People love to watch videos online, and luckily YouTube, the biggest name in the video hosting space, makes sharing this type of content a breeze. But you can’t just upload anything and expect it to become the next viral sensation. In order to increase the viral potential, you need to make your YouTube videos as easy to share as possible.
1. Make Sharing Your Call to Action
Some of the most successful YouTube videos blew up because they contained a strong call to action. Kony 2012 was a prime example. Although the purpose of the campaign was to make Ugandan war criminal Joseph Kony famous enough to be recognized and subsequently apprehended by international authorities, it asked viewers to take specific actions as well. Those actions were ordering action kits containing media designed to help spread the word, and bringing the crimes of Joseph Kony to the attention of their local government. In this case, you want viewers to share and sometimes, it isn’t a bad idea to come out and say just that.
2. Educate on Sharing
YouTube makes sharing content incredibly easy. It also allows users to do so in a variety of ways. For example, they can do so by linking to the video, embedding it on a third-party site, or directly sharing it on a social media channel like Facebook or Twitter. However, despite being a rather straightforward process, not everyone is aware how to do this. So if creating a viral effect is your goal, use the description space to clearly explain how viewers can share your videos in their social networking spots and beyond.
3. Encourage Sharing Through Social
The cool thing about Facebook, Twitter, and other social networks is that they offer pretty strong support for YouTube. This is great news for video marketers. Your content can be shared from YouTube, or directly on one of these sites. The key, of course, is convincing users to take the initiative. Again, it wouldn’t hurt to be straightforward by letting your social fans and followers know that you want them to share your video content.
4. Add Sharing Buttons in Your Emails
Email marketing and social media have proven to be an excellent match over the past couple of years. There are plenty of ways to integrate these two channels, but one of the easiest is adding social sharing buttons in your email campaigns. This also happens to be an effective way to make your videos shareable. If your subscribers are already familiar with this functionality, all it will take is some compelling content to get them to clicking.
5. Create Quality Videos
And finally we have reached the biggest point of all – the importance of creating quality videos. People do not share content just because it’s an easy process. If it does not interest them, don’t even worry about them sharing it, because chances are, they won’t even watch it.
YouTube is powerful stuff, but your videos will just sit there if you don’t take the effort to make them the best they can be. Put these tips to use, and you can be on your way to better exposure.
Author Bio: Chiko Noguchi is a best practices activist and advocate for a leading provider of email marketing services.