May 7th, 2007
Google YouTube: Viral video success formula?
What makes for a good viral video? How can You Tube clip culture success be had?
Did you ever wish you could find out directly from YouTube?
Rich LeFurgy, General Partner, Archer Advisors, moderating the “Content, Consumers, Community: The Balance of Control” panel today at the Interactive Advertising Bureau Digital Video Forum in New York City asked Gokul Rajaram, Product Manager, Google Ad Sense (in for Suzie Reider, Chief Marketing Officer, YouTube), just that!
Rajaram was asked to give viral video success advice from marketers’ perspectives.
YouTube may be fielding such inquiries more and more, directly from YouTubers, given that there is Google money in it now, for the chosen “User Generated Content” few that is, the very few!
There is no tactical formula, however, not according to Rajaram. In fact, “how to,” achieve viral video success is not the way to think about posting videos at YouTube, Rajaram asserted.
What is the recommended strategy then? Create, create, create! Make videos and make more videos!
Video content is king, Rajaram indicated; Regular uploads serve to attract community interest, interaction and, hopefully, traction.
Nevertheless, YouTube suggests that it does indeed surface potential YouTube viral video hits uploaded to the site via some pre-determined “formula” and also suggests specific ways to jump start viral video success efforts.
YouTube on “How do videos get featured”?”:
We review highly-rated and recent videos for consideration in the "Featured Videos" section of the home page and the featured videos on the "Categories" page. In addition, our programming team takes suggestions from members and scans the site for videos of interest.
You Tube “scans the site for videos of interest” supposes some YouTube pre-determined scanning criteria for estimating prospective video “viral” success, perhaps such as targeted video topics, length, genre…
YouTube on “Promoting your videos”:
Your video should stand out from the crowd. Try to determine what content it contains that will help users find it and distinguish it from other videos. Using descriptive language in complete sentences is a good idea.
The category into which you place your video is part of its description as well. People are more likely to rate your video highly and watch it more frequently if it's placed in a relevant category.
YouTube lets you notify all your friends and admirers when you've posted a new video masterpiece. Here are three ways to let them know:
Share your video or your entire Playlist,
Have them subscribe to your Channel,
Post the video to your blog.
YouTube also makes special research efforts to determine how and why specific videos and/or campaigns may or may not get viral traction, for marketers at YouTube. Rajaram mentioned YouTube conducted research on behalf of a Cingular sponsorship at YouTube.
I asked Rajaram how YouTube recently determined which “users” to elevate to “partners” for its new revenue sharing opportunities and if research was conducted similar to the YouTube Cingular research in order to predict the viral video success of specific YouTubers.
Rajaram reiterated what the YouTube blog announced, indicating the initial user participants were selected from the content creators that users "have helped popularize by watching their videos and subscribing to their channels.”
Plus, market research was conducted, Rajaram acknowledged.
PLUS FROM IAB FORUM: Sling Media to Old Media: ‘Can’t we all just get along?’
