Creator Playbook Version 2 February 2012
Table of Contents 3 Introduction 4 Playbook Structure 5 Icons & Key Definitions -------6 Prelude: YouTube Analytics Programming & Producing Publishing & Optimization Community & Social Media 14 18 23 28 31 37 39 44 47 52 57 63 68 70 75 78 84 The First 15 Seconds Calls to Action Regular Schedule and Frequency Tent-pole Programming Cross-promotion and Collaboration Checklist Metadata Thumbnails Annotations Playlists & Video Responses Channel Page Reaching All Audiences Checklist 86 87 88 89
Introduction Welcome to the second edition of The YouTube Creator Playbook! This version features a new look, brand new sections to reflect the new channel design, and lots of updates to help you optimize for the overall new site layout. We’re excited to provide our partners with a great resource that compiles important tips, best practices, and strategies that will help you build your audience on YouTube.
Playbook Structure The Creator Playbook is structured into three sections: Programming & Producing, Publishing & Optimization, Community & Social Media. Each section presents several optimizations or strategies for building audience or engagement on YouTube. These ‘best practices’ are each explained in stages to help you understand each point and guide you through taking action.
Icons & Key Definitions Progress Bar Progress bar appears at the top of the page showing the progress through each best practice explanation.
Prelude YouTube Analytics YouTube Analytics is a powerful tool and valuable resource for all content creators. The tool provides deep insights about your channel, videos, and audience. Analytics should be used in conjunction with The YouTube Creator Playbook to help you prioritize optimizations, measure impact of new strategies, and to assess your channel’s performance.
YouTube Analytics Strategy: Use YouTube Analytics regularly to assess your channel’s performance, and investigate changes or trends across different metrics. Why It Works: Analytics provides actionable intelligence for creators to make better videos, implement or measure optimizations, and develop strategic programming. How To Do It: Gain fluency in YouTube Analytics product. Routinely assess channel’s performance and make changes to content or strategies based on findings.
YouTube Analytics YouTube Analytics is a robust tool that provides informative data and insights about your content, your audience, and your programming. What you learn by using YouTube Analytics can help inform programming and production decisions for your channel, and helps every creator be smarter and more strategic with the videos they create.
YouTube Analytics Viewership • Identify and analyze your most viewed days, weeks, and individual videos to understand why they were so successful. Determine the causes or catalysts for the high performance and build on them: repeat themes or video topics in a new, creative way or shift how you divide up time and resources to focus on types of videos that performed well in the past. • Optimize the videos from your archive that continue to perform well.
YouTube Analytics Community Actions: ‘Likes’, ‘Favorites’, Comments, Shares • Measure community actions as a ratio of total views to gain the best understanding of what videos are causing the most actions. • Assess which videos get the most actions relative to how many views they’ve received to better understand which videos increase engagement with your viewers and why. • Measure the impact of including Calls to Action and annotations for comments, ‘likes’, or ‘favorites’ in your videos.
YouTube Analytics Audience Retention • The ‘Relative’ retention graph shows how your video performance compared to other videos on YouTube of the same length. ‘Absolute’ shows you the viewer retention for every 10 seconds of the video. • Improve the format or pacing of your videos and find optimal video length by examining the graphs.
YouTube Analytics How-To Steps 4. Make programming or creative decisions based on your data assessment 1. Gain fluency in YouTube Analytics Explore YouTube Analytics and read through documentation to understand what each metric measures and represents. When you have assessed your channel performance, decide what actions to take based on your findings. 2.
Section One Programming & Producing 14 18 23 28 31 37 The First 15 Seconds Calls to Action Regular Schedule and Frequency Tent-pole Programming Cross-promotion and Collaboration Checklist 13
Programming & Producing The First 15 Seconds Strategy: Make the beginning of your videos compelling to your viewer. Why It Works: Attentions spans are short. Hook viewers right from the start and increase engagement for the entire length of the video. How To Do It: Accomplished through production and video structure.
