Your YouTube Channel Checklist

If you have a YouTube channel (and if you don't you really should create one right now) you can optimize it by utilizing its features to the fullest. Here's an excerpt from my Social Media Promotion for Musicians book that outlines the things that you should be sure are taken care of.

"☐ Branded Channel Art

The channel art is the banner at the top of the page where you can display a customized graphic. YouTube suggests this graphic be 2560 x1440 pixels so that it works on all types of televisions, tablets, smartphones and computers, but what YouTube will show on most computer browsers is 1546 x 423. This is known as the “safe area” and is where you should place any critical graphics information since anything outside that area might not show up on a device with a smaller screen. The graphic can be up to 2MB and in either a JPG or PNG format. The Channel Art upload section is accessed by clicking on the pen icon on the top right of graphics box. You can access a template for the channel art, as well as a design tutorial, by clicking on “How to create channel art” at the bottom of the upload pop up box.

☐ Channel Description

You access your channel description from the About tab underneath your channel name. After the About box pops up, select the pen icon on the upper right to edit. From here you can enter or edit the description. Be sure to include all the information about your channel in the description, such as what to expect from the video content as well as who’s involved (like the members of a band).

☐ Website link

The website and social medial links are accessed in the same manner as above; through the pen icon on the top right of the box. Here you can add links to websites, blogs and social networks. The first weblink you entered will appear on the lower right side above your channel art, as will the social network icons. The others will appear in the About box.

☐ Social Media Links
Make sure that you connect your Facebook and Twitter accounts to your YouTube channel.

☐ Channel Icon (picture)

The avatar is either a picture of you, your band, or product that appears on the upper left of your channel page. The avatar can be up to 800 x 800 (you’re able to crop it) and 1MB in size, although the smaller the file size the better, since it will load faster. The picture is stored with your Google+ account, and you can also access any pictures stored there to use as your avatar.

☐ Featured Video or Trailer

Another thing that you can do is feature a particular video or trailer at the top of the page when someone who is unsubscribed visits your channel. Simply select the pen icon on the top right of the box, select a video, then hit save. You can see what both subscribers and non-subscribers see by toggling Unsubscribed trailer and Subscriber view next to the edit icon.

☐ Playlists

YouTube allows you to create multiple playlists, which can have a great influence in how your fans consume your content. If you have a fair number of videos, you might want to create different playlists for different parts of your fan base, since each may have a different desire of what to watch. While your superfans will want to see everything you upload, your casual fans may be more selective. You can select the order and layout of these playlists, or create a new one, by selecting the edit icon on the top right of the playlist box."

It's easy enough to have a YouTube channel without using many of the above features, but it will be so much more powerful if you do as it connects with the rest of your online presence.

You can read more from Social Media Promotion for Musicians and my other books on the excerpt section of bobbyowsinski.com.

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Vevo Launches Original Music Shows

It's all the rage for cable networks to invest in their own show productions these days, and now that idea is now being adopted by online networks as well.

You're probably at least peripherally aware of Vevo, the massive online music network that's owned by Universal Music Group, Sony Music, Google, and Abu Dhabi Media. The channel is where the major music labels place their artist's official music videos, and that's how most people are aware of it, since if you watch a video, you've noticed the name.

Vevo has been trying hard to do original programming though, and since about 2009 has produced over 2,000 episodes of various shows that cover music performances, interviews and news. The shows are mostly only a few minutes in length, but they've amassed over a billion views, according to Vevo. And all of those eyeballs really add up, since between the preroll ads and branded content, original programming is responsible for around a third of the network's revenue.

All that said, there hasn't been a Vevo original show that can be considered a hit. That's why the company is trying especially hard to give 3 new shows a much higher profile than before. A.K.A is the channel's first foray into animation, where musicians like Iggy Azalea tell the stories of how they received their stage names. Day Off With shows fans what artists do in their spare time, and Vevo DSCVR (pronounced "discover") introduces new acts with interviews and performances.

