YouTube

• Please use the University YouTube channel to house University related film content –please contact Jill Gainer for more information j.gainer@hud.ac.uk
• Choose your film clip title carefully – this is one of the major elements that the YouTube search facility will use when harvesting videos. Therefore it is important that the title contains the primary keywords associated with the video, this will help to push the video higher in the YouTube search rankings.
• Remember to include a description for the film clip – this should be up to 3 or 4 sentences in length and should summarise the major elements of the video.  Make sure that the description includes some the same words as the title; this will help the clip achieve a higher search rank. You can also use URLs in the description, so where possible, please include a link to a relevant University web page to encourage traffic back to the site.
• Tags (also known as keywords) consist of the various search terms associated with the video. It is important to think like the user when deciding on what tags to use, i.e. what keywords would you use in the search area in order to find the video.
• Change the film clip settings to allow for user comments - comments can help to increase the view count and encourage engagement.
• Video responses may be appropriate to use in some cases – this option allows the viewer to respond via a video.  The viewer’s response could be as simple as a ‘webcam’ style blogged response or as much as a whole parody production.
• You can also allow users to rate each video; this can be turned off or on.
• Remember to allow users to embed the video into their own website or blog. Film clips that have been embedded on the University site tend to gain around an extra third of the views. Allowing users to use the film content elsewhere will help to increase the view count.
• It is essential that you turn on ‘syndication’; this allows the film clip to be played on mobile devices and TV.
• Remember that you can monitor the progress of your individual uploads using the YouTube insight feature.
• Make sure your video doesn’t infringe on copyright by ensuring all components of your video are original. For example, if you use an audio track owned by a record label without permission, your video may infringe copyright law. Youtube may then remove the content. Youtube does offer a library of authorised music so try and select your soundtrack from there if you aren’t composing your own music.