Programming & Producing The First 15 Seconds Many viewers decide whether they are going to keep watching your video within the first 10-15 seconds. Attention spans can be short and they are just one click away from abandoning your video. The video’s content - “What am I Watching?” - should also come across in the first few moments and hook them early to give them a reason to stick around.
Programming & Producing The First 15 Seconds Examples Engage First, Brand Second Branding as Compelling Content • • /sxephil /CollegeHumor Compelling Openings • /Vsauce (3 openings) • /FoodWishes • You! 16
Programming & Producing The First 15 Seconds How-To Steps 1. Understand the engagement & viewing trends of your content Use tools available in Analytics to better understand how your videos are performing in terms of engagement and audience retention. Short attention spans or ‘drop-offs’ in attention or retention at the beginning of the video reflect a need to optimize the first 15 seconds of the video(s). 2. Determine the right ‘hook’ or opening for your content and audience 3.
Programming & Producing Calls to Action Strategy: Direct viewers during the video to take actions that can help build audience. Why It Works: Online video is an interactive experience. Prompting your viewers to take action will lead to more activity and help you build engagement and audience. How To Do It: Accomplished through production and/or annotations.
Programming & Producing Calls to Action Watching content online is an interactive and social experience and content creators rely on the actions of their audience to help them succeed - but the many viewers won’t act unless you prompt them. Videos you produce and publish should have specific Calls to Action (CTA). Depending on the message, you can use the beginning, middle and end of the video to direct the actions of your viewers. CTAs should be minimal and simple. Too many prompts can cause confusion.
Programming & Producing Calls to Action There are many ways to communicate with your audience and include Calls to Action in your videos. In many cases, talking to the audience can be the most powerful but there are many effective ways to prompt your viewers to take some action. Methods and Types of Call to Actions in Your Videos To Camera Host-Mentions In-Video Graphics and ‘End-Cards’ • • You can use graphical overlays and other graphics in your videos to prompt for specific CTAs.
Programming & Producing Calls to Action Examples Subscribe • /MysterGuitarMan • • /DailyGrace You! Ask a Specific Question More Content (Annotations) • • /KnowYourMeme /eHow Remember that it is a violation of YouTube Terms of Service and Community Guidelines to incentivize clicks on video features in any way (i.
Programming & Producing Calls to Action How-To Steps 1. Determine desired actions 3. Include / add call to actions to the video Decide what actions you want your viewers to take for each video. Prompts for key community actions such as subscribing and watching more content should be included in most videos, but assess the right actions for your content and overall objectives. Videos should have a call to action.
Programming & Producing Regular Schedule & Frequency Strategy: Release content frequently on a recurring schedule and maintain activity on the channel. React to trending topics with relevant content. Why It Works: Frequency of uploads and other platform engagement keeps your channel feed active and retains audience interest. To build an audience, “A consistent audience requires consistent content.” How To Do It: Find the right release schedule for your audience.
Programming & Producing Regular Schedule & Frequency There’s a lot of great videos to explore on YouTube, and so remaining relevant, engaging and maintaining the interest and attention of your audience is important. The activity of your channel’s feed is how you keep your audience engaged. ‘Feed’ your Channel’s Feed! Get the Most from Your Productions • Make the most of your production investments.
Programming & Producing Regular Schedule & Frequency Some of the same trends and viewer interests that drive television viewership are applicable to the web. Regular release schedules, programming, and timely publishing are all important in online video. Timely Publishing • ‘React’ to trending topics with relevant content when it makes sense for your audience. Don’t be too locked into your schedule.
Regular Schedule & Frequency Programming & Producing Examples Supplemental Content (Behind-the-Scenes / Teaser) • Maintaining an Active Feed with Uploads and More /TheMomsView Supplemental Content (Comments Video) • /BarelyPolitical 26
Regular Schedule & Frequency Programming & Producing How-To Steps 1. Find the right schedule for your content 2. Get the most of your production investment The right schedule depends on your category and content. There may be existing trends that your schedule can be based on. For example, movies typically get released on Fridays, so if you review or provide commentary on films, this calendar may influence the right day of the week for new videos.
