The Future of YouTube Marketing by Greg Jarboe – SES NY Interview

Ignite had the benefit of interviewing Greg Jarboe recently and wanted to share his thoughts for our readers.

Greg gave some really good advice for companies looking to engage in YouTube marketing  in 2012. You can find Greg speaking at this year’s SES NY and hear him speaking specifically on the YouTube Next Gen panel.

1) Is YouTube moving in the direction of encouraging users to create new content rather than repurpose others’ content?

Yes, they are.  And let me give you three key reasons why YouTube is moving in the right direction.

First, YouTube is shelling out $100 million to 96 content creators, including Deepak Chopra (lifestyle), The Onion (pop culture), Pharrell Williams (music), The Wall Street Journal (news & education), and WWE (sports) to launch more original channels.  I’d call that “encouraging users to create new content.”

Second, if YouTube receives a copyright notification for one of your videos, you’re now required to attend “YouTube Copyright School,” which involves watching a copyright tutorial and passing a quiz to show that you’ve paid attention and understand the content before you “repurpose others’ content” again.

Third, Judge Louis L. Stanton granted Google’s motion for summary judgment in Viacom’s lawsuit with YouTube back on June 23, 2010.  So, the court decided 19 months ago that YouTube is protected by the safe harbor of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act against claims of copyright infringement.

So, YouTube has continued moving in the direction of encouraging users to create new content rather than repurpose others’ content, even though online services like YouTube are protected when they work cooperatively with copyright holders to help them manage their rights online.

2) How has the new YouTube Cosmic Panda update affected brands’ KPIs? Are folks seeing better/worse success with increasing follower counts, video views, and other forms of measurement that can be attributed to the update?

I think that the redesign unveiled on Dec. 1, 2011, took some time for everyone to get used to, but the overall reaction was positive.  Fortunately, YouTube took its time, used Cosmic Panda to get user, partner, and advertiser feedback to figure out what they’d gotten it right and what needed further tweaks, and then incorporated that into their new homepage, new channel design, and fresh coat of digital paint. cosmic panda youtube update image

It was smart to test changes before making them.

As for key performance indicators, the redesign didn’t slow down content creation.  YouTube announced on Jan. 23, 2012, that content creators were uploading one hour of video to YouTube every second.  That means 86,400 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every day.  That’s the equivalent of Hollywood creating and releasing 302,400 full-length movies every week.  That’s the equivalent amount of content that 3,600 cable TV channels could broadcast 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.

And YouTube visitors are watching more content as well.  YouTube also announced that it has now exceeded four billion video views globally every day.  That’s up 25 percent in the last eight months and the equivalent of more than half the world’s population watching a video every day, the same number as there are US $1 bills in circulation, the same as number of years since there was water on Mars.  It’s a big number, and it’s getting bigger every day.

3) Do you predict YouTube to continue ranking as high as they have in the SERPS in 2012 and going forward, as Google undergoes increased scrutiny by the FTC?

Yes, YouTube will continue ranking as high as they have in the SERPS because Google’s ranking algorithms are aimed at helping people find “high-quality” content.  And people consider news, images and videos of the Costa Concordia to be high-quality content.  People consider the YouTube video of the FedEx guy throwing a computer monitor to be high-quality content.  And people consider the YouTube video of police pepper spraying UC Davis students to be high-quality content.

Google’s ranking algorithms aren’t aimed at reducing scrutiny by the FTC, and they shouldn’t be.  But I don’t think the FTC would have a problem with the 23 questions that Google engineers ask themselves as they write algorithms that attempt to assess site quality.  Here are 10 of them:

  • Would you trust the information presented in this article?
  • Would you be comfortable giving your credit card information to this site?
  • Does the article provide original content or information, original reporting, original research, or original analysis?
  • Does the article describe both sides of a story?
  • Is the site a recognized authority on its topic?
  • For a health related query, would you trust information from this site?
  • Does this article provide a complete or comprehensive description of the topic?
  • Does this article contain insightful analysis or interesting information that is beyond obvious?
  • Is this the sort of page you’d want to bookmark, share with a friend, or recommend?
  • Would you expect to see this article in a printed magazine, encyclopedia or book?

4)  What is your one top tip you don’t see many brands utilizing? In particular, regarding brands trying to make a name for themselves via their channel by getting views and subscribers, soliciting comments and getting people to come back for more?

Read the 73-page YouTube Creator Playbook.  It compiles important tips, best practices, and strategies to build greater audiences on YouTube.  If there is one top tip that I don’t see many Brands utilizing, it would be “Tent-pole Programming.”  On Page 18, the playbook says this strategy aims to: “Create and release content around tent-pole events.”

What is a tent-pole event?  Page 19 of the playbook asks, “Why does Discovery channel have ‘Shark Week’ every year?  Why do a lot of sitcoms have a Halloween themed episode at the end of October?  Why does the Today Show have relationship experts on the week before Valentine’s Day? The answer to these questions is: ‘Tent-pole’ Programming.”

And the playbook adds: “Tent-pole events are the cultural events that promotion, sponsors/advertisers, and viewing trends orbit around throughout the year.  Big movie releases, sports, holidays and niche events should act as guides for the content you produce.  This strategy applies to any partners.  Any channel can create or participate in ‘tent-pole’ events (that are) relevant to their specific audience.  For example, a partner with a food show can create a video about football party snacks that is tied to a big sporting event and is still relevant to a food audience.”

This is great advice.  And there is a lot more where that came from.

5)  What was your favorite YouTube video of 2011 from a marketing perspective; a video that actually drove awareness for a product/company and built long term growth overall for the company?

My favorite YouTube of 2011 from a marketing perspective is “MBA CASE STUDY: How Orabrush got into Walmart.”  Orabrush is the first product to go from no sales online or offline, to nationwide retail distribution just using YouTube.

Guestpost Bio: Greg Jarboe is President of SEO-PR, which provides search engine optimization, online public relations, online video marketing, and social media marketing services. Jarboe is the author of YouTube and Video Marketing: An Hour a Day, John Wiley & Sons, Inc. He is speaking at this year’s SES New York (March 19-23) on the Next Gen YouTube Marketing panel.



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