On the heels of some major site-wide overhauls, YouTube is now introducing Google+ and YouTube integration. The feature is currently in beta, but open to all YouTube partners. As Google strives to make its multi-product experience more cohesive, YouTube can now be linked directly to Google+ brand pages. This association allows brands and businesses to take advantage of some key feature enhancements across both platforms.
Visibility
The most immediate advantage to integrating with Google+ is the potential boost in SEO. It’s important to remember that YouTube is a Google product (and the second largest search engine). Connecting a YouTube channel to a Google+ page gives Google’s search algorithm some key information about your brand. They’ll know that the channel and its associated Google+ page are the official representations of that brand and can populate search results accordingly. This also lets YouTubers know that your channel is the official destination for your content. Google+ page verification will transfer over to YouTube, making your channel verified as well.
Management
For companies that manage a number of YouTube channels, the necessity to store separate login information for each can become burdensome. Google+ integration quickly solves this, making channel management easier. Once a YouTube channel is connected with a Google+ page, other team members within your organization can be invited to manage the channel. Invite a new manager to your Google+ page, and they’ll automatically be able to manage the YouTube channel. This also means that other users can manage the channel without having to give up sensitive login credentials. For clients opted into The Orchard’s Multi-Channel Network, this means you are now able to grant access to our team to enhance channel performance and make programming optimizations directly within the channel.
Sharing
Google+ makes it easier to spread your YouTube presence to a larger group of potential subscribers. Once a channel is connected to a Google+ page, videos and playlists can be shared directly through Google+. This helps spread the word about video uploads to fans that might not be engaged with your brand on YouTube. You can also take advantage of Hangouts On Air. Have live video broadcasts with your fans and stream it straight to your channel. Hangouts can then be saved and managed directly like any other video. Your channel will also be able to gauge the impact of videos through Google+ tools like Ripples.
Google+ is still a relatively new social media platform. Many businesses are still trying to gage the value of dedicating time to building a strategy. Although it may take some getting used to, the potential benefits could be well worth it. You should first decide if YouTube is a place your business depends on. Adding another platform to your social media strategy could create more work, so you should be sure you have an effective strategy in place. For brands that rely heavily on YouTube and video promotion, integrating with Google+ is a must. To get started, refer to our Quick Start Guide for instructions on how to set this up.
Move over 8 Mile, there is a new film about rapping which is about to take the world by storm. We are so excited to be supporting the first ever digital release of Freestyle: The Art of Rhyme on July 2. This critically acclaimed and multi-award winning documentary has been a festival favorite for over 5 years and we are thrilled to be joining the team.
As the film finds its new life in the digital space, it’s interesting to look at the other narrative being told here. A fantastic film was made, spent years traveling around the festival circuit garnishing many awards and accolades, and then was released on DVD for people to purchase. For the first time, people were able to see a young Notorious B.I.G. spit rhymes on the street corner so well that he made his targets just walk away. Mos Def is also shown as a young man, bursting onto the scene and developing his sound with collaborator Talib Kweli.
With the world of media having changed so much since the film was started, and the outlets reaching far greater than ever before — iPods, iPhones, tablets, laptops, smart phones, game consoles, and everything else in the marketplace today can seemingly play a movie – Freestyle, the film, now can be seen by many more people in so many new ways.
As we dive deeper, we can say the same thing is true for what this film was documenting. The world of improvisational rap, freestyling, ripping rhymes in a circle (cipher) and battling has gone through a similar transition, where music can now be uploaded, played, listened to, explained, and broadcast in more ways than ever before, and web sites have thousands of hours of songs uploaded to them every day where all it takes to listen in is a simple Internet connection at your local coffee shop. SoundCloud gives emerging artists a new platform to try out their content and get instant feedback. YouTube has turned rappers into studio artists. Hype Machine can bring a song or verse to new heights with a single posting. Can you imagine if the greatest freestyler of all time, Supernatural, had had these technologies available to him back in the day? Instead of ten lucky people hearing him in the park, his best verses would have been played around the world. Today, there is no more local. Music and talent in particular take a global approach.
The great feeling that you get from this film is nostalgia, looking back to a time when these freestyle circles could happen without eight iPhones recording the whole thing. Yet, we must accept the world we live in and that media has gone digital. Releasing this film digitally will simply give more people the opportunity to see it and on the whole, isn’t that the goal? (Note: freestyle unintended.)
Two years ago, the online video streaming services competed for volume of titles and over the same potential users. The dinner table discussion over “Netflix vs. Hulu vs. Amazon” focused on which service offered the most shows and best movies for the price point. This year, the conversation has changed as Netflix has publicly shifted the way they’re programming the service. Now with more subscribers than HBO and a successful $100 million original TV series, House of Cards, in their repertoire ($3.6 million per episode), the service has stated that their main competitor is now HBO, not iTunes, Hulu or other internet streaming services. Most recently Netflix allowed 1,800 titles to expire, telling Mashable that it is working towards licensing titles “on an exclusive basis” and that their goal is to be an “expert programmer” and not a “broad distributor.” This strategy paves the way for a future where Netflix can more easily co-exist with other subscription services.
