Being able to easily get in contact with someone, is one of the most deciding factors in whether we actually DO contact someone or not – and it’s incredible how many YouTube channels make something very simple, very complex.

Estimated read time: 4 minutes

You would be amazed, AMAZED, at how difficult it is to get in contact with many YouTubers. I’m not talking about little tiny channels, that simply haven’t gotten around to that point – the ones that “don’t know any better”. I’m not talking about the super large 20+ million subscriber channels either, that would rather 99% of people not contact them.

No, I’m just talking about YouTube channels in general, from gaming to makeup to comedy sketches, and everything in between. It’s nothing new either – I’ve had to cancel dozens of outreach possibilities on behalf of clients, over several years, simply because we can’t find an email for the YouTuber. No matter the type, people on YouTube make it incredibly difficult to get in touch with them.

Why would you want to?

Some people might ask “Why would you want to be contacted”? They might jump to the mistake, that only their regular viewers would contact them, and they have comments for that.

But anyone that runs a serious website, works in a major brand or company, someone that maybe wants to reach out to you to review a product, do an interview, invite you to an event, and so forth – all these people won’t use the comment system.

These people are essential for any YouTube channel, if they want to grow big, if they want to be taken seriously outside of the YouTube-stratosphere. It is where business connections are made. It is where partnership deals and sponsorships are made.

In fact, even when game developers TRY to send YouTubers games, that YouTubers have CONTACTED them about, they run into this problem! SizeFiveGames studios had this to say (thanks to Redditor VegetarianZombie74 for the heads up!):

“SO: please make it REALLY easy for me to confirm you’re legit. Put your contact email in your About page, and link me to that in your email so I can compare the two. Without that, we have to jump through hoops where you tweet me or something and it just takes loads of back-and-forth, and neither of us have the time for that.“

If nothing else, it’s the way you might get sent free games, products, and other stuff – and who doesn’t like free stuff?!

And yet, it’s impossible to find a private way of contacting you, on your YouTube channel.

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Unable to find an email anywhere

OK, so no email on their YouTube channel, thank god they have their various other social media connected, right? Surely there HAS to be a way to contact them! But no.

I have scoured through endless twitter accounts, walked bewildered through the wilds of Twitch, and searched through Facebook pages. Heck, channels with dedicated websites often don’t even have an email to contact them through!

I’ve gone through the channels themselves, as well as maybe 3 or 4 other platforms where they are active on, and in none of them does there exist an email to contact them on. That’s just insane, so much so that it almost seems like a conscious choice (though I doubt it).

Apart from being a general frustration, it also creates a serious credibility issues. Did you know that 55% of people asked, say that no contact information is a reason they have a site (comparatively, the massively annoying video auto plays are only 5%!)? If we look at YouTube as a job, as “your business”, then we can get some interesting statistics regarding general online behaviour. See this survey from Huffington Post / ContentMarketingInstitute (source):

Why isn’t Twitter et al OK?

So why won’t someone just contact you through Twitter? Facebook? Or just the YouTube messaging system?

Well, first off: same mistake again. People have turned off / not enabled private messaging on those platforms. This happens ALL the time.

Second: No, I won’t contact you on behalf a major brand, via a public tweet, or a public Facebook message on your page. No, should I think, would you want everyone to know what brands or companies contact you, regarding your content!

So why not just YouTubes messaging system? From personal experience: because no one ever reads it, and it’s a hassle to use.

You also need an account (for most brands, they just only have the one massive account – not individual small YouTube accounts for each employee, as you would email addresses), and most YouTubers don’t actually read this. So this is obviously also a no-go.

So what to do?

So, there’s no silver lining here. This is a general problem, that shouldn’t be a problem. It’s incredibly easy to fix. Enable private messages on your Twitter account. Make sure people can send you private messages on Facebook.

And, of course, make sure you have a contact email set up on YouTube!

To do that, simply go to your “About” page, on your channel. When you’re there, you’ll automatically see a field that says “For business enquiries”, with a button. Just push the button, and write in your email. Save, and you’re good to go!