All of the episodes of the new shows are between 2 and 4 minutes to stay in the "snackable" range of what the normal viewer prefers. That said, Vevo has tried other show lengths as well, starting with an hour long variety show launched in March called The Collective aimed at the Latino audience.

This is a great time to be a content creator of any type, as there's finally the money and vision to try things that would have been called crazy only a few years ago. The problem is that we're all inundated with so much information that you have to wonder how any new show can break out. That said, Vevo has some deep pockets and a lot of viewers, all they need are the shows that viewers want to watch.

Here's an example of the previously mentioned A.K.A episode with Iggy Azalea.

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6 Steps To Branding Your YouTube Channel

Branding is incredibly important for an artist or band and how to discover and develop it is something that has been touched on numerous times in this blog. Your brand can be enhanced greatly if it extends to your YouTube channel, which is something often overlooked. Here's an excerpt from my Social Media Promotion for Musicians book outlining 6 steps to branding your YouTube channel.

"There are a number of areas that are available on your channel that enables you to emphasize your own design or brand. Let’s look at them:

1. The Channel Art: The channel art is the banner at the top of the page where you can display a customized graphic. YouTube suggests this graphic be 2560 x1440 pixels so that it works on all types of televisions, tablets, smartphones and computers, but what YouTube will show on most computer browsers is 1546 x 423. This is known as the “safe area” and is where you should place any critical graphics information since anything outside that area might not show up on a device with a smaller screen. The graphic can be up to 2MB and in either a JPG or PNG format. The Channel Art upload section is accessed by clicking on the pen icon on the top right of graphics box. You can access a template for the channel art, as well as a design tutorial, by clicking on “How to create channel art” at the bottom of the upload pop up box.

TIP: Your channel art should be attractive and consistent with your brand, but don’t be afraid to also feature any of the personalities, characters or content of the channel.

2. The Channel Description: You access your channel description from the About tab underneath your channel name. After the About box pops up, select the pen icon on the upper right to edit. From here you can enter or edit the description. Be sure to include all the information about your channel in the description, such as what to expect from the video content as well as who’s involved (like the members of a band).

3. Website and Social Media Links: The website and social medial links are accessed in the same manner as above; through the pen icon on the top right of the box. Here you can add links to websites, blogs and social networks. The first weblink you entered will appear on the lower right side above your channel art, as will the social network icons. The others will appear in the About box. 

4. Channel Icon or Avatar: The avatar is either a picture of you, your band, or product that appears on the upper left of your channel page. The avatar can be up to 800 x 800 (you’re able to crop it) and 1MB in size, although the smaller the file size the better, since it will load faster. The picture is stored with your Google+ account, and you can also access any pictures stored there to use as your avatar.

5. Featured Video/Trailer: Another thing that you can do is feature a particular video or trailer at the top of the page when someone who is unsubscribed visits your channel. Simply select the pen icon on the top right of the box, select a video, then hit save. You can see what both subscribers and non-subscribers see by toggling Unsubscribed trailer and Subscriber view next to the edit icon.

6. Playlists: YouTube allows you to create multiple playlists, which can have a great influence in how your fans consume your content. If you have a fair number of videos, you might want to create different playlists for different parts of your fan base, since each may have a different desire of what to watch. While your superfans will want to see everything you upload, your casual fans may be more selective. You can select the order and layout of these playlists, or create a new one, by selecting the edit icon on the top right of the playlist box."

To read additional excerpts from Social Media Promotion for Musicians and my other books, go to the excerpts bobbyowsinski.com.

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Help support this blog. Any purchases made through our Amazon links help support this website with no cost to you.

5 YouTube Tips From Big Brands

The top 10 YouTube brand channels like Red Bull, GoPro and Playstation (according to the Touchstone Video Index) all do the same things to stay there, so it's good to take a look at their techniques. Here's what we can learn that can be successfully applied to a music brand.

