Showing posts with label youtube music marketing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label youtube music marketing. Show all posts

Wednesday, 22 February 2012

The Guide to making social video that gets shared

Social_video_blueprint
If you're a regular reader, you'll have noticed that the posts have dropped off dramatically since I took up a job at a major management firm - read a bit more about that here - as I simply don't have the same time to pick up on great tips.

As promised, normal service will resume as and when Steve gets on board and I find that extra bit of time to keep this up!

One thing I have had confirmed from the first month back in the mainstream music business is that there really is a level playing field for the DIY musician and what we and the other musician advice bloggers tell musicians is EXACTLY the same stuff that big music marketing agencies charge labels and globally succesful artists loads of money to do.

So, what we're telling you is what works!

Anyway, here's the tip that I've come across today.

This free eBook is called the 'Social Video Blueprint' and it explains what makes a video likely to be shared and therefore likely to get more likes, views and comments.

It's written for brands rather than musicians and some of the specifics don't apply. In fact, there's a lot of general theory in the first two-thirds of the book, but read it all and in the last third you'll find loads of good solid tips and advice that will help you make videos that are more likely to get views.

For musicians part of the message is that you can make a video that seemingly has little to do with your music (as well as making lyric videos, music videos, backstage and live videos etc) and let your music soundtrack be part of the video. If both are good, you can direct some of the viewers on to your music elsewhere.

There's plenty of specific ideas on what type of content works in that context.

In fact, when you sign up for 'Social Video Blueprint' you'll also get 'Video 101', a basic short overview of video marketing that is also extremely worthwhile.

Go and get them here and see what you can learn to apply to your videos.

 

Thursday, 19 January 2012

You must set up a YouTube channel!

Youtube_channel
Bob Baker has been writing about music marketing a long time.

This post by his assistant, Kendra, is an exceptionally good take on why you need to have a YouTube channel that you update regularly and, more importantly, what you should put on it!

I accept that there are some artists who benefit from ignoring all the modern music marketing advice and decide not to make a direct connection with their fans - we wrote about how creating an air of mystery is an alternative way of thinking in this post.

But, the vast majority of artists now accept that getting closer to your fans is the strategy that is most likely to aid success - and videos on YouTube are a key part of that.

So, go and read Kendra's post. What's genius about it is that she has loads of ideas that I support for things that aren't you playing music or doing covers which you can film and post to enagge your fans.

Get her ideas here.

Friday, 13 January 2012

A YouTube test - HELP please

This is a video uploaded yesterday by a musician who follows our blog.

I spent some time yesterday and the day before working on and explaining a strategy that I am sure will bring additional exposure for Nick's music. He is a talented singer songwiter with a focus on 12 string guitar.

You can see the thread of the advice (there was also a long phone discussion) on our Facebook wall in the threads of the last few days - (if you're reading this weeks later, don't sweat it as the test will be over!).

In short Nick is going to build a profile as a great 12 string guitarist with lots of YouTube video and a website dediated to that niche genre of music. This WILL WORK for him as he has the talent and his material is strong. He can therefore focus on gaining a fanbase in his niche and grow from there.

It's exciting!

What I NEED your HELP with.

I want to use Nick's video uploaded last night as a test on how my experience and theories on YouTube are developing.

I really need as many people as possible to:

1. Log in to their YouTube account - this is crucial;

2. Visit the video's URL here -

3. Click the 'Like button' just under the left side of the video.

4. Comment on the video.

5. Add the video to 'favourites' and to a playlist by using the second button in from the left.

6. If at all possible - embed the video on a site that you have or post a link somewhere that points back to the video with the anchor text '12 string guitar lesson' .......if you know what that means!

7. Share the video on Facebook, Twitter and Google+.

8. Watch it - although actually that's not the point right now (weird, I know!).

If you could do any or all of these things I would be extremely grateful.

