First, you may need to know that, in fact, YouTube launched a redesign.
It involves both an aesthetic and structural update meant to keep users more engaged and on the site longer. YouTube’s ultimate goal is most certainly to increase their (thus, Google’s) advertising revenue potential, but put your cynicism away, because the key is: It’s designed to keep users more engaged and on the site longer. That is what you really need to know.
Here are the 2 key changes to the site and why they should matter to you:
More emphasis on Channels and Subscriptions than just on individual videos
What Does This Mean? On the home page, users will now see handy channel categories helping them browse for content that interests them–even stuff they may not have considered being on YouTube. There’s also recommended channels, which is based on previous searches and views. And a customizable feed of new videos added by channels they subscribe to. Users can also connect from YouTube to Google+ and Facebook to see what theirs friends are sharing.
What Does This Mean For Your Business? YouTube currently reports 3 billion video views per day, which will start translating into lots more engaged viewers, with all the redesign alerts YouTube has all over the site. As video watchers start to more actively peruse content through YouTube’s cleaner structure, you need to take steps to get in front of them!
- Develop videos that you can upload on a fairly consistent basis: seasonal tips/motivation/ideas/inspiration, how-to’s on something your company produces, footage from events (especially great if you run a club, restaurant, or store and had customers in attendance–most people love seeing themselves and will share that content), footage of your company building a house for charity, even silly antics around the business.
