There’s a difference between creators who treat their audience as a resource and creators, who strive to build a community. After working with thousands of YouTube channels over the years, we learned that real connection comes from intentional, structured communication. And in 2025, you have tools that most creators still underuse.
Rethink Your Community Tab Strategy
We worked with a creator in the motivational niche who was losing engagement between uploads. Instead of more videos, we pivoted to the increase in Community Tab polls - text posts that added layers to their videos. That, along with other minor tweaks in their strategy, not only helped build a stronger community, but increased their engagement by 26%.
At ScaleLab, we offer a thorough and individualized strategy for growth. Sign up for an audit to learn more about the potential issues that could be holding your channel back.
This isn’t just engagement—it’s retention between uploads, and making the audience feel like a part of your YouTube team. And right now, it’s still massively underutilized. So, how do you maximize the Community Tab potential?
Build Recurring Formats
People feel the community and engage more when they know what to expect from your content. So try to set up simple, repeatable post types that show up weekly or on specific days. This can create rhythms and anticipation. For example, it could be weekly polls related to your content niche, or behind-the-scenes photo drops every Friday, or ‘ask me anything’ threads after each video.
These become rituals for your audience - and habits drive the feeling of belonging.
Use Polls as Story Tools
Most creators run polls just to boost interaction. That’s fine, but if you try to tie them to your content direction, you can instead build a stronger community. Let your audience vote on which video idea you’ll produce next. Use polls to test opinions on topics you plan to cover. Ask for a prediction on a series or outcome before the next upload. Let your audience engage.
Then close the loop. Reference the poll results in your next video or post. That makes people feel like their vote mattered. Because it did.
Turn Comments Into Posts
Mining your own comment section is one of the smartest moves. Find a standout question or opinion, then repost it in the Community Tab as a new discussion point.
Example: “Someone asked in the comments if I regret making that collab video. Here’s what I actually think…”
It shows you’re listening—and it keeps viewers checking back to see if their input gets spotlighted.
Turn Your Members-Only Feed Into a Dialogue Engine
Let’s talk about Memberships, because they’re great at improving the communication with your YouTube community. However, there are several issues with most strategies related to them: creators launch it, offer perks, then forget to actually talk to the people paying them monthly.
The channels that crush Memberships treat the Members tab like a VIP backroom. The approach needs to feel personal. You could send your Members unique videos, or behind-the-scenes voice messages, do regular polls that actually influence your content, and do the member spotlights (highlighting a few members each week in the main feed or video shoutouts).
This creates a loop: the more members feel seen, the more they recruit others. The Membership tab becomes a community within a community.
If you’re not sure how to set up YouTube Memberships or want help structuring your tiers and strategy—we’ve done it hundreds of times. At ScaleLab, we help creators launch and scale Memberships into serious revenue streams.
Use Comment Sections to Build, Not Just React
Some creators treat comments like chores: react with a heart, maybe reply to a few, then move on. But we’ve seen creators flip this on its head and use the comment section as content development feedback loops.
Try to seed the top comment yourself. Pose a deeper question or share an insight that leads the conversation where you want it to go. Start referencing top comments in the next video. This rewards attention and creates continuity. Clean out the noise. Use filters and pinned comments to elevate thoughtful conversation.
Done right, your comments become the R&D lab for your channel’s next evolution.
Real-Time Q&A
One creator we work with started hosting 20-minute impromptu Q&A live chats immediately after each major upload—either in the Community Tab or as unlisted streams for Members. It gave her most loyal viewers a reason to engage right after watching, and it boosted the retention through shared anticipation, triggered replays as people returned to reference what was said live, and doubled engagement on their first-hour uploads.
You don’t need to go live for hours. You just need to be there when your audience is already watching.
Turn Micro-Actions Into Macro-Relationships
Poor community building: “Smash like and comment!”
Better community building: “Vote on which ending I should film. I’ll DM 5 people who explain their choice.”
It’s the shift from audience to participants. Look at how platforms like Discord work—intimacy scales when you give micro-roles. Bring that to YouTube. Assign informal “roles” in your content—ask for timestamps, have fans track facts, create memes. Highlight and reward fan labor. Pin it. Feature it. Mention it in videos. Create rituals: same post every Monday, same emoji for inside jokes, same outro phrase that only fans understand.
You’ll notice that when you treat your audience like collaborators, they stop just watching—and start belonging.
Want help launching or reworking your Membership strategy? Or need someone to audit how you’re using the Community Tab?
We’ve helped creators turn passive subscribers into active superfans—and we can do the same for you. Reach out to the team at ScaleLab. Let’s make your audience stick around because of how you talk to them, not just what you publish.