The purpose of this test is to see how all those positive actions affect the YouTube algorithm and how much it increases the profile of the video on YouTube - in 'hot new videos', getting on the front page etc.

We can track that with YouTube Insights and it will really help me in my future advice to everyone who reads our post.

The point is not to 'game the system' but it is to try and work out a best practice approach to follow every time you upload a new video to give your video the best kickstart and chance of high numbers of real views and the best possible viral spread.

Nick is just the guinea pig but he deserves our help too!

Please help us out and we'll let ou know if it works, or not!

 

 

Thursday, 5 January 2012

New YouTube Channels allow off-site links!

Music_marketing_youtube
Happy New Year.

I owe this one to @ThornyBleeder who posted about it over the holidays.

The post is on Social Times and sets out how to redesign your channel after the new makeover that YouTube has had.

The big notable improvement is that you can now have links to your site and social media profiles from your Channel page - every artist should go and add these now. The article tells you how:

...covers the ins and outs of the new site design, starting with the new YouTube channel design and layout.

If you haven’t visited your YouTube channel since the redesign then you’re in for a surprise.  Not only can you now post links in the sidebar of your channel, but YouTube is also now offering a series of layout templates, a new Feed and more.  Not sure where to get started?  Not to worry.  We’ll take you through all the steps of getting your new YouTube channel set up.

Read the article here.

And you can check out the quick spruce up and off-site links we have made to our YouTube channel here - http://www.youtube.com/MakeItInMusic.

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.

Friday, 14 October 2011

Link your YouTube videos to your site - BIG deal

Youtube_off_site_link
I recently learnt about this very cool trick and then saw this post on ampmusicmarketing that teaches you how to do it.

This is a BIG DEAL!

We started using this IMMEDIATELY that we found out about it.

The instructions explain how to add a link to the bottom of your video on YouTube which links to your own site.

YouTube lets you do this in the description of a video but the usual on-video annotations can only link to other videos on YouTube.

So, getting a link to your site that offers viewers a free download of the track that they are watching if they sign up to your mailing list is really special.

The instructions are great but they leave out a couple of key points.

1. Don't worry about paying for the clicks. Although this is supposed to be about using Google Adwords and Youtube Promoted Videos together, you don't have to aim to get the video ranking high in YouTube's paid search in order to get the off-site 'call to action' link on your video.

Set it up and bid very low - 1 cent will do it - and you'll be allowed to add the link but you'll get very few, probably no paid clicks and it'll cost nothing.

The video will still show the off-site link everywhere that it is played.

2. This link is better than the link in your description as it will display everywhere that your video is embedded. So, make your video, put the CTA link in and then try to get it spread to other sites where your description wouldn't show, but this CTA link will.

DO THIS, it's brilliant marketing for almost free.

Here's the link again.

 

Wednesday, 28 September 2011

How to use YouTube

How_to_use_youtube
A new post on the main site where you'll want to download YouTube's own 'Creator Playbook'

It's very useful!

Learn how to use YouTube here.

Thursday, 21 July 2011

YouTube tell you what to do to get best results

This is BRILLIANT and I owe @DannyDee for pointing it out.

YouTube is preparing a 'Partner Playbook' for those lucky enough to have a YouTube Partner channel (where YouTube pays you because you get great traffic).

But, this piece on Social Times is written by someone who was at the YouTube Partner conference and where YouTube's Ryan Nugent gave an hour long presentation on best practice.

OK, so it's not targeted to musicians using YouTube but pretty much anyone making video and using YouTube to virally spread them can learn a lot from this.

Creating great content is, without a doubt, the most important ingredient in the recipe to YouTube success.  However, even if you have the best content on the planet, nobody will see it if you haven’t optimized it for discovery.  Ryan Nugent of YouTube’s Next Up Lab says, “50% of the work is making a great video and the other 50% is what you do when you upload it.”  Here, we lay out some helpful rules and guidelines for optimizing your content, as outlined in Ryan’s presentation of the YouTube Partner Playbook.