1. Publish content regularly. It's the key to increased viewer engagement, views and subscribers.

2. Convert your views into subscribers. Subscriptions are gold and much more important than views. The average is 2,276 subscribers per million views, so if you're not reaching that number then there's something wrong with your content.

3. Send people back to your channel. Most views are not made on the channel itself, so try to link the viewers back to your channel so they can subscribe or leave a comment.

4. Treat YouTube as an engagement platforms. Comments matter more than ever in Google rankings, so be sure to respond to all questions and comments.

5. Don't allow trash talk. Don't be afraid to delete and block inflammatory comments that lead to flame wars. Critiques are okay, but taking the conversation into the gutter kills your audience. You wouldn't allow it to happen at a party, would you?

Also remember that your video views should be evenly distributed. You're in trouble if one or two videos get 80 to 90% of your total views, as that means that the quality of your content is uneven.

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Help support this blog. Any purchases made through our Amazon links help support this website with no cost to you.

Follow me on Forbes for some insights on the new music business.

You should follow me on Twitter and Facebook for daily news and updates on production and the music business.

Check out my Big Picture blog for discussion on common music, engineering and production tips and tricks.

Branding Your YouTube Channel

YouTube Websites and Social Media Links

Just like your Facebook and Twitter profile pages, a YouTube channel page is another opportunity to reinforce your musical branding. There’s less flexibility in how you can brand that channel than there used to be, but there are still places where you can get creative. Here's an excerpt from Social Media Promotion For Musicians that provides some tips on branding and design of your YouTube Channel.

"There are a number of areas that are available on your channel that enables you to emphasize your own design or brand. Let’s look at them:

• The Channel Art: The channel art is the banner at the top of the page where you can display a customized graphic. YouTube suggests this graphic be 2560 x1440 pixels so that it works on all types of televisions, tablets, smartphones and computers, but what YouTube will show on most computer browsers is 1546 x 423. This is known as the “safe area” and is where you should place any critical graphics information since anything outside that area might not show up on a device with a smaller screen. The graphic can be up to 2MB and in either a JPG or PNG format. The Channel Art upload section is accessed by clicking on the pen icon on the top right of graphics box, as shown in Figure 9.1. You can access a template for the channel art, as well as a design tutorial, by clicking on “How to create channel art” at the bottom of the upload pop up box.

TIP: Your channel art should be attractive and consistent with your brand, but don’t be afraid to also feature any of the personalities, characters or content of the channel.

• The Channel Description: You access your channel description from the About tab underneath your channel name. After the About box pops up, select the pen icon on the upper right to edit. From here you can enter or edit the description. Be sure to include all the information about your channel in the description, such as what to expect from the video content as well as who’s involved (like the members of a band).

• Website and Social Media Links: The website and social medial links are accessed in the same manner as above; through the pen icon on the top right of the box. Here you can add links to websites, blogs and social networks (see the graphic on the left). The first weblink you entered will appear on the lower right side above your channel art, as will the social network icons. The others will appear in the About box. 

• Featured Video/Trailer: Another thing that you can do is feature a particular video or trailer at the top of the page when someone who is unsubscribed visits your channel. Simply select the pen icon on the top right of the box, select a video, then hit save. You can see what both subscribers and non-subscribers see by toggling Unsubscribed trailer and Subscriber view next to the edit icon.

• Playlists: YouTube allows you to create multiple playlists, which can have a great influence in how your fans consume your content. If you have a fair number of videos, you might want to create different playlists for different parts of your fan base, since each may have a different desire of what to watch. While your superfans will want to see everything you upload, your casual fans may be more selective. You can select the order and layout of these playlists, or create a new one, by selecting the edit icon on the top right of the playlist box.

Read additional excerpts from Social Media Promotion For Musicians and other books at bobbyowsinski.com.

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Help support this blog. Any purchases made through our Amazon links help support this website with no cost to you.