Programming & Producing Tent-pole Programming Strategy: Create, release, and/or package content that is themed around tent-pole events. Why It Works: Tent-pole events drive search trends, editorial opportunities, audience interests, and advertiser campaigns. How To Do It: Create and publish content according to a programming calendar. Use playlists and other packaging to angle your content for tent-pole events.
Programming & Producing Tent-pole Programming Why does Discovery channel have Shark Week every year? Why do a lot sitcoms have a Halloween themed episode at the end of October? Why does the Today Show have relationship experts on the week before Valentine’s Day? The answer to these questions is: Tent-pole Programming. Tent-pole events are the cultural events that promotion, sponsors/ advertisers, and viewing trends orbit around throughout the year.
Programming & Producing Tent-pole Programming How-To Steps 1. Create a programming calendar 3. Perform blog outreach Create a programming calendar for upcoming months. Identify the key tent-pole events that are relevant to your channel and meaningful to your audience. Send your tent-pole videos to relevant blogs, sites, and online communities offering them content for their readers. Identify (or invent your own) tent-pole events where you may want to dedicate more resources, time, or content.
Programming & Producing Cross-promotion & Collaboration Strategy: Work with other creators and cross-promote content between channels. Why It Works: Cross-promotion directs viewers to content or channels, and collaboration with other creators can be one of the most powerful ways to reach new audiences and build views. How To Do It: Create a strategy to cross-promote your content to relevant audiences. Find and reach out to channels with similar audiences to plan creative collaborations.
Cross-promotion & Collaboration Cross-promotion across channels and collaborations with other online creators are some of the most effective methods of building audience and subscribers. Accessing new audiences on YouTube begins with finding the channels where those audiences are already engaged.
Programming & Producing Cross-promotion & Collaboration In-video Promotion Channel Promotion • Guest Star: Appearing or guest starring in other channels’ content is a great way to work with other creators and channels. You can combine elements from each of your channels, or simply fall into another channel’s theme completely. • • Shout Out: A shout out can be illustrated with actual clips/ teasers from the channel that’s being promoted or a simple host recommendation can go far.
Cross-promotion & Collaboration Programming & Producing Shared Topics • Organize and create videos with other producers that are related, complementary, or supplemental. Focus both sets of content on the same tent-pole event or create complementary videos that have similar tones, subjects, or perspectives. • Make the viewer aware of all channels involved in the cross-promotion through playlists, annotations, mentions, video descriptions, and links.
Programming & Producing Cross-promotion & Collaboration Examples Guest Star Collaboration and Cross-Promotion • /FreddieW and /EpicMealTime • /Weezer and /TheMuppetStudio “Part of making it on the internet is working with a lot of people, that is definitely essential.
Cross-promotion & Collaboration Programming & Producing How-To Steps 1. Build your channel’s appeal Before reaching out to collaborate with other channels, build your value with great content and an engaged audience. Create something exceptional, unique, compelling, or special with your channel that will make other channels interested in supporting or working with you. This can extend beyond just content to include production support, access to talent, shoot locations, etc.
Programming & Producing Programming & Producing Checklist Create great content that is unique, compelling and entertaining or informative. Optimize the first 15 seconds of your video. Include specific Calls to Action in the video or through annotations. Set a recurring schedule for your channel and maximize your production investments to optimize how often you are able to release content.
Section Two Publishing & Optimization 39 44 47 52 57 63 68 Metadata Thumbnails Annotations Playlists & Video Responses Channel Page Reaching All Audiences Checklist 38
Publishing & Optimization Metadata Strategy: Write optimized titles, tags, and descriptions for your content. Why It Works: Metadata helps YouTube index your content and is critical to building views from search and suggested videos. How To Do It: Use optimized keywords and formatting when writing metadata for your videos.
Publishing & Optimization Metadata YouTube is the world’s 2nd largest search engine; optimize your video to take advantage of this fact. Metadata is the information that surrounds your video: Title, Tags, Description, Thumbnail. This set of data informs the YouTube algorithm of a video’s content, indexing it for search, features, related videos, and ad-serving.