Check out the Social Times piece here.

And watch the YouTube video here. No, really, do. It could be the best use of an hour of your time!

Monday, 4 July 2011

Great YouTube music marketing

I owe this post to Greg Rollett who emailed this link out yesterday.

He's promoting his evergreen and brilliant course - the New Music Economy - you can check that out here. I vouch for it.

His blog is great too - click here.

But whether you know of Greg and his music marketing skills, this video is worth checking out just to see how the creativity involved is making the artist concerned grab fans very quickly - of course, the music is good and his talent isn't just on the video front.

We wrote about how people would start using the in-video annotations to link to other videos on YouTube to make a new kind of interactive video - and this does that to a degree by asking others to download the videos and get involved.

But, the big deal is just in the creative thought that went into the video.

Greg said:

He used creative editing to make 3 versions of his music video and then filmed them being recreated in 3 iPhones. It is one of the most creative things I have ever seen. 

Beyond this, he has put the 3 videos up for download so fans can recreate the videos themselves with their friends (you need 3 iPhones to recreate).

Go watch the video now and see what ideas you can think of for using mobile and video creatively.

Wednesday, 22 June 2011

You MUST put your music on YouTube

James-blunt-relaxing
Another great post from Prescription PR and one that justifies the use of a James Blunt photo!

Okay, so you lucked out and somehow managed to slip one past Geoff Smith and get a spot play on Radio 2. Millions of listeners all over the UK have just heard your 3 minutes of radio-friendly-two-tone-emo-shoe-gazing-nu-metal-folk-soul. Which means you’re now going to sell a load of singles, yeah?

As is ever the case with these articles, dear reader, the answer is no (and sorry about that). What will probably happen is this: around 0.01% of the people who heard Jeremy Vine interrupt calls from inane members of the public to play your song might be interested in hearing the tune again - but for free. And if they like it enough, then they might consider paying to download the track (or, since it’s Radio 2 listeners we’re talking about, see if they can find a 78 in an antiques shop in Rye). Either way, when they've got a little more acquainted with your music they may, heaven forbid, finally take the plunge and purchase your whole album. The main thing is: they've got to be able to hear that radio-friendly song again.

Read it here.

 

Tuesday, 17 May 2011

YouTube Music chart is a goldmine

Youtube_hits
So, if you missed it last week, YouTube announced their own music chart based on a "holistic view of song popularity".

Read the DIY Musician piece on this here.

I was quite amazed by how many of the Top 100 are not this week's hits, but are songs that have been out a while. Not sure what it means as we have no idea what YouTube is measuring, but it's not what I'd expected.

So, why is it a goldmine?

Well, this is YouTube telling you what are the most popular songs so that you can do a response video or a cover video - or use that information for some other purpose that you can come up with.

I can't find an RSS feed for that page, but I have feeds in my reader for the following for the same reason:

Most Viewed Today

Most Viewed Week

Most Viewed Month

Top Favourites Today

Top Rated Today

Recently Featured

You can find how to get these feeds here - http://www.youtube.com/t/rss_feeds

A lot of the videos in these aren't music, so the new chart is a bonus.

I'd recommend all aspiring musicians look at these videos and charts regularly to see what songs are getting views globally and perhaps to make some videos that will get views off the back of their popularity.

But - beware the covers game. I'm a fan, but this Hypebot article illustrates the danger.

 

Friday, 15 April 2011

Killer YouTube Idea

Youtube_killer_idea
I think there might only be one post today, but I'll do more if I get the time.

This therefore needs to be a good one - and it is!

Go to YouTube and watch this - awesome YouTube video.

Now, think about how this could be used by an artist!

The first person to do something like this is going to get massive publicity.

I know that it might be out of reach for most indie or diy musicians, and you seem to have to be a YouTube partner to run something like that on an iFrame on YouTube, BUT, don't let that stop you thinking about trying to come up with amazing ideas for your music promotion.

