YouTube Community Convention

Research date: 2026-06-25. Parent router: docs/social-post-convention.md. Packaged asset: assets/social/youtube-community-convention.md.

Rules Vs Norms

• Platform official guidance comes from YouTube Help and YouTube policy.
• Creator norms around polls, teasers, and audience prompts are optional and must not overpromise future videos or releases.

Channel Profile

Audience expectation: Existing or reachable YouTube audience updates, polls, teasers, behind-the-scenes notes, and video-adjacent discussions.

Format patterns: Text post, image/GIF post, poll, quiz, video post, playlist post, or short update that points to a video.

Length guidance: Keep community posts short and oriented around one action or discussion point. The platform supports multiple post types; select the type before drafting copy.

Link, hashtag, and media norms: YouTube Help describes posts as lightweight ways to engage audiences through text, images, GIFs, polls, quizzes, and videos. Use posts to add context, solicit viewer input, or connect a long-form/Shorts idea to the channel audience.

Tone: Direct, channel-native, and audience-aware.

Spam triggers: YouTube says posts that violate Community Guidelines may be removed and can result in strikes. Avoid misleading thumbnails, reused content without rights, and irrelevant link drops.

Source-safety risks: Community posts can be seen by viewers without the source artifact context. Avoid roadmap promises, unapproved launch claims, or customer references.

Drafting Modes

platform_aligned: Draft a short post using the selected YouTube post type, with one source-safe viewer action and no unsupported claim.

creator_inspired: Draft a poll or "which would you rather see next?" update tied to approved work, with choices that do not overpromise future production.

Publish Precheck

• Confirm post type is available for the channel.
• Avoid Made for Kids or supervised-account limitations where relevant.
• Confirm any media is rights-cleared and accessible.

Sources Accessed 2026-06-25

• YouTube Help, Learn About Posts.
• Sprout Social, How to Create a Social Media Content Strategy, published 2026-03-25.