Publishing & Optimization Metadata Title Titles are an important tool to describe the content and compel users to click on your video. Think of them as taglines or magazine headlines that will peak interest of potential viewers, but they need to be formatted and written with keyword optimization in mind. Tags • Create a set of ‘standard tags’ for your channel that can be applied to any video you publish. These tags should be tags that apply to most of the content your produce (i.e.
Publishing & Optimization Metadata Description Descriptions provide additional context and information about your video to compel viewers to click. Every video you publish will reach new viewers. Your description is another key opportunity for you to let these new viewers know about your channel and everything it has to offer. Provide links to visit your channel, subscribe or watch more content. • Include a recurring ‘Keyword Tagline’ in episode descriptions.
Publishing & Optimization Metadata How-To Steps 1. Utilize keyword resource tools 3. Optimize metadata for every new upload (and archives) Use the keyword generator tools (links available in Appendix) to help you generate and test keywords for your uploads and/or channel. Create a compelling, accurate, and keyword-driven title. Keywords first, brand or show name after. 2.
Publishing & Optimization Thumbnail Optimization Strategy: Create great, high-quality custom thumbnails for your videos that accurately represent the content. Why It Works: Thumbnails act as mini-marketing posters for your content and are important to attracting clicks on your videos. How To Do It: Design and upload custom thumbnails for new videos. Update archive video thumbnails.
Publishing & Optimization Thumbnail Optimization Thumbnails, along with your video title, act as mini marketing posters for your content on YouTube. You should always create custom thumbnails to be uploaded along with the video file. There are a few general guidelines to follow, but the right poster-frame depends on what the video is about. • • • • • • • • Clear, in-focus, hi-resolution (640px x 360px min.
Publishing & Optimization Thumbnail Optimization How-To Steps 1. Keep thumbnail optimization in mind when shooting 2. Create a great thumbnail Shoot your videos to make the content translate into a great thumbnail. Using images from the video and supplemental images (where relevant/appropriate) to create a custom thumbnail that shows off the best aspects of the video.
Publishing & Optimization Annotations Strategy: Use annotations on your videos to increase viewership, engagement, and subscribers. Why It Works: Annotations are a unique feature to YouTube and can help you keep viewers watching more content, increase community actions on your videos, and acquire new subscribers. How To Do It: Add relevant and helpful annotations to all your videos after upload. Use annotations on archive videos to direct traffic to new initiatives or content.
Publishing & Optimization Annotations Annotations are text overlays that you can place on YouTube videos. There are numerous uses for annotations and producers are constantly finding new, creative, and strategic ways to apply them to their videos. Types of Annotations • You can customize many different aspects of annotations including: size, color, type, link, and timing of annotations. Annotations Use Cases • Different types of annotations are useful for different needs and strategies.
Publishing & Optimization Annotations General Best Practices • Avoid annotations in the lower-third of the video. The advertisement overlay can obscure annotations placed there. • Make sure to write and place text so it looks nice and reads well on the screen. • Be careful not to obstruct the actual content. • • Use your best judgment to determine timing, placement, style, and how many annotations you should include in your episodes.
Publishing & Optimization Annotations Consistent Annotations for Navigation Other Annotation Strategies Some channels have found success in using an annotation template: the same annotations, in the same placement across all of their videos. Such as: • Front of episode call to actions: Ask viewers to ‘like’ or ‘favorite’ the video. • Ask a question. Asking a specific question is often more effective. • Other videos or content that is referenced in the video.
Publishing & Optimization Annotations How-To Steps 1. Learn how to create annotations 3. Update annotations on high-performing archive videos Understand the different types and uses of annotations, as well as how to create and edit them. Add and update annotations on high-performing archive videos to help leverage these views to new initiatives or new uploads. 2. Add annotations to new uploads after publishing Use annotations to repackage old content for new purposes along with updated metadata.
Publishing & Optimization Playlists & Video Responses Strategy: Organize your content into sets of videos using playlists and video responses. Create show separation, themed content, or curated content using playlists. Why It Works: Playlists help organize your content into meaningful sets of videos which will increase the number of videos a viewer watches and improve navigation of your content. How To Do It: Create playlists for different sets of videos.