We looked at another YouTube Viral method here, which is doable by anyone with a camera phone, some time and access to Google to work out how to do it!

Tuesday, 12 April 2011

Custom Backgrounds for YouTube and Twitter

Sub-youtube-channel
I've been asked about this a LOT in the last few weeks.

And, I'm remiss, as I haven't done our YouTube channel background properly (it's just the logo) and our Twitter one is a simple repeated logo! It's on the very long list of things to do.

However, we do try and make sure that our clients have a custom background for Twitter and YouTube that fit with their site design. Some are prepared to invest the small-ish cost of getting a designer to do this and some aren't. YouTube is tricky to do well if you don't have Photoshop skills!

Nonetheless, it's what we recommend. A consistent look across your own website and your social media profiles is obviously a good idea - just look at what major label artists do to see the consistency of their look! In fact, look into what they do all the time in social media and steal their best ideas!

This oldish post on Mashable has some good pointers and is worth checking out - although the dimensions listed for Twitter are now wrong for the new layout - check our post here (point 2) instead for that.

If you Google 'YouTube Background', you'll get loads of detailed info and endless videos that show you how to do it if you have the skills.

Obviously, if one of you in the band is a designer or if the people that designed your site can do the backgrounds, you're sorted.

However, if you are after an all-in-one solution, check out these people - Custom Page. We've used them several times for various backgrounds and they will be doing ours for Make It In Music when we get five minutes!

The quality is good and they're reasonably priced and they deal with the photoshop stuff that gives me a headache!

That said, they have lots of free backgrounds that you can use as well, and a really good tutorial on how to make your own here.

 

Thursday, 7 April 2011

How to focus your efforts on YouTube

Youtube_gen
Great article by Jon Ostrow at Mic Control.

Jon looks at why video on YouTube is so crucial to your promotional efforts and what types of video you can make to maximise the ways that fans can find, watch and listen to your music.

Think about it - if a blog takes your song and uploads it to hulkshare or even uses a track embedding plugin on their blog, people can listen to your music but the road ends there. However, if you give bloggers the opportunity to share your music through a Youtube video, you are giving ALL of their readers the opportunity to not just listen, but turn around and share the video with their friends as well. And of course, many blog readers are themselves bloggers, who find new music through a blog they follow, and then turn around and promote the same artist. With a Youtube video being the piece de resistance, you have significantly increased the likelihood of a feature from multiple bloggers.

Read the whole piece here.

Thursday, 17 February 2011

How can unsigned artists make money on YouTube?

I had a real spate of YouTube posts a month or so ago - and today I couldn't resist this one from the BBC.

It's a great review of how several unsigned artists are making a living almost entirely from their activities on YouTube.

You might not want to build your name around covers or what some would see as more comedy than music, but you can't deny that there are things you can learn from these artists and their YouTube activity.

You might also want to check out one of our posts on YouTube for musicians on the main blog.

A growing number of musicians are establishing their careers on YouTube, with little or no financial outlay. Last year, an unsigned band from New York even entered the Billboard charts courtesy of their online fanbase.

The Gregory Brothers first came to attention with their "auto-tune the news" series, where political debates and press conferences were transformed into miniature operas, thanks to pitch-shifting computer software.

The Gregory Brothers insert themselves into news footage to duet with political leaders.

Early videos saw Hilary Clinton singing about Somalian pirates, while the US Congress debated climate change as a call-and-response gospel song.

"Singing is happening all the time when we're talking, but our brains are just too feeble to parse it as music," explains Michael Gregory. "I can change that in the studio."

The clips, equal parts technical experiment and political satire, became a word-of-mouth success, much to the band's surprise.

Read the post here.

And here's a video from the Gregory Brothers to illustrate the point.

 

Thursday, 10 February 2011

Great song + YouTube = Hit

 

So, here's me sticking my neck out.....a bit.

This song was tipped by Record of the Day today - so maybe I'm just jumping on the bandwagon!

