YouTube power tips: 6 simple ways to turbo charge your channel

We’ve been in to YouTube central and talked to the guys who know about how you can get more views and subscribers for your YouTube channel. The first part of our YouTube series shows you six simple ways to turbo charge your videos on YouTube.

1. Make the first 15 seconds count

Because that’s all you’ve got. Get the first 10-15 seconds wrong and your viewer is off watching superheroes in Seattle and dogs dressed as AT-AT elsewhere.

• Answer the question, “What am I Watching?” – in the first few moments
• If you’ve got long(ish) content then use a teaser to show what comes along later in the video
• Keep your brand ‘sting’ to five seconds or less.
• Example: Philip DeFranco Show

2. Have a call to action

Online video isn’t a passive experience. Your viewers have itchy fingers (as we saw above) so give them things to do. You’ll also boost your ranking, engagement and audience scores. With that in mind every video should use annotations, voiceover or a presenter to explicitly ask the viewer to…

• Subscribe
• Comment
• Like/favourite/share
• Vote
• Example: Mystery Guitar Man

3. Create a schedule and stick to it

While online video is certainly a different beast to TV some of the same techniques work across both, including having regular release schedules, programming and timely publishing.

• Release certain types of videos on set days of the week (video reviews on Friday and mashups on Tuesdays, for instance)

4. Organise themed weeks

This is ‘tent-pole’ programming with a week dedicated to a specific theme, for instance having a ‘FIFA Week’ with all your content about the game (a review, video tips, gamer reactions, round-ups of other’s content ec).

• Choose a big theme: a game release or cultural or sporting event etc to build content around. A good plan is to get ahead of the actual release to piggy back the pre-release hype, rather than get lost in the rush of actual release.
• Plan and publish details on your content in advance – let everyone know what is coming.
• Example: Harry Potter Week

5. Join up with other YouTubers

Collaborating with other YouTube channels is a great way to cross-promote your videos. You can do this as part of your ‘tent-pole’ programming around a specific subject or go for a longer or permanent tie-in.

• Make sure your collaborator is relevant to your audience (although not necessarily just about video games)
• Appear in or contribute in some way to content on your collaborator’s channel and encourage them to appear/contribute to your videos
• Include ‘shout outs’ to your collaborator in your videos
• Record video chats, use video-responses or incorporate video from one another on your channel.
• Make it easy for the viewers to get from one channel to the other (and make sure you link to specific videos and not just channel pages).
• Example: The Bacon Song

6. Interact with your audience

Online video users aren’t passive watchers and it’s important to get them involved in your channel. Not only will you make them stick around it will help create a sense of community and give users something to feel part of.

• Respond to comments as quickly as possible (but don’t pick fights)
• Ask for ideas, opinions and feedback
• Use YouTube Bulletins to message your subscribers (and use a call to action to get them involved).
• Reward your audience with shout-outs or prizes or whatever you can think of – get them onto the show itself if you can do that.

We’ll be going deeper into YouTube with our next post including how to use analytics to boost audiences and more great tips straight from the heart of YouTube.

Got more YouTube tips? Then let us know either in the comments or the contact page and we’ll feature them in the next round of YouTube Power Tips.