Publishing & Optimization Playlists & Video Responses You can create playlists using your own content, other channels’ videos, or a combination of both. Playlists can be used as an organizational tool for content, or creators can produce playlists as a viewing experience for an audience. They can be featured on your channel, and they show up in search results and suggested videos. Playlists as Organization Playlists are a great way to organize your videos into groups and viewing sets.
Publishing & Optimization Playlists & Video Responses Optimized Playlists & Video Responses Promote Your Playlists • Utilize metadata strategies and keywords when titling and writing a description for playlists. • • Creating or adding videos to a playlist will be published to your feed, notifying your subscribers. Adding to your playlists is another way to be active on your feed and broadcast your content. You can reorder videos to create the best linear viewing experience for your audience.
Playlists & Video Responses Publishing & Optimization Examples Playlists on Channel ‘Added to Playlist’ in Feed ‘Hosted’ Playlist Example 55
Playlists & Video Responses Publishing & Optimization How-To Steps 1. Set a strategy or use of playlists for your content and channel Each channel is different, so find the right use of playlists and video responses for your content and audience. Decide if your playlist strategy should or will affect how you produce content or publish it, (i.e. videos produced for a playlist should follow a structure that is tailored for watching a set of connected videos.) 3.
Publishing & Optimization Channel Page Optimization Strategy: Optimize and design your channel page’s avatar, metadata, layout and background. Set the correct sharing settings for your channel’s Feed. Why It Works: A well-designed, organized, and search-optimized channel page will attract more viewers, make your channel a richer destination for subscribers, and create a professional look.
Publishing & Optimization Channel Page Optimization YouTube channel pages can be optimized in a number of ways to help make your channel a discoverable destination that offers consistent, current content. When setting up and optimizing your channel page, you should be thinking about visual branding, channel metadata, and channel organization. Discoverability • Upload a square high-resolution (1600px x 1600px) avatar that is recognizable at smaller resolutions.
Channel Page Optimization Publishing & Optimization YouTube Channel Pages have two main ways of displaying a channel’s video content: through the Feed or through the Featured Tab (utilizing channel templates and the Featured Video module). The feed is an important promotional tool for your channel – it is displayed on your channel page and can be accessed on the homepage for subscribers. The Feed • The feed broadcasts channel activities to your current subscribers.
Publishing & Optimization Channel Page Optimization YouTube Channel Pages now come with the ability to organize content into templates. Highlighting playlists, recent uploads, or other channels, templates allow creators to tailor their channel experience around the content that they upload, curate, or want to feature. Templates, Modules, and Layout • Each channel template highlights different types of content. The five different templates are: • Creator – highlights playlists.
Publishing & Optimization Channel Page Optimization Examples Creator Template with Other Channels Module enabled Blogger Template with Top Branding Enabled • • /SongsToWearPantsTo /BarelyPolitical 61
Publishing & Optimization Channel Page Optimization How-To Steps 1. Design a great channel background 2. Optimize channel metadata Design an attractive background for your channel that features the personalities, characters, or content of the channel. Write an optimized, accurate channel description including: release schedule, show description, and other relevant information. Make your channel’s content clear in the first 45 characters of the description.
Publishing & Optimization Reaching All Audiences Strategy: Optimize videos and create content to reach the widest audience possible. Why It Works: Overcoming language and/or cultural barriers will allow you to reach untapped audiences, propelling viewership growth. How To Do It: Use online tools to create captions for your videos and create content that can transcend cultural differences.
Publishing & Optimization Reaching All Audiences YouTube is a global platform and your audience can exist anywhere. Taking extra steps to optimize your content for any potential audience will help your videos reach as many people as possible. Making your content accessible to foreign language speakers and viewers who are hard-of-hearing provides you with completely new viewers.
Publishing & Optimization Reaching All Audiences You can optimize your current content to be able to reach more audiences. YouTube provides several features to help you caption and subtitle your videos for multiple languages and you can use metadata to capture global searches. Metadata for a Global Audience • Adding captions to your videos will help it show up more places on the site. If your video is captioned for multiple languages it will be searchable in these languages.
