder and CEO of Shots Studios
Discussion
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john shahidi
@john · Co-Creator of Shots Studios
Hi, I'm John Shahidi, co-creator and CEO of Shots Studios. Together with our creators Lele Pons, Rudy Mancuso, Anwar Jibawi, Inanna Sarkis, Lorenzo Cromwell and Awkward Puppets, we’re creating some of the best comedy videos on YouTube. Soon, we’ll be creating music — starting with the Awkward Puppets. Here’s a teaser .
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Atri BrownSound
@atri_infinite · Grad Student @Dartmouth College
Hey John, I was wondering what you would consider the Top 3-5 most important analytic metrics that independent artists and rising content creators should be focusing on when it comes to help building and growing their brand?
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john shahidi
@john · Co-Creator of Shots Studios
@atri_infinite If we're talking about YouTube, retention is the most important. We look at watch through rates, bounce rates (when and why the audience leaves your video) and views from subscribers vs. views for outside sources (and what are those sources).
Philip Kuklis
@philipkuklis · Co-Founder, Hubble
Hi John, in a recent interview with @jason you said that when it comes to (social media) platforms, people want discoverability more than anything else.
What do you think will content discovery look like in the future?
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john shahidi
@john · Co-Creator of Shots Studios
@philipkuklis @jason There needs to either be a very smart searchable way to discover the content like on YouTube or it has to be wisely curated based off your interests. It seems like Instagram Discover is doing a better and better job of this.
Mike Coutermarsh
@mscccc · Code @ Product Hunt
Hi John! Can you give any insight into your content creation process? What role does data/analytics play? What types of things are you measuring? 😀
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john shahidi
@john · Co-Creator of Shots Studios
@mscccc We look at lot of different things but our #1 focus is retention and figuring out why the audience stays and why they leave. Data provided by YouTube to the channel allows us do this so we can better the jokes in future videos. It's like a standup comedian on stage, they know what jokes the audience laughed at and what ones they did not laugh at. YouTube gives creators the same luxury, we just have to refine the data and help our creators understand it.
Nawal_Ali
@nawal_believe · Spread happiness
How did you gather your group of creators and what advantages and disadvantages are there from being on the platform you are on at the moment? Thank You for creating such an incredible app and being an inspiration to many. ~ Nawal ☺🙏✌
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john shahidi
@john · Co-Creator of Shots Studios
@nawal_believe Our team is a group of humble and creative women and men who we were lucky to meet inside the Shots app in 2014. It's important to Shots Studios to have a group of people who understand how to create and grow a business while doing it with integrity.
What do you think will happen to Vine 🌱 and do you think that comedy community can be created somewhere else?
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john shahidi
@john · Co-Creator of Shots Studios
@nivo0o0 I am not sure what will happen with Vine. yes, the community can be created somewhere else. Most of the community is viewing our videos on YouTube now. There will be more comedians who were not on Vine that will have an opportunity on YouTube, Instagram and maybe one something new, like a VR platform.
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john shahidi
@john · Co-Creator of Shots Studios
@lilibieber28 I have had a few and one that stands out all the time is the dream that my family always lives comfortably.
Lumo
@lumo_prince · just Lumo ... the real one
This is not a question, just something I want to say. I appreciate the way you and your team interact in social media. Thanks for that and for all the funny moments we had with your videos. Lumo
Daniel Landy
@danolandy · 📚Babson Student
One of your greatest strengths seems to be building and maintaining relationships. How do you go about managing those and have you ever mismanaged a relationship?
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john shahidi
@john · Co-Creator of Shots Studios
@danolandy The most important thing is to have a great personal and loving relationship with the people you work with. I love every creator that works with Shots Studios as a friend first. We all agree during the signing process and say to each other "No matter what, friendship first". Justin and I did this too when he invested in the company a few years ago.. we also looked each other in the eyes and said "friendship first". It's worked so far. Of course, we are all humans and since we are friends/family first, there will be times we don't see eye to eye. But that's human nature. 99% of the time, we are all happy and laugh with one another. We have to.. we are creating comedy and music.. we have to be happy.