I'm not going to say a great deal other than this guy is obviously really talented and this song is truly great. It fulfills the things that we mentioned in this piece the other day about James Blunt - honesty and clarity in songwriting.

I'm well aware that this sort of song, style and genre really annoys a lot of 'artists' - as being too cliched, soft, lacking in edge (and a whole host of things). That's up to you, but don't delude yourself that you can't learn from it.

I'd go as far as to say that this song feels nearly as big as Blunt's 'Your'e Beautiful' did when it first came out. That's the bit where I stick my neck out. Maybe it is, maybe not. It's still great.

The YouTube element is clear too. It's a simple well shot one take performance and he's obviously built a small following up from previous songs on YouTube. But, this is where people are coming to discover him and send their friends - sure, radio is now spreading it.

But where do you send your mates to hear it? YouTube.

 

Friday, 4 February 2011

Breaking Bieber - the grassroots approach

You might think that there's nothing for you to learn from Bieber.

You're wrong.

I'm no fan of his or of globally marketed pop fodder, but I'm not going to say it's all crap either.

Sure, he had the laser focus of a very talented manager and was signed to a powerhouse label soon enough - and it's teen pop.

BUT, it WAS his shaky YouTube performances that got him the attention of the connected manager. And then the connected manager quickly put his talent in front of the right people. This article has a good and accurate chronology.

And then he used social media very well - enagaging fans and being there with an @reply for them.

But, the three things that I think Bieber can teach any musician are:

1. Work on your talent - he can sing and play unusually well for a pop hearthrob. He's not Mantovani, but that ability adds to his artistic depth; and

2. Be dedicated and work REALLY hard. He is dedicated - hence how he can play multiple instruments and puts the hours in to promoting himself, both in the way his label and manager work him hard and the way he interacts online; and

3. Put yourself out there. On YouTube. The place where everyone now goes to find music.

I wrote this piece after seeing this in Billboard and the video clip from his biopic that's coming up.

I know that he is being worked by the label, but this is the amount of work you need to do to be who he is. How much can you be bothered to do?

See the Billboard piece and the video here if it's not embedded below.

Definitive list of Video apps for Facebook

Integrating video of you and your music all over the web is a really good idea!

On the main site we've looked at some elements of how to use YouTube for musicians, and we'll be looking at lots more over time.

And, we all know how we can put a YouTube video in a post on Facebook, don't we? If not, just search it on YouTube!

But, there's a whole load more stuff that you can do with video on Facebook, whether it's from YouTube or another site or hosted on Facebook itself.

This list is a massively helpful directory of methods that you can check out and adopt the ones that are best for you.

For musicians - probably the most obvious are having your YouTube channel on a Facebook tab and integrating Ustream.tv.

We've talked a lot at ReelSEO about Facebook video marketing and video apps, so it was only a matter of time before we combined all the options into one big list. So here you go, our ReelSEO Show Reel of Facebook Video Apps, with a myriad ways you can integrate video into your own Facebook Pages!

Driven by a singular goal to corner the market on this info, yet not so driven that we're bothering to do our own review and testing of every Facebook video app out there, I've put together a list of video apps that I think are beneficial for your Facebook video marketing needs.

Go and investigate the list here. You will get some ideas!

Monday, 24 January 2011

Artists that found fame on YouTube

I know that I keep saying that I won't do more on Youtube for musicians, but those johnny-come-latelies at Mashable have jumped on my bandwagon and listed 15 people that owe their discovery to YouTube! Thanks to @Buzzsonic for pointing it out.

You could do a lot worse than spend a little time looking at what they did and how they got there.

Check out Mashable's post here.

Here's one of them to get you started - Esmee Denters.

Friday, 21 January 2011

YouTube, Blogs and the Future of Music

Jon Ostrow (@MicControl) put me on to this yeterday.

Great interview with one of the founders of Elektra where he talks about how he sees music promotion today.

Watch it and get some ideas!