YouTuber Collaborations and STCP
YouTube originally started as a way to upload home videos. However, as time has passed, there have been many YouTube content creators with a large following in the millions. The individual, as well as the content, produces fanbases, and because of this, some creators thought it would be a good idea to merge some of their fanbases through collaborations which increases loyalty as well as views for both creators.
In the below study, they analyzed the statistics for 7942 channels and found that their subscribers and viewers increased when they collaborated. This study highlights the importance of collaborations in YouTube and growing a community. Furthermore, because of these collaborations, Strong Triad Closure Property(STCP) is represented in two key ways.
One, within the YouTube community this creates strong connections between two people who then introduce that one person to other individuals within their community. Like the one displayed below, where Y are YouTubers. Yb collabs with Ya and Yc and they eventually end up collabing. For example, in the beauty YouTuber community, some connections form between the gurus because of the frequent collaborations that they have with each other, forming a group of varying strong and weak ties.
There may be some fans(let fans = F) who get introduced to YouTubers through collaborations, which also fulfills the STCP. Arguably, although there will be many weak edges from fan to YouTuber as they do not personally know the individual, it can be argued that dedicated fans of the YouTuber will likely have a strong edge, and this will then lead them to want to watch the collaborators of this YouTuber because of their desire to know more about their liked creator. This will then form either a weak or strong edge with the other YouTuber, whether this is through casually watching their content or actively following them.
The gaming community is one example of this. Because of the similarities and potential for collaboration that inherently comes from playing a game, many channels end up collaborating. If they do multiple collaborations there is more likelihood of their fanbases forming a strong connection or edge with the other person. If the collaborators have strong connections with people who also play that same game, they can collaborate with their friends as well, creating a larger community within YouTubers. This is an example of how YouTube fulfills STCP and forms a group. The gaming community is one example, but other communities on YouTube have also followed STCP.
YouTubers use the STCP and the connections that are gained from this to grow their fanbases, their views, and popularity as a whole. Returning to the mentioned study, the collaboration counted as one if there was explicit mention or multiple appearances with the specific YouTuber. Their views likely increased because their fanbases combined and created a weak link from one fan to another YouTuber causing there to be more views overall.
Source: https://www.arxiv-vanity.com/papers/1805.01887/