Page 136 - Christian Training Guide

YouTube will borrow the sticky elements of other social media platforms to help channel
owners attract, retain, and engage their fans. In addition, as the frequency of engagement

increases, so will the number of daily vlogs. To stand out, marketers will need to deliver

content that benefits their audience and consistently engage in two-way conversations
with viewers.

#8: YouTube Promotes Longer Engagement Views

YouTube is actively measuring how long people spend at the site and will be promoting

videos that engage viewers for longer periods of time. They are also keenly aware that
younger viewers with disposable income are spending more time watching YouTube on a

mobile device, usually a smartphone.

To take advantage of this shift, marketers need to do three things:

First, they should experiment with longer-form videos, provided those videos can hold
viewers’ attention. Since the average YouTube session is now over 40 minutes, videos don’t

need to be two minutes long.

However, YouTube viewers’ attention spans haven’t expanded, so a talking head droning
on for half an hour won’t work. Instead, spend more time in post-production adding

engaging graphic overlays. These can include cut scenes, closeups, freeze frames,
countdown numbers, URLs, and even Easter Eggs that will cause people to stop and

“rewind” your videos.

Second, if marketers are looking to drive traffic from YouTube to a website or landing page,

they’ll need to use YouTube cards throughout the video. While YouTube Annotations were

a great addition to creating clickable links within a video, they didn’t work on mobile.

YouTube cards allow you to create clickable, engaging calls to action within the video that

show up wherever the video is shown, whether on a smartphone, tablet, or embedded on a
website or blog.