YouTube Creators Playbook! I just got this!
Hello everyone. My name is Ivin Viljoen (re-introduction?) and I love blo… I mean vlogging. And one thing that I'm constantly looking out for are ways to become a better vlogger. I recently bought an HD editing program, but I'm sure, looking at the video above, you realized that I haven't started using that yet (It's actually busy installing right now – yeah, I'm a breaking news kinda vlogger).
Well, I'm excited to share with you something that I literally picked up (or is it ‘downloaded') a couple minutes ago. And I thought:
Who can I share this with that will REALLY appreciate it.
And I thought of you, Ileane's valued readers. (Aww… – I know, right?). Anyway, as you can see in the video, I have literally just downloaded the playbook and after skimming through it (yes, I pretty much skim through everything), I picked up 5 essential tips that I thought YOU could implement right away to make your Youtube videos better (I'm gonna implement these tips myself).
The first 15 seconds.
We all know online folks have the attention span of Dory from Finding Nemo (I skim most posts). Therefore you gotta catch them in the first 15, otherwise you'll lose them (you can find your engagement in stats Youtube provides you [called ‘Insights'] for each video). You can achieve this through proper production and show structure.
Use a ʻteaserʼ for the content of the video; start with a quick clip of whatʼs to come later in the video (I know it's intense and a lot of work and editing, but if you want success, it's gotta be done).
What I do is tell people who I am , where I'm from (URL plug [VERY Important!!] If you're guest vlogging, plug the host URL – NOT your own!) and what the video is about.
Determine the Right ʻHookʼ or Opening for your content and audience. Vary your approach and test, test, test! The rule of thumb is: be compelling, engrossing, or entertaining enough to get your viewers to commit to continue watching the rest of the video.
Calls-To-Action.
You know all about this right? It's an essential part of every successful bloggers successful blog post. No different in Youtube (See my simple call-to-action at the end of this post).The idea is to invite viewers during the video to take actions that can help build audience. With your videos, you should be aiming at creating an interactive experience. Community engagement and subscriptions build audience. This is achieved through production and/or annotations.
Good calls to action in your videos could include the following:
- Subscribe – this is critical if you want to build a subscriber base. A subscriber base is important if you want to launch a video with an immediate audience for your videos.
- Comment – You may not know this, but this is important for ranking in YouTube's search bar (driven by the big G, I might add), creating interaction with your viewers. The purpose of all that is to get to know your audience – which in turn helps you brand, sell and produce products better (if you're into online business and want to leverage videos).
- Like/favourite/share – This is a no-brainer (if you understand proper blogging). Positive video actions from your viewers will improve your rankings in the YT algorithm.
How do you ascertain which calls-to-action you need?
- Decide what actions you as video producer/blogger want your viewers to take to achieve your desired marketing results. Looking at key community actions is advisable, but instead of ‘favoriting', you may want to invite them to click a blogs link, or sign up to a email list. This all depends on what your objectives are with making the video.
- You need to determine the right timing, style and variance that would be applicable to your audience. Zany and crazy may not work in a corporate video, but in a fun vlog providing your two cents on a matter, it may be okay to do so.
- Keep in mind, having mentioned timing, that you should be careful not to direct your viewers away from the video until they have actually finished watching the video. This is a good tip for bloggers too!
Regular schedule and frequency.
Trend and viewer interests driving television viewership applies in online video marketing too. Two points are mentioned in the YouTube Creators Playbook that is evident in television as well (remember YouTube's tagline is ‘Broadcast Yourself). Let's look at them:
- Regular schedule – It may be advisable to have a video schedule for releasing your content. Like for instance a Monday. Think of yourself plonking yourself in front of the telly at the regular scheduled time to watch 24 or CSI Miami. You know when to expect to watch what. If you see your viewers as, erm, viewers, you can understand their behaviour better looking at your own telly-watching habits. You could add to your schedule when trends hit and news break (like I did with the above video – not that I personally have a schedule).
- Frequency – Being consistent by posting videos frequently is said to help your rankings through the YT algorithm. Your frequency should be determined by factors such as the needs of your audience, your own goals with your channel and your content. Less is more, so if you have an insane pace working online, once a week is advisable. But if you're iCarly and your audience craves your content, you best produce some episodes daily and make money through that! At the end of the day, I have found that more frequency is possible if you develop a ‘template' and method to producing videos. If you have that down and it works, you'll be able to produce more easily.
Take-away steps.
- Find the Right Schedule for Your Content!
- Make Your Schedule Known!
- Get the Most of Your Production Investment!
- Maximize Your Frequency
Meta Data.
Your strategy here should be to write optimized titles, tags and descriptions for your content. It's critical for building views from search and related videos as it is affected by the YT algorithm. Regularly format your keywords to improve the indexing of your videos.
Let's look at some basic things to work on to make meta work for you:
- Title – The sequence is like this: Keyword first, branding second (make it compelling!). Look, it's like a blog post title, you want people to click through and read your post (or view your video). Use popular, relevant and compelling keywords to maximize your CTR and search traffic. Do you have videos you uploaded before that didn't do too good? Well, you can always go back and optimize them more, just like with blog posts. Sure, it'll take time, but you'll be happy you did.
- Tags – Use a set of general, standard tags that applies to the video you're publishing. You should maximize the tagging and use ALL of the 120 character limit. Think of all the different words that may apply to your video content. Long tail keywords are not advised here. Short. Punchy. To. The. Point. That should do it 😉 You can also mirror the video title, using the same word order.
- Description – Your first line should be the most relevant to the video as only a line or two show up above the fold. Include your keywords and tags in your description. When you have a show, develop a keyworded tagline to describe your show and include that in every video post description. This will assist in telling first time viewers what the show is all about. It's advisable to also add your schedule here. Develop a structure template to work from when writing new descriptions.
Video responses.
I think I got one video response from Ileane before. Can't fully re-collect, but I'll tell you, getting traffic to your channel isn't easier, and this method is SO under-used, it's not even funny. So let's talk about it.
[shadowbox]NOTE: YouTube no longer support video responses. Keep up with all the changes in the YouTube platform on Ms. Ileane's Scoop.it page for YouTube.[/shadowbox]
I have actually watched TONS of videos by Gary Vaynerchuck yesterday, on all his channels (BIG fan), and in one he mentioned how using/leveraging Seesmic on Techcrunch brings in great exposure for him. If you can duplicate good blogging practices on Youtube you'll do well real quick.
Video responses are like ‘video commenting', or vommenting (wait, that doesn't sound right, hehe). What you want to do here is also optimize them with keywords, tags and descriptions, just like with the other videos, and you'll get noticed in the niche and among the buzz around the topic/keyword.
Asking for video responses is a great way to create interaction around your content, channel and topic. It's also a great CTA at the end. Remember to set your video that video responses have to be approved, just like you would on your blog. Nasty people out there!
Get Your Copy of the YouTube Creators Playbook Now!
Get the rest of the content with all the awesome information from the horses mouth, go download it here. (They have a video upload checklist at the end).
Your Turn.
Have you downloaded the book? What sneaky Youtube tip could you share with me that could help me make my video better and seen more? Hope to hear from you below in the comments!
