In the TV world, the content creation feedback loop circles primarily between writers/showrunners, producers and the broadcaster. Focus group testing can take measure of “regular people” feedback, and social media allows fans to let their voices be heard as the content airs.

But in the rapidly expanding world of YouTube-based multi-channel networks, that traditional model is flipped on its head. Fan feedback drives content creation as creators base their output on what fans tell them they’d like to see.

At least that’s the experience of the YouTube stars personalities Sara Lynn Cauchon (The Domestic Geek), Laura Riihimaki (LaurDIY) and Beth Le Manach (Entertaining with Beth), who presented to an audience of media buyers at Corus headquarters in Toronto as part of the media co’s Digital Media Power Hour event on Wednesday.

Cauchon, who came from the TV world in gigs like hosting Diva on a Dime and Rooms that Rock and serving as a producer on Steven & Chris and Lost and Sold, said she was at first shocked at the level of engagement with fans her YouTube channel generated.

“What I never expected when I started on YouTube was to have this two-way dialogue. Coming from broadcast – where I make it and you watch it – it was so unique to have this real-time feedback,” Cauchon said. “Unlike broadcasters who decide what they are going to put on air, I put on air what my viewers tell me they want to see,” Cauchon said.

The presentation, moderated by Kin Community founder and CEO Michael Wayne, focused largely on the influence fans have in the YouTube space. With an audience of media buyers, the panellists stressed the importance fan support has in the MCN world, where viewers – with nothing to lose other than their time – have high expectations for authenticity and little tolerance for anything else.

On brand-sponsored content, which is rife in the MCN world, all three stars said they were open and welcome to it but that brands have to enter the space trusting the creators and allowing them a high degree of control over the final product. As LaurDIY’s Riihimaki said, creators invest heavily in creating fan bases and even a lucrative brand placement may not be worth undoing that work.

“Let the creator do their thing. Trust is everything with your subscribers,” she said, noting that she didn’t “work for three years” to lose her subscriber base over a brand partnership gone wrong.

Cauchon noted that subscribers will respond well to brand-sponsored content if there is value in it for them.

“Subscribers and viewers will forgive you as long as they’re getting value from the content,” Cauchon said, pointing to a partnership she did with OtterBox protective iPad cases as a successful example of brand integration for The Domestic Geek. The OtterBox cases are meant to protect tablets, which is a useful product for someone who may be using a tablet to follow a recipe, she noted.

“If you are coming to YouTube to work with a creator, then what you are after is the authentic connection thy have with their YouTube audience. You don’t want to override that,” Cauchon cautioned brands and advertisers.

The event follows Corus’s 2014 investment in Kin Community, which saw it become the exclusive Canadian representative for the programming and advertising opportunities on Kin Community.