Remember when Facebook hit 500 million active users and we all placed bets on whether or not a single website could ever reach 1 billion? And then last September when Facebook actually hit 1 billion, everyone in marketing called the game? Meanwhile, YouTube quietly (and I say quietly because for some reason marketers and Internet trend spotters alike failed to even classify it as a social networking site) reached the same unreachable milestone. And still marketers are allocating their social budgets mostly to Facebook and Twitter while ignoring YouTube.
This presentation outlines why YouTube should be a priority in your channel strategy and how to leverage thriving YouTube communities to get results.
2. ABOUT US
A LITTLE ABOUT US
Noah Echols
Associate Director of Strategy at IQ Agency
Immersed in digital for over a decade, Noah charts paths for clients that lead to
compelling digital experiences for consumers. Working across departments, he
curates insights to create multi-channel strategies that meet client objectives
and deliver value to the consumer.
@nvechols
Rachel Peters
Associate Director of User Experience at IQ Agency
Rachel enjoys all aspects of user experience, from interviewing customers to
designing interactions to testing those designs. Before becoming an experience
architect, she was a technical writer, creating help documentation, interface
copy, training demos, and functional specifications.
@rachelhpeters
Monday, February 24, 14
3. HERE’S WHAT WE’LL COVER
1
Why YouTube Matters
2
3
What You Really Need to Know
4
Features to Guide Your Strategy
5
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Before You Get Started
Q&A
5. Most brands have ignored YouTube while a few have
embraced it as a powerful tool in their channel mix. Not
only do you have an opportunity to get ahead of your
competition, but there are several other reasons to take
YouTube seriously:
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8. 5 REASONS TO PAY ATTENTION
1
2
3
YouTube has 1 billion active users every month
YouTube is the second largest search engine on the Web
Visual content, especially video, has become the content type of
choice among consumers
4
5
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The communities on YouTube are large, active, and passionate
Most of your competitors are probably not using YouTube effectively
9. STILL NOT CONVINCED?
• 100 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute
• According to Nielsen, YouTube reaches more US adults
ages 18-34 than any cable network
• 20% of global YouTube views came from mobile devices
• Over 6 billion hours of video are watched each month on
YouTube
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12. A FEW THINGS BEFORE
YOU GET STARTED
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13. GETTING STARTED | GENERAL TIPS
CHANGE THE WAY
YOU DEFINE WHAT
YOUTUBE IS
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To approach YouTube strategically, you have to
change the way you think about it. It is not a video
hosting site. It is not just a place to watch funny cat
videos. It is an flourishing social networking site where
users connect around shared passions.
14. GETTING STARTED | GENERAL TIPS
DON’T FEED THE
DON’T FEED THE
TROLLS
TROLLS
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Trolls are real and vicious, and they will show up in
your video’s comment section. Don’t turn off the
comments. Just ignore them and let other users take
care of it.
15. GETTING STARTED | GENERAL TIPS
BE ON GOOGLE+
BE ON GOOGLE+
TOO
TOO
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Google+ and YouTube overlap in a lot of ways, so treat
YouTube like you would a blog post in terms of SEO.
You will increase your brand’s authority and
ultimately its page rank.
16. GETTING STARTED | GENERAL TIPS
POST YOUTUBEPOST YOUTUBECENTRIC CONTENT
CENTRIC CONTENT
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Content posted to YouTube needs to be YouTubecentric, not just content that was created for other
channels but uploaded to YouTube to check a box.
17. OK, HERE S WHAT YOU
NEED TO KNOW
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18. UNDERSTAND CONSUMER MINDSET
Create content that
meets consumers
where they are in
their journey.
ACTIVE EVALUATION
PASSIVE EVALUATION
PASSIVE LOYAL
TRIGGER
LOYALTY LOOP
ACTIVE LOYAL
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MOMENT OF
PURCHASE
Brands that really get it, know what content
consumers need to move them along their
journey to purchase and then beyond
purchase into advocacy.
20. Owned
Paid
YouTube offers the
opportunity for paid,
owned, and earned
media.
While you should be posting unique content
to your channel mostly, your strategy
should included paid and earned as well.
Earned
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21. Paid
Owned
Earned
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YouTube offers the
opportunity for paid,
owned, and earned
media.
While you should be posting unique content
to your channel mostly, your strategy
should included paid and earned as well.
22. PREROLL
Preroll interrupts the
viewer and delays
them getting to the
content they want.
With that said, it should be a part of your
strategy – but you have an obligation to
carefully consider how you use it.
You will do more harm for your brand by
annoying users with bad content if your
pre-roll isn’t useful or entertaining.
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27. LEVERAGE YOUTUBE INFLUENCERS
Tap into communities
that already exist by
renting the legitimacy
of influencers.
YouTube recently launched the Video
Creation Marketplace to connect video
creators with brands. There are several
other services though that do the same
thing though, so find the right solution that
allows you to connect with the right person.
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30. PARTNER PROGRAM
• Allows you to share in ad revenue
• Partners can link to external websites in their video
• Google is incentivizing brands to create great content
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31. YOUTUBE ONE CHANNEL
Brand and organize
your channel and it
will be optimized
across devices.
You now have a lot of flexibility to organize
your content creatively on your channel as
well as link to your website, social accounts,
and other/partner channels. See the
resources at the end for help with branding.
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32. PLAYLISTS
Think of YouTube
playlists like Pinterest
boards or mix tapes.
Group content together by theme or topic to
make it easy for users to find what they are
looking for and to share a package of videos
with others. You can also embed an entire
playlist on your website.
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33. JUMP LINKS
Create chapters with
links, allowing users
to skip to relevant
parts
By adding a time code to the video url you
can create a link to a certain point in the
video. For brands this is most useful for
chapterizing videos in the description or in
the copy of a website where the video is
embedded.
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34. ANNOTATIONS
Entice viewers to
engage further with
the brand.
Provide links to relevant videos or external
content. Do not just add a link to the next
video though. It should be relevant.
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35. DESCRIPTIONS AND CLOSED CAPTIONING
• Only 160 characters of your video description will show in search
results, so make sure the first few sentences of your video description
are the most compelling.
• Titles should entice users to click – think Upworthy, but a little more
useful.
• Uploading a closed captioning script allows more of your content to be
indexed by Google.
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