To manage a Youtube channel, it is advisable to create playlists according to the classification you have determined for your channel and to optimize and maximize the viewing of your videos it is essential to have consistency and order with the description of your tags.
Juan Pablo Morales Sarmiento*
You don't have to go far back in memory to observe with amazement how we have changed in such a short time.
Just six years ago it was absolutely unthinkable that anyone, seemingly invisible in the world, could become a media celebrity, or that a company could direct a significant amount of its marketing budget to the Internet, with positive, truly measurable results that would close the gap to relate directly to its community.
Internet video would then be the main medium and protagonist of this revolution.
The most important thing in the face of this reflection is to understand the changes that advertising, television and the relationship of the media with the community in Europe and the United States are going through today. Surely in five years or less, that culture, driven by technology and the application of its coverage, will come with force to this region. The consumption of content changes, the financial model for production changes permanently and advertising will have become so dispersed, that what we consider traditional today will be prehistory. I hope that we are prepared and that we do not allow ourselves to be overwhelmed by an avalanche of which we are only passive spectators.
Creating new spaces
The corporate decision to create content associated with your brand is a strategy that becomes a trend, replacing traditional advertising channels and is a good first step to open new spaces of relationship with the community, consolidate the loyalty of your customers, position yourself in a market and generate benefits and ROI. This does not necessarily require large budgets. Simply organizational commitment, conviction and persistence.
The first step to embark on an adventure like this is to develop a simple and coherent digital communication strategy, in line with brand values, with the type of messages they want to build and, of course, with their target audience. As a result, we will have an inventory of digital media assets, as well as traditional media, that will have to be activated in an articulated way, such as a delicate gear and an action plan with responsible and techniques of metrics, monitoring and feedback.
Focusing on video, the next step is to define which is the most suitable medium or the precise platform for your strategy. There are platforms for VOD such as Vimeo, Facebook and DailyMotion, others such as YouTube, also allow live content and others such as Ustream and Livestream, which are mainly oriented to live video. I'll leave out apps like Meerkat, Snapchat, and Periscope, whose guidance is complementary and important, and would surely come to your organization at a relatively later stage.
If you are looking to have greater control of technology or a monetization strategy based on large audiences, subscriptions and critical masses of users or, also, an orientation aimed at a closed target market, identified and without intention that the contents leave it, the best decision related to the platform should make you look at solutions from private companies such as Ooyala, Brightcove, Kaltura, The Platform or the services provided by the world's largest distribution networks such as Akamai, Amazon or Level3, simply to name some of the most recognized globally.
If your strategy is massive, whether it is marketing, training or corporate communication, you should seriously formulate YouTube and Facebook as the central axes of your media strategy. They are, par excellence, the social networks with the greatest impact and solidity in engagement, coverage, international acceptance and use for online video.
It is important to keep in mind that both private and massive platforms are not exclusive, and in some cases, the best strategy is to use them in a combined way.
From a simple repository of videos, to a channel with VOD content and live broadcast, they require organization and planning. The most important thing is to ask yourself, how a user would search for it, with what orientation and with what topics, in other words, with what keywords or with what metadata. Figuring out how to identify, organize, and classify content is essential, and it's a good idea to do so before you start.
A journey through YouTube
If you have decided to have your YouTube channel it is important to keep some considerations in mind.
1. Rights. You will always be the owner of your content, however you are granting rights of use to YouTube and all users of the platform to access your content and even to "distribute and produce derivative works ... ... in any format in the media and through any communication channel". Please review YouTube's terms of service carefully.
2. Using more than 10 seconds of music without a license or ownership will likely cause your content to be blocked by the platform. It is a healthy measure that seeks to protect the rights of producers.
3. Monetization activation is a good method to get some income in the medium term. If your desire is to make a profit with your YouTube channel, persistence and continuity is essential. If your content is lucky enough to reach thousands of users in an organic and simple way, becoming a successful YouTuber can be a way of life. There is no magic formula here, but there is a secret: Benchmarking. Ask yourself what others are doing and look for your own language.
4. There is an option to customize the YouTube channel so that you can use it as a landing page for your communication. However, due to corporate identity and brand, it is convenient to use the platform's player to embed the videos within your own digital system.
5. The related videos at the end of each playback, can take the user out of their environment, teach them content without any coherence related to theirs, and could even lead to messages from their competition. There is a way to deactivate them when the player is embedded. Get advice to do so.
A YouTube channel will allow you to have your content unlimited on the platform for free. To control and facilitate the administration it is advisable to create playlists according to the classification you have determined for your channel and to optimize and maximize the display of your videos it is essential to have consistency and order with the description of the videos and their tags.
Live video with YouTube
The magic of live broadcasting also has a special space on YouTube and offers the possibility of encoding a live video up to Full HD at 60fps, for which it is convenient to have a robust internet channel of at least 10 megs of symmetrical bandwidth. It is not yet time to think about massive emissions in 2K and much less in 4K. The medium is still preparing for it.
The coding methods and alternatives on the platform will allow you to broadcast from a webcam of your own computer, using Google Hangout tools, to robust multi-camera productions through encoders or equipment such as Wirecast, Flash Media Live Encoder, Tricaster and others. The platform will allow you to download the configuration to code, to the routes and servers provided for your broadcasts and gives you the codes to embed the players where you want to do it.
It is recommended that you take a prudent time to test the platform in advance, design the thumbnails for your players, estimate the emission bandwidth, so that these variables do not take it by surprise and make you a bad pass.
The integration of the player into its own digital environment, the development of interactive activities during its live event and the persistence, continuity and patience depend on the success it can have of its strategy.
An advantage: metrics exist and for these cases everything should be measured.
The essence is in the content
The tools offered by technology to communicate in this medium will be much more effective to the extent that it focuses mainly on the content. I suggest you start, with careful steps, simple content, creative messages, clear and easy to understand. With videos that do not exceed 15 minutes and that are forceful, entertaining and aspirational.
Navigate a benchmarking process by wondering which concepts ideas are best conveyed with, what are those most played and shared videos that relate to your industry, and make well-told stories. Do not neglect the technique of production and post-production. Everything enters through the eyes directly to the central brain of your audience. Photography and audio will always be critical success factors as well.
The best decision you can make now is to start with your team, don't wait for your competition to do it first.
And you... don't have your WebTV yet?
*Juan Pablo Morales Sarmiento is Provideo's Vice President of Distribution. You can contact him through @JuanPMoralesS
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