Follow me on Forbes for some insights on the new music business.

You should follow me on Twitter and Facebook for daily news and updates on production and the music business.

Check out my Big Picture blog for discussion on common music, engineering and production tips and tricks.

Taking Advantage Of YouTube's Redesign

I don't know if you noticed, but YouTube quietly redesigned its site over the last few months. What you now see is a streamlined version that's a lot less cluttered so that it fits better with mobile browsing. YouTube is trying to make the site stickier, so the emphasis is now more on channels rather than individual viewing, although that's not something that's particularly overt. And of course, the more social they can make it, the better, since that adds to the stickiness as well.

As with other social sites, a redesign frequently means that you must do some updating in order to take full advantage of the new features, and this case is no exception. Here are some things that you an do:

1. Select an avatar. The channel avatar is your main marketing image and appears everywhere across your channel, so choose it wisely.

2. Choose your channel details. Both the name of your channel and the description also appear in a number of places, so it's important that you take care in how they're created. For instance, in some cases only 45 characters of your description appear next to your avatar, so make sure that you can get your message across with those limitations.

3. Choose your video metadata. This includes being sure that you have a keyword in your video's title (preferably the first word), and you have both an informative description (don't skimp on the copy here) and the appropriate links included.

People forget how important SEO is for their videos, but the fact that YouTube is the second largest search engine after Google is a good enough reason to pay extra attention to the details.

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Help support this blog. Any purchases made through our Amazon links help support this website with no cost to you.

You should follow me on Twitter for daily news and updates on production and the music business.

Check out my Big Picture blog for discussion on common music, engineering and production tips and tricks.

Customize Your YouTube Channel Background

YouTube is changing a lot lately in that it's allowing the user to customize features that were previously frozen. We'll look at some of these new possibilities in upcoming posts, but today we'll feature on how to customize your YouTube channel's background image.

It's pretty easy actually.

1. Go to your YouTube channel page and click "My Channel."

2. Click the "Settings" button on the main channel page.

3. Upload a background image.

Couldn't be easier, right? Well, you have to remember that the image is going to be used in a unique way, so it's best to remember the following before you hit the upload button:

• You're a lot better off with a wide panoramic shot instead of a close-up because of how the image is going to be distributed across the page. You probably won't see much of the following because.........

• The center of your picture will be obscured by the meat of the channel, so a picture with content on the sides will usually work out better.

• In order to have the image tile properly, use one that's at least 970 pixels wide.

• Use a larger image that fills the page rather than a smaller one that tiles the background. Tiling usually looks pretty cheesy and unprofessional.

That's all there is to it. Go customize away!

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Help support this blog. Any purchases made through our Amazon links help support this website with no cost to you.

You should follow me on Twitter for daily news and updates on production and the music business.

Check out my Big Picture blog for discussion on common music, engineering and production tips and tricks.

3 Rules For YouTube Success

I love to hear what works for successful entrepreneurs and businesses, especially when they have the ability to analyze their performance and evaluate their methods. Many times their own personal "rules" are not transferrable to other situations, but in many cases they are, in which case we can all learn from them.

Here's an interesting video from Charlie McDonnel, who's done 156 YouTube videos so far that each have a million or so views. His charlieissocoollike YouTube channel has about 1.5 million subscribers and the total views are over 234 million. He's obviously doing something right.

Among his rules:

• Don't ask people to comment or like a video. Just make a great video and the likes and comments will come.

• Don't give your viewers a group name (Lady Gaga's "Little Monsters" is an example). Talk to the individual viewer.

• Make the video for yourself first. If you're not having fun and enjoying the process, it will come through the camera to your viewers.

Check out Charlie's YouTube rules below.

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Help support this blog. Any purchases made through our Amazon links help support this website with no cost to you.

You should follow me on Twitter for daily news and updates on production and the music business.

Check out my Big Picture blog for discussion on common music, engineering and production tips and tricks.