YouTube activated a new channel design that drastically changes how the videos and information is being displayed. Utilizing a more marketable format for promoted videos and advertising, the design primarily changes the layout of the channel page by displaying information about the channel more prominently.  YouTube channels will all eventually be updated to the new design by March, 2012. Listed are the advantages for using the new YouTube channel design.

 

• Header – a sleek header design has a larger avatar/logo image and channel name, a subscribe button that turns green with a plus sign when rolled over, and the channel stats (subscribers and video views). The emphasis on the stats is great for a quick glance to gauge the channel’s popularity.
• Tabs – re-organized the navigation into Featured, Feed, and Videos.  Edit channel includes template options to organize how the videos, playlists, and channels will display on the Featured tab.  There is an option for selecting a featured video to play in the viewing area and the ability to remove advertising.  Your Feed tab will be updated by your activity on YouTube and you can choose to filter what is shared in the settings.  The Videos tab will display a thumbnail grid view with various sorting options for the videos on the channel.
• Search –a search bar has been added for finding videos specific to that channel. For channels that have a lot videos and users wanting to drill down into old content, this has been a long awaited, much appreciated add-on to the page design.
• Profile Panel – was located below the main video description but now has prime real-estate being positioned higher on the page and in left column replacing the previous video navigation.  This area first displays the channel description, URLs, social media icons (hyperlinked), and other details can also be seen, however you can select what you’d like to show via the edit button.   Featured channels can also be added to highlight partner channels or related channels to your field of expertise.

In a recent blog post on leveraging SEO benefits of video, I mentioned how YouTube is an excellent way to drive visitors to your website.  Equally important is allowing individuals to access your YouTube company page through adding a YouTube link/button on your website.  From an SEO perspective, frequently adding fresh content to your channel and properly tagging your videos will allow you to utilize YouTube as an SEO channel.   

Properly “Tagging”? Just remember this: “TDK”…Title, Description, Keywords.
 

1. Title-Make sure that it’s enticing and keyword rich.  Go back to your video and determine the main subject or topic matter in the recording.  The word or short phrase that you decide on should be included in the title.  This is because the search engines weight anything in the title very highly.  Another tip: remember to keep your title to 70 characters or less.
2. Description-Creating a persuasive description and putting it in sentence form are two key items to keep in mind.  While it is best to keep the description around 155 characters, it is more important to make sure that it is compelling, so that individuals will click through to your page.
3. Keywords-Select two or three keywords to be featured as tags. Your keyword or keyword phrase should mirror the main topic of your video and should be included in your title. 

SEO benefits are the greatest payback from coordinated efforts to frequently produce video content and properly tag them.  While it does require resources, mainly time, using YouTube is an inexpensive way to gain brand visibility and rank in search engines for your important keywords.

If you haven’t already realized the importance of video content on the web, then now is the time to open your eyes. I think that it’s pretty safe to say that online videos have established an overwhelming presence throughout the web.

ComScore, time and again has stated that more than 80% of the total U.S. Internet audience views online videos throughout the month, and many companies still aren’t tapping into this audience.

ComScore, just recently released statistics that confirm that 183 million people in the U.S watched online videos during the month of May compared to 178 million in April. That’s nearly 84.8 percent of all Internet users in the U.S. According to comScore, YouTube.com achieved record levels of activity in May with an all-time high of 14.6 billion videos viewed. This surpassed their past average of 100 videos per viewer to approximately 101.2 videos per viewer.

Naturally, YouTube remains the dominant player in video, with 43% of online videos being seen on their site. According to YouTube, every minute 24 hours of video are uploaded to their network, and on average, 2 billion videos are being watched a day. The average visitor spends 15 minutes per day on YouTube.

Online videos are a hot trend that doesn’t seem to be going away anytime soon. This rising popularity has been inspiring a trend for marketers to create and distribute more informative and even viral videos. At this stage ignoring the demand for creating videos could be a great detriment to your businesses. Creating online videos is a great opportunity for companies/brands to become a part of the ever going demand for online videos.

I continue to see articles concerning AOL’s slow implosion in the press.  The latest in the salvo concerns the management at AOL consideration of shedding Bebo.  AOL bought Bebo for $850 million two years ago, while they were still a part of Time Warner Inc.  Bebo was an important piece of their transformation plan in which AOL wanted to move away from being a subscription based service for Internet access to a media business generating ad-supported revenue.  When a business with the resources of a Time Warner makes a billion dollar bet and fails to monetize, one must wonder if they performed the proper vetting process or were they simply following the herd.

This is not the first failure in the firm’s acquisitions; Buy.at was recently jettisoned for $17 million after paying $125 million in 2008 for the dgital ad firm.  Will its instant messaging service ICQ be next?  When will the shareholders demand better stewardship from the leaders making these bets?

The small to medium business (SMB) owner would not survive if they followed the herd at each new fork in the technology path.  SMBs must be better shepherds of their funds than the large public companies that they compete against, if they want to survive and flourish.  So how does a SMB determine when to launch a social media campaign and which platform?  Many variables must be considered such as these outlined in a recent blog post.   When you are ready and have performed your due diligence, give us a call and hear how we can help you to make the correct bet.

YouTube has undergone massive changes in the past few months. One major change is the move toward concentrating on advertisers and partners. YouTube has discovered how to better monetize their site by adding features to help brands, big and small, with their marketing initiatives. In an effort to reach that segment of its users, YouTube launched the YouTube Biz Blog.

YouTube Biz Blog is targeted specifically for partners and advertisers and provides tips, tricks and the latest feature updates. The forum was designed to introduce business opportunities to advertisers and partners.  By showing businesses how to leverage YouTube, the video giant hopes to help businesses engage their audiences more.

There have already been a few blog posts on topics such as the integration with YouTube Brand Channels and Google Analytics, YouTube Partner Program, and Mosaics. Partners also have the option to subscribe to the RSS feed so they are always kept up to date.

With businesses still trying to discover ways to use social media to build brand awareness and boost their bottom lines, the YouTube Biz Blog is another tool in getting helpful ideas designed solely for advertisers and YouTube partners.

In an effort to give their viewing audience what they want or may be looking for, YouTube.com has come out with yet another new homepage layout. This latest round of changes comes just after the recent rumblings that YouTube, in effort to compete directly with Hulu.com, will start showing full feature movies and television shows.

In a recent blog post, YouTube explains that they did this, in part, to make the page(s) easier to navigate. You can also customize your homepage, when logged in, to add or remove specific modules.

 

Among these big changes are Spotlight Videos, which when displayed, will be more prominent on the homepage. These videos are deemed by YouTube to be the best or most relevant in the video community. In addition, to help display a wider variety of video results, YouTube is now organizing their Most Popular videos by category.

Finally, in order to have the ability to continue growing and testing out different designs, YouTube is finding new ways to get more advertisers on to the site. Recently, they changed the name of these video ads from Sponsored, to Promoted. The cost of advertising remains very low and allows for just about any business to take advantage of the large amount of viewers.

They assure their audience that more changes are soon to come, so stay tuned!