Thursday 8 December 2011

8 ways to maximize your YouTube Presence

I thought that we'd covered this post when it was published on Social Media Examiner in July, but we didn't!

And, this week I have been doing a lot of work on YouTube - how to get your videos noticed and spreading. It's not easy but there are some tricks that we're testing at the moment. We'll let you know how they do.

The one KEY that we have missed before in our efforts for our artists (even though we've pointed it out in other posts!) is to use YouTube as a social network. The younger you are the more you probably do this (that's what the demographics show) but most don't. What does that mean? - well, add friends, ask them to subscribe, create favourites and get liking videos (and ask for likes back).

All that interactivity seriously boosts your channel and videos inside YouTube's ranking algorithm - more so if you can get views, comments, favourites and likes within the first 48 hours of uploading. This is a GREAT thing to ask your fans to do for you by emailing them and asking them to log in to YouTube and watch the video and favourite it, comment on it or like it.

This MASSIVELY increases your chances to appear in the 'recommended' or 'related' video lists which in turn exposes you to a wider audience.

We're trying to test how well this works - and it looks good - and we have a few other tips that we hope will make these 'best practice' approaches work even better.

It's also becoming clear that having your video embedded off YouTube on third party sites is a BIG deal to YouTube and proves that your video is hot - and hence they want to encourage more people to see it. Again, getting your video embedded on other people's blogs as soon as possible after you upload it becomes a marketing goal.

So, if and when we get some specific feedback from our own efforts, we'll let you know.

In the meantime, as I said at the top - I came across this post again in my search for tips.

It has some great basic tips that you MUST be using. Check it out here.

And here's the video from one of those tips. We've only just started adding this to our videos, but it works in a big way! An annotation that links directly to the 'subscribe' button for your channel. This video shows the old layout, but it explains it well. I'd recommend adding a 'Subscribe to us for more videos' annotation to every video you have on YouTube.

It WILL increase your subscriptions and that will help your YouTube marketing. Best tip - have the subscription come up at least twice, maybe three times. First time after 20 sconds or so, second time just after half way and thirdly, right at the end as the video ends.

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