Introducing Handles: A Guide to the Latest YouTube Feature for Law Firms

Video is an increasingly crucial component of successful legal marketing. Now, marketers searching for a way to make their content more discoverable and engage with other creators on YouTube have a new tool in their arsenal. Handles offer the ability for content creators to turn their video page into a community. Here’s a breakdown of how to use Handles when it comes to YouTube for law firms.

With the new feature, every channel will have a unique handle, which makes it much easier for viewers to discover and interact with content creators. These handles will appear on channel pages and Shorts, making them more recognizable. This also makes it easier for content creators to mention each other in comments, community posts, video descriptions, and more. For example, you can shout out a creator that you’ve partnered with in comments or be tagged in the title of collaborative content. Using handles will help you to increase visibility and reach new audiences. 

Furthermore, handles will join channel names as an additional way to identify a YouTube channel. Unlike channel names, handles are truly unique to each channel so that creators can carve out a distinct presence with YouTube for law firms. 

In coming weeks, YouTube will notify creators when they are able to choose a handle for their channel. If a channel already has a personalized URL, that will become its default handle. However, administrators can opt to change the handle for their channel as soon as the notification in YouTube Studio comes through. Remember that handles are made to be completely unique and every single handle will have one – therefore, they will be rolled out slowly. According to YouTube, “The timing of when a creator will get access to the handles selection process depends on a number of factors, including overall YouTube presence, subscriber count, and whether the channel is active or inactive.” 

Finally, when a creator selects a handle, YouTube will create a matching URL so that they can easily direct people to their content when they’re not on YouTube. If your channel already has a personalized URL, you don’t need to update links. They will be automatically redirected to the new, handle-based URL to create a better, more unified presence for creators on YouTube. 

Takeaway: 

The goal of YouTube’s new handle functionality is to provide a unique identifier to help people discover and connect with brands on the platform. These handles will help people to find your content and interact with your firm on YouTube. For more details on exactly how the handles will work, you can read the FAQ provided by YouTube. If you need to level up your video production efforts, reach out to us. We help firms of every size to script, plan, and produce videos depending on their budget and goals.