Publishing & Optimization Reaching All Audiences Examples Metadata in Two Languages • /tartofraises1 Collaboration with Global Channels • • /megwin A Global Audience Shown in Analytics /Faireset with /MysteryGuitarMan 66
Publishing & Optimization Reaching All Audiences How-To Steps 1. Consider all audiences when creating content 3. Add captions to your current videos Identify opportunities to reach a new audience around the globe with your videos. Adapt your most popular videos to be in more languages. Prioritize languages by looking at your traffic sources from different regions in YouTube Analytics. Re-edit your current content that is well-suited for translation to have different audio in different languages.
Publishing & Optimization Publishing & Optimization Checklist Every channel’s specific approach and strategy to publishing will vary, but below is a simple and useful publishing checklist that covers some of the most important actions required once you upload a video. Making the video is only half the battle, optimizing and engaging with the community after you upload are of equal importance. Upload Write detailed and comprehensive metadata following keyword strategies and formatting.
Section Three Community & Social Media 70 75 78 84 Involve Your Audience Blog Outreach Other Social Media Checklist 69
Community & Social Media Involve Your Audience Strategy: Interact with your audience and involve them in your videos or channel. Why It Works: Viewer interaction builds loyalty to your content and increases viewer engagement. The channel’s involvement can guide conversation in comments and user actions. How To Do It: Create viewer-centric content, and engage with the audience through social features on the platform.
Community & Social Media Involve Your Audience Online Video is social; it is a two-way dialogue. People are drawn to online video and web series because they can interact with the channel in ways that they can’t with television. The ability to interact with your viewers is key to the medium. So, speak to your audience, and listen to what they say. Ask the Viewers If you actively engage with your audience through your channel, it will pay off in the long run.
Community & Social Media Involve Your Audience Your viewers don’t just want to be an audience, they want to be a community. They want to engage with your channel and interact through comments, messages, and more. Make sure you are a part of that conversation and representing your brand well. If your videos attract a large viewership, a community will emerge with or without you.
Community & Social Media Involve Your Audience Examples Featuring the Audience Featuring Comments / Acknowledging the Viewers • • /schmoyoho /iJustine Asking the Audience Uploader Comments Show Up First • • /BarelyPolitical /TheIndieMachines 73
Community & Social Media Involve Your Audience How-To Steps 1. Set your own interaction strategy 4. Dedicate time to interact after each upload In whatever way makes sense for you, your content, and your channel, acknowledge the viewers and make them feel important. Whenever you upload a new video, dedicate time to interact with your audience. Message them on social media, and be a part of the early conversation that happens around your videos. 2.
Community & Social Media Blog Outreach Strategy: Share your content with relevant blogs, sites, and online communities. Why It Works: Blogs and other sites are always looking for great content to feature that is relevant to their audience. External site traffic can be a significant driver of views for your channel. How To Do It: Create a blog roll and only share content that is relevant. Target your outreach and build relationships.
Community & Social Media Blog Outreach Don’t limit your purview to just YouTube. A lot of viewers find content on YouTube through other sites on the Internet. There are tons of sites and blogs that are always looking for great content to write about or feature. Make it easy for these people to promote your videos by reaching out to them with great content that is relevant to their audience. Build Relationships • Keep track of what blogs and sites are featuring your videos and driving views.
Community & Social Media Blog Outreach How-To Steps 1. Create a blog roll 2. Send videos to targeted outlets Use blog directories such as Google Blog Search, Technorati, and Alexa to find blogs and sites that are relevant to the type of content you produce. Send brief, personalized emails to appropriate contacts and include a short description of the content, why it might be good for their audience, and a link to the video with the embed code. Make a note that they can embed/share if they like it.
Community & Social Media Other Social Media Strategy: Leverage other social media to build viewership on your channel and engage with your audience in new ways. Why It Works: Social media is a great way to turn your fans into a social army that will help you broadcast your content out to their personal network. How To Do It: Engage with your audience and promote your YouTube content on social media platforms.
