Tips for YouTube and Viral Videos

Right after Thanksgiving, TechCrunch published a guest post called "The Secret Strategies Behind Many Viral Videos" which unleashed a record 491 comments because it described some unethical practices.  There was also a follow up post here.   

This week there are two more articles with advice that isn't sleezy, one from a for-profit perspective and the other an nonprofit perspective.

Advertising Article:
Video blogger Steve Garfield recently shared an article with me called "Ten Lessons for Marketers About Viral Video."  Here are the lessons:

Lesson one: Tap into the video community
Lesson two: Quality of the video is not what determines its popularity
Lesson three: A video of a dog skateboarding can get 3 million views, but that doesn't mean your commercial will
Lesson four: Online-video marketing is not just about contests
Lesson five: "Tagging" your video with keywords doesn't get them seen
Lesson six: Consumers might see your video, but that doesn't mean they'll visit your site and buy
(or donate or sign a petition)
Lesson seven: Paying for a well-produced video won't necessarily increase your brand's ROI
Lesson eight: Not all video portals are created equal
Lesson nine: You may be a conservative organization, but don't let that keep you from this medium
Lesson 10: This medium will become measurable

The other is a blog post from Collactive called Ten Tips To Spice Up Your YouTube Video

   1. Create a Relevant, Informative Video
   2. Keep the Video Short
   3. Select a Catchy Title and Thumbnail
   4. Embed Wisely
   5. Promote “Fresh” Videos
   6. Choose Your Video Category Wisely
   7. Target the “Most Viewed” Lists
   8. Ask Your Community to View Your Video
   9. Ask Your Community to Promote Your Video
  10. Ask Your Community to Promote Your Video on Social Media Sites

Some other blog posts about viral videos can be found here:

Will Video for Food:  How To Promote Your Video
Tube Mogul:  Video Marketing Best Practices
Robin Good:  Ten Ways You Can Promote Your Content on YouTube
Marketing Profs:  Case Study - Will it Blend?
E-Politics Video Blog Posts
Heather Diosa's Best Practices for YouTube

See3 Article About Video The Chronicle - article about video and nonprofits.

Comments

[Mary Dombrowski]

Many of our clients would like to achieve the "holy grail" of the viral video. However, the importance of the message and the integrity of the organization often trump the viral goal - which is the proper response in most instances. As is pointed out in the tips given, the qualities that make a video viral (ie, the menthos-diet coke video) are typically incongruent with the message the organization wants to impart. The question we ask is what is your goal and will a viral video help you achieve it. Views don't automatically equate to action. Two examples - one client's video received more views than all their previous videos combined, but very little action. Another client's video received what would be considered a modest number of views (under 50k), but resulted in their best list-building month. Start with the goal and the action you want from the video and you are more likely to receive the results you seek.

[Nathan Ketsdever]

Fantastic post!
I think Ron Paul's success suggests the use of music in video when possible. The campaign also made significant use of Stumbleupon video to spread the word and to add a viral element. (or for instance the videos that Compassion International has done with I assume the permission from the group Silver Chair from Austrailia have a ton more hits than their other videos. Free Hugs also used music which worked well) Ask a band or find creative commons licensed music.

Adapt to the community. Realize that the digital culture is slightly different that joe six-pack. Of course thats important in any campaign. Adapt your content, tactics, and strategy appropriately.
(This can be partially done by number 7 above "Target the “Most Viewed” Lists)

Make it a movement. I think the folks who frontpage videos at YouTube have a bias toward e-democracy. Dennis Fleetwood, who is doing YouTube work for the Kucinich campaign created this video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Fzt4Q9VCpc)which along with the Free Hugs campaign certainly epidomize a movements based rhetoric and approach. (I think the Dove YouTube commercials both had a movement or awareness raising element to them--but in an entertaining way)

Make the re-mix easy. I think Chris Crocker accidently happened upon this. This is what new media is about.

Be funny. Funny seems to spread the best online. Although its not a prerequisite. Authenticity and humanity seems to work well too.

Don't be afraid to include an appropriate call to action to comment or spread the message. A call for speaking, participation, and collaboration.

Try not to be a talking head or appear like a talking head.

Beyond the YouTubes of the world--target the niche video sites of the world. There are at least a half a dozen that deal with non-profit issues and another half a dozen that deal with educational issues.

[Beth Kanter]

Nathan: These are great points and examples. Do you have a post about viral video that you'd like share?

My favorite cc music site is ccmixter.org. What's yours?

[Hans]

We were just approved for our non-profit YouTube account and we've had some encouraging early results. Here are some things that we've figured out that might be helpful to others:

- Post consistent content, even if it's short
- We had a fairly active channel prior to gaining non-profit status (30 videos posted and about 500 channel views) this allowed us quick ranking in 'most viewed' in the non-profit section
- The non-profit section is still quite small so it's relatively easy to be found and gain 'most viewed' status
- Responding quickly to comments and deleting spam is a good thing
- We have big "watch us on youtube" buttons on all of our blogs

A question I have:
- Has anyone used the option on the youtube non profit account to add google checkout for donations? If so how well does this work?
- So far our development folks don't want to have too many 'asks' out there, this seems like something that would need a comprehensive strategy

[Bryan]

Hi Beth. Have you come across any non-profits testing the interactivity now available through the new YouTube Annotations feature?