YouTube Content Engagement has four considerations:
- Views
- Social Media Exposure
- Embeds, and
- Responses and Comments
Each component addresses a single aspect of the primary goal of bringing awareness and traffic to your content.
Contents
Views represent the first hurdle of uploading your video: getting people to watch.
YouTube tracks the number of times a video is watched. This number contributes to a higher ranking on YouTube which means that your video has a greater chance of being automatically advertised, shared, watched, responded to, etc. Videos that are referred to as having gone “viral” get that title by being viewed so many times.
Social Media Exposure is incredibly important.
One way to do this is through inbound links. Think of inbound links as rabbit holes that you want people to fall into. If your video is about lawn care and maintenance, try going to Q&A websites like Answers.com and Quora and looking for questions pertinent to your content.
Once you find these questions or threads go ahead and leave a vague, but helpful, comment. Also let the questioner know that for more definitive answers they can follow the link (which you will include in the comments section) back to your website or video.
Keep in mind that like with other advertising methods, there is a right and wrong way to go about inbound links. Don’t risk harming the credibility of your brand by haphazardly or excessively posting on unrelated questions or websites. That’s a good way of telling people that you’re illegitimate. In today’s age where people are already hyper vigilant about internet scams, you don’t want your brand being seen as another scheme.
Maintaining a blog and social media accounts adds greater validity and exposure to your brand (social proof). There’s a greater chance that a user will find you if you’re presence is spread across multiple platforms. Make sure that you stay current and relevant to your brand when posting information.
Embeds are slightly different than inbound links. Embedding is a seamless way of allowing others to utilize your content.
Unlike inbound links the user is not generally rerouted to another page to watch your video. Rather, the material is placed on that website as viewable content. The takeaway here is to remember to always enable embedding to allow for media and social platforms to utilize your content.
Responses and Comments are different ways in which a user can actively engage with the content they view.
Like views, responses and comments are also used on the part of YouTube to determine the ranking of your video and is arguably the most powerful User Engagement factor there is to YouTube SEO. Think of the rank structure as such; views are good, likes are better, comments are fantastic, and shares are the most valuable social media engagements.
Gain more comments by commenting back and responding to your viewership. Reach out to them. Ask them to subscribe to your channel.
Key Takeaway: Create and deliver great videos so you won’t be ashamed to ask for video or comment responses.
These tips may seem a bit complicated and time-consuming, but remember: The time people spend watching YouTube has increased 60% year-over-year.
