There have been some significant changes in YouTube’s service recently. These are the biggest changes YouTube has made since 2006. Obviously a lot has changed in the internet world since 2006, the biggest one being the rise of social media platforms and the fact that so much more video is being consumed these days. Let’s look into the major changes and what this means for your web video marketing watching and your channel.
A Vastly Different Homepage
About the only thing that remains the same about YouTube’s new homepage is that it still has videos! It looks different in the address bar and on the browser tabs because there is now a new favicon with a small red and white Play button, not the stacked logo of YouTube as before.
YouTube have surveyed viewers and found that they needed to make it more personalized and so the goal was to put more emphasis on ‘videos for you’. It focuses on videos you have ‘liked’ and on video channels you have subscribed to. This is a development on the playlist of YouTube recommendations which is now based on what you have previously watched.
The changes Youtube is making is preparing the way for the convergence of social media with video and show they are getting ready to include social media metrics in their own search results.
The homepage is divided into three main sections.
The Central Area
This is the largest section and includes the most recently uploaded videos from the channels you subscribe to.
The Left Hand Menu
Here you will find your list of subscriptions and suggested subscriptions. You can share content directly from here to Google Plus or Facebook.
You can pin up your ten favourite channels on the menu which allows you easier access to new uploads. There is an activity stream where you can include web video marketing uploads, like, favourites and comments.
The Right Hand Menu
This is basically a column of recommended videos based on your viewing history.
Channel Pages Revamped
Your channel pages as a web video publisher have also been redesigned. There is a new channel design which comes with a new featured tab that can be customized to the needs of each publisher with a series of four templates. Some of the default templates include a design optimized for bloggers with a lot of output, a network design that can highlight multiple channels on YouTube and a live template that includes elements specific to live video broadcast on YouTube.
Finally…
YouTube is interested in the close relationship which is growing between social media and video. A lot of YouTube’s traffic comes from third party sites and they’ve made changes to keep visitors on their site longer.
As a video maker, you want to get as many users as possible to feature your channel on their personalized menus and home pages. This will mean more hits and more traffic to your website.
Click here for more tips on using Youtube for your web video marketing campaigns. You can also contact our team at Melbourne Video Production for professional video creation assistance today.