Consumers were hoping an $8/mo subscription could replace their cable bill (just as a $10/month subscription provides them with access to virtually 100% of music available). Unfortunately for consumers, $8/month will always only give us a small subset of premium video content. The dust is starting to settle and each service is presenting its unique value to the viewer in the marketplace. Netflix will increasingly be the place to go for their exclusive series (next up this month: Arrested Development) and for recently released movies — the same value consumers see in HBO. Hulu (owned by the major networks) will be your go-to for network TV series, indie films, classics and documentaries (what Netflix used to be). I’d expect old seasons of TV series to fall off Netflix over time as Hulu increasingly takes over this role in the market. The sports leagues have their own subscription options and many others will enter the market and find their niche. Popular music subscription service, Spotify, will supposedly be entering the video streaming market. Amazon Prime has launched Amazon Studios to start producing original series for release through Amazon Prime.
So just how many of these services would you have to subscribe to in the future to replace your cable TV package? If you’re spending $120 on your cable bill, odds are $50 of that is for your internet and $70 is for your TV package. To replace your TV package you would have to subscribe to 7 or 8 services to match the current amount you spend on TV. If this is the future, then there is room in the market for Hulu to co-exist with Netflix and others, just as cable networks can co-exist and are not necessarily competing for the same viewer. If you’re looking to cut your monthly TV budget and you’re hoping (legal) internet streaming is the solution, then you’ll have to decide what types of movies and shows you’re willing to lose. It will become increasingly clear over the next year which services are right for you as they will inevitably follow the footsteps of TV networks and program their services for a selected viewer demographic rather than the masses.
If you’re a savvy YouTuber, you may already know about YouTube’s Playbook. Of course, if you’re a savvy YouTuber you already know everything in it. For a while, I’ve grumbled that it could use some reapplication to multiple types of creators. After all, not everyone is making cool episodic series or pioneering animation on YouTube. Therefore I’m sure the new Playbook Guides are all due to my influence!
They’re not yet converted to a user-friendly website, but you can download them as PDFs. Probably of immediate interest to most of The Orchard family is the music guide. While it’s not as heavy on strategy as the main Playbook, it does go in-depth on numerous successful tactics for promoting music on YouTube. I highly recommend it. Pay particular attention to the section on increasing watch time starting on page 27. It’s relevant to my last post on increasing engagement and helpful in mentally getting you over the hump of focusing on view counts.
Of course a big part of The Orchard family includes action sports. YouTube has a sports guide just for you. In particular, I recommend the section on programming starting on page 20. This is an area upon which I believe many of our sports clients could improve and the guide is fairly concise in this regard.
There are three other guides, one for educators, one for media companies, and one for nonprofits. I also recommend reading these. At first glance you may think they’re irrelevant, but you never know where a tactic used in one area could have applications in another.
The concept of episodes has been generally associated with traditional cable television only. However, as the line between TV and internet continues to blur, more viewers are looking to internet streaming for their daily fix. It’s clearly apparent that video streaming services like YouTube, Hulu, and Netflix are all vying to compete directly with cable television giants. But what does that mean for musicians and labels? Time to adapt.
For musicians, YouTube has historically been viewed as a vault to hold music in a video format. A catalogue of MTV-style music videos is uploaded, maybe a live performance or two, and those videos sit until the next album or tour. That’s great if you’re able to bombard your fans with email updates each time you sporadically upload a video. But that’s not nice. It’s also not beneficial to your brand or your YouTube presence. Think pull, not push.
Instead of hoping viewers come back to your channel after a long break between albums and video uploads, make sure you give them something they can expect regularly. Enter “episodes.” If you can commit to a regular schedule with a new video update each week or so, your chances of engaging an audience are instantly improved. As YouTube predicted, its viewers are watching on a more regular, predictable basis (much like TV). This is a huge opportunity for musicians and labels to connect on a level that was much less available until now.
So how do you get started? Often, the toughest part for music companies and bands is coming up with content that is consistent. This is the time to get creative. Your episodes don’t have to be long. They don’t even have to be the best quality. The most important thing is consistency and creativity. Give your viewers something they can’t get from buying your album or going to a show. This can be as simple as an intimate performance of songs in a setting they’re not used to (Tiny Desk, La Blogotheque). If you’ve exhausted all of your material, a simple video blog or interview will suffice. Plus, these allow your viewers to get to know you on a more personal level. Some channels even go as far as writing and producing completely original web series.
The fact that YouTube and its counterparts are competing with TV isn’t necessarily news. The point is that users will have to adapt to take full advantage of the opportunities that this shift could bring. This is a bit more difficult for musicians and labels to grasp, but if you can pull it off, the potential is huge. Get started by checking out the YouTube Creator Playbook.
