SEO and YouTube

We have the technology that allows, well, anyone to shoot a video and upload it to the Internet for the whole world to see; however, for marketing purposes, that technology is useless unless you have the information and skills to promote that video so others will view it. In my previous post, I discussed ways of advancing your videos or YouTube channel to the website homepage where increased viewer traffic is inevitable. In this post, I will be discussing more technical ways of increasing views.

Search Engine Optimization or SEO. Many have heard about it, but most don’t know what it is. SEO is a concept that basically ties your website to popular search keywords. For instance, a baker who is uploading business-related videos to YouTube may consider including keywords like “famous cake batter” or “best cookie recipe,” so their video has more of a chance of resulting from a search about baking. I came across a great article by James Martin (2010) about the top ten SEO tips for promoting YouTube videos and I would like to share a few of the tips with you.

Martin begins with discussing the importance of including a “call to action” at the end of each video. What’s the next step? Should they visit your blog? Website? Should they call your office? It needs to be included (¶6).

Next, don’t ever underestimate the power of a good caption. You may not write a cute caption after every Facebook picture upload, but when you are marketing a business-related video you need to include a descriptive caption. Why? Martin explains: “YouTube, Google, and other search engines index captions and use them to help decide if a video is relevant to a query” (¶18).

And the tip that I agree with the most: create an original, branded YouTube channel. You have a credible company. You have an interesting, beneficial video. Don’t sell yourself short by uploading them to a plain, anonymous channel. “Branded channels give your YouTube presence a more professional look by incorporating your company’s logo, a custom background design, and so on” (¶21).

In closing, as the holidays are approaching, I thought I would include a hilarious, holiday-themed video starring John Roberts as he portrays his mother. This happens to be one of my personal favorites. Roberts’ YouTube channel has received 14 million views.

Video courtesy of: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTs5eKZ0i1E

If you would like to read Martin’s article that was cited in this post, please click here.

Happy Holidays and I hope to see some of your funny Christmas moments on YouTube soon.

Source

Martin, J. (2010). Top 10 small business SEO tips for YouTube videos. Small Business Computing. Retrieved on December 7, 2010, from http://www.smallbusinesscomputing.com/emarketing/article.php/3915326/Top-10-Small-Business-SEO-Tips-for-YouTube-Videos.htm

Marketing on YouTube

In previous posts, I have been discussing popular videos, personal learning networks, and tips to increase the number of hits your YouTube video will receive. Now, I would like to discuss the use of YouTube for marketing purposes. 

I was reviewing an article by Joe Whyte (2008) of Search Engine Journal. In the article, Whyte discussed interesting tactics to get your videos to the YouTube homepage—where they will receive the most exposure. First, he advised that old YouTube videos rarely receive acknowledgement on the site’s main page, so it’s better to delete the video and resubmit if it takes too long to receive substantial views (¶6). Next, a video rarely receives honors if the account lacks friends, subscribers, and comments (¶7). So, before you promote your video, you need to promote yourself. Whyte’s third tool to success is to keep in mind that videos receive additional recognition from YouTube when they receive a high number of views, comments, votes, and ratings. It’s best to share the video’s link through your social networking profiles, as well as e-mail (¶8). As far as how long a video has to gain the popularity to reach YouTube’s homepage, Whyte commented:

“To do this you are looking at roughly a 15 day window of marketing efforts put into YouTube. This can be stretched out however depending on how you are trying to make it to the home page (top favorites, top views, top comments etc.). (¶5)

As always, I would like to close with a video I feel deserves some acknowledgement.  Frostie the Cockatoo delivers some incredible dance moves to Willow Smith’s “Whip My Hair” that put Beyonce to shame. This fun video has received roughly eight million views since October. I wasn’t able to calculate the official number of views because of the number of times the video has been re-uploaded.

Video courtesy of YouTube 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-vtIljTDcA

Also, if you would like to read Joe Whyte’s article referred to in this post, please follow this link.

Sources

Whyte, J. (2008). Guide to video marketing on YouTube. Search Engine Journal. Retrieved on November 29, 2010, from http://www.searchenginejournal.com /guide-to-video-marketing-on-youtube/6381.

