Lessons from WCVB-TV's YouTube Experiment

My column for Mass High Tech today looks at Boston station WCVB-TV's YouTube experiment. There are some interesting things that anyone wanting to distribute video content can learn from Channel 5's experience. First of all, YouTube is a great playground to test your videos. If you're diving into video production to produce value-added content for your site, you may want to produce a few test pieces first, and see what happens when they are released into the YouTube universe. YouTube, as Channet 5 notes, has matured. To be sure, odd and unusual video clips still reign supreme. But videos that serve the interests of niche audiences also perform well. If people are looking for your type of video content, whether it's an educational piece or a TV commercial, they're likely to turn first to YouTube.

It's also interesting to learn from Channel 5 that unedited news video clips perform well. As WCVB points out, they allow people to make judgements for themselves. In marketing we also know though video tracking that raw customer testimonials, interviews, and snippets of speeches can be effective. Just make sure the speakers in your clips are engaging and get to the point quickly!

You can read the Mass High Tech article here.