Community & Social Media Other Social Media Google+ Creators should establish a Google+ Page to engage with fans and other YouTube creators. Google+ allows you to organize people into different ‘circles’ to help you guide your interactions and tailor your engagement to a circle’s specific interests or needs. Not only can you share videos and other media, you can get face-to-face, live engagement with your audience in Hangouts.
Community & Social Media Other Social Media Google+ (continued) Hangout! Measure • Host Google+ Hangouts with your fans on a regular basis. • • Hangouts are a great way to seek input from your fans and reward your super-fans with personal direct access to you. Find out what people are saying about you and your videos by using Google+ search. It’s a good way to help you spot super-fans and conversations you can jump into, when it makes sense. • Be creative with Hangouts.
Community & Social Media Other Social Media Facebook Creators and Partners should have a Facebook presence for their YouTube channel. It is a great tool to interact with your fans in different ways and build audience. Your activity and the activity of your fans on Facebook get multiplied out to their groups of friends, so it is a great way to rely on your fans to help introduce your show to new viewers. Facebook Best Practices • Post new uploads to your Facebook page.
Other Social Media Community & Social Media Twitter Twitter is another tool to interact with your fans in a conversational way. Twitter is also a great way to identify your peers, contribute to the conversations that are relevant to you and your audience’s interests, and spot what is trending on the Web. Twitter Best Practices • Twitter updates should be a mix of personal updates as well as promoting your content. • Share links to your newest videos on twitter.
Community & Social Media Other Social Media How-To Steps 1. Create and set-up accounts on social media sites 4. Post / share your videos Create accounts on sites that are relevant to your content and audience. Find niche sites that are specific to your audience. Make posting your YouTube videos to social media sites part of your YouTube publishing process. Post new uploads, but also find ways to repurpose or reintroduce videos from your archives to your fans on social media sites.
Community & Social Media Community & Social Media Checklist Set up accounts and set specific strategies for all social media sites that are important to your content or audience. Create and maintain a Blog Roll for your channel. Include niche sites or targeted sites for tent-pole related content. Dedicate time and resources to involve and interact with your audience. Perform outreach to blogs, sites and online communities for relevant videos.
Now, Go Create Something.
Appendix 86 87 88 Video Upload Checklist Metadata Keyword Resources Glossary 86
Video Upload Checklist Every channel’s specific approach and strategy to publishing will vary, but below is a simple and useful publishing checklist that covers some of the most important actions required once you upload a video. Making the video is only half the battle, optimizing and engaging with the community after you upload are of equal importance. Upload Publish Engage & Outreach Write detailed and comprehensive metadata following proper formatting and strategies.
Metadata Keyword Resources • YouTube Keyword Generator / Video Targeting Tool: Identify new keywords for your video. https://ads.youtube.com/keyword_tool • YouTube Trending Topics: Identify trending topics in your category. http://www.youtube.com/videos • Check out the keywords that other successful, similarly themed videos utilize. • Start to type keywords in the YouTube search bar and see what suggested searches come up.
Glossary (Annotations - Feed) Annotations Video Annotations are an uploader-controlled dynamic overlay you can add to videos that allow you to overlay text on a video and/or make parts of the video ‘clickable.’ You can add, edit and delete annotations to your videos controlling the text, placement, timing, and link URLs. URLs can only be directed to YouTube.com.
Glossary (Favorite - Share) Favorite(s) A user action that adds a video to their channel’s‘favorites’ playlist. This action can also be broadcast out to subscribers. Hook Content that is meant to keep viewers interested in what happens next. Ideally a video’s hook happens within the first 15 seconds. Hosted Playlist A collection of videos in a playlist with added video context from the playlist creator. Context is added with ‘hosted’ videos that can act as intros, outros, and/or interstitials.
Glossary (Suggested Videos – YouTube Analytics) Suggested Videos Thumbnails Video thumbnails that appear in the right hand column of watch pages The image selected to represent your video or playlist on the site. and the homepage, or the tiled thumbnails that appear when a video has finished playing. Traffic Source The referral source of a view for a video. The page, module, or place of a Subscriber / Subscription site that drove a viewer to a video.
