Introducing Top Fans

We know that behind every great channel are a set of dedicated fans, and we want to help bring you closer to your top fans. This year, at VidCon, YouTube announced the start of a Beta test for a feature called Top Fans — a set of tools to help YouTube creators identify, understand and interact with their most engaged and influential viewers. Today, we’re opening the feature to all creators worldwide with at least five thousand subscribers. If that’s you, check it out here or look for the new "Community" tab.

You’ll see the fans table, which shows a ranked view of your most engaged and influential viewers, updated daily. You can sort the table by engagement level (comments, likes and other public actions) or by number of subscribers, so you can find some potential collaborators! If you've connected your channel to Google+, you can also add viewers into circles and send them a message via Google+.

Speaking of circles, select the insights view to set up an initial Google+ circle of your Top YouTube Fans. Get a ticker of their latest engagement with your videos, making it easy to reply to their comments. See what other videos and channels they’re into, and reach out via Google+ to ask a question, start a conversation, share behind-the-scenes photos or upload a private video just for them.

This works even better if your fans are also following you on Google+. To help with this, we'll start prompting your top fans when they're watching your videos to follow you on Google+.

A big thanks to our wonderful set of creators who helped Beta test Top Fans. We got a lot of great feedback, and have already responded with some new features, such as the ability to sort the table by the date a viewer subscribed, the ability to click to see additional comments from a given fan, and new ways to help find people to add into your Top Fans circle.

This is just the beginning. We'll keep improving these tools, and would love your feedback. So give it a try and let us know what you think with the "Send Feedback" link. And tell your Top Fans we said hi. :)

Jeb Havens, YouTube Product Manager, recently watched “Sad Cat Diaries”