Gaining YouTube Fame: Using PLNs to Acquire Useful Information

It’s my hope that the information gained from my blog will be beneficial to my audience; perhaps beneficial enough to be included in personal learning networks. Personal learning networks allow all of us to utilize applications such as Twitter, Diigo, and RSS readers to collect information on our chosen interest. As evident from my blog, my interest lies within the use of video streaming websites, such as YouTube, to reach a large audience. My personal learning network led me to an online article by Andrew Bossom about finding fame through YouTube.

Bossom asserts that, given the continuous uploading of videos to YouTube, the odds of becoming famous from a video are quite bad: “As a result, it's pretty much a million-to-one chance that your videos will ever be noticed by anyone who can make you famous (¶2). Bossom continues by warning aspiring YouTube stars to not try to tip the scale in their favor by including copyrighted material, misleading tags or descriptions, and spam. He advises that such mistakes can often lead to annoying your audience or violating user terms that could lead to the deletion of videos. (¶5)(¶6)(¶7)

I’m guessing you have heard that old adage: if at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. Bossom stresses the importance of continuing to make videos, even if your initial attempts don’t gain the exposure you had hoped. (¶8) He continues by adding that your videos should feature what you’re good at, what makes you original: “You should also try to concentrate on what you're good at: whether it's comedy, journalism, how-tos or just straight vlogging, experiment to see what you're most comfortable with and do that” (¶9).

“How to achieve YouTube fame” is a great example of how personal learning networks can help you gather information regardless of the topic. The better the information you find, the better the chances of you being able to achieve your goal.

On that note, I would like to close with a YouTube video by a very funny, young lady. Her YouTube username is JennaMarbles and her video “How to trick people into thinking you’re good looking” has received nearly 10.5 million views since July 2010.

Source: How To Trick People into Thinking You're Good Looking-- JennaMarbles 

Disclaimer: Video contains some explicit language

References

Bossom, Andrew (2008). How to achieve YouTube fame. Knol. Retrieved November 15, 2010, from: http://knol.google.com/k/andrew-bossom/how-to-achieve-youtube-fame/1xa2lpeexuknb/2

A Look At BriTANick

It sparked a revolution. It made possible the dreams of stardom-seeking individuals from all over the globe. I am, of course, referring to the video-sharing website YouTube. The concept is quite simple—shoot a video, upload it to the computer, and then share it with the entire world. The exposure that some videos on the website have received is truly remarkable. “David After Dentist” was a video uploaded by a father who filmed his young son after a dental procedure that required some type of anesthetics. The video was uploaded to YouTube on January 30, 2009 and since has received nearly seventy-two million views and the boy has been featured on several daytime talk shows. YouTube has become a haven for aspiring singers, comedians, actors, filmmakers, and many other types of artists.

This week, I would like to discuss a comedy duo known as BriTANick. BriTANnick is composed of NYU graduates, Brian McElhaney and Nick Kocher. I was first introduced to the comedians’ YouTube channel through a college friend, who found their skit “Pillow talk” to be beyond hysterical—after viewing the video, I had to agree. Currently, BriTANick has a total of nineteen videos and a strong fan base. But, what makes Brian and Nick YouTube all-stars? What separates these two from any group of friends with a video camera? Is it the writing of their skits? The skits definitely feature hilarious scenarios—herpes medication ads, oversleeping, running into an old girlfriend; however, in my opinion, the key to BriTANnick’s success has to be Nick Kocher’s comedic delivery. In one skit, Brian and Nick are in a bathroom and begin a heated conversation with their own reflections. That said, BriTANick’s skits cannot be easily explained, and most surely need to be viewed first hand. To date, BriTANick’s channel has received nearly ten million views.

The influence of YouTube cannot be denied. With proper promotion, a video has the potential of receiving millions of views, which is evident from the mentioned YouTube stars. In future blogs, I will continue to examine popular videos and offer tips for producing and promoting your YouTube videos, so you will be able to achieve... fame.

David After Dentist

BriTANick YouTube Channel  

Welcome to my new blog

This blog will discuss the new trends in YouTube video publishing and discuss the phenomenon that is YouTube stardom.