We make managing your YouTube presence as easy for brands as Twitter and Facebook, and help bridge the gap between your video marketing and social media team. And we’re making it available to HootSuite’s 8+ million users.

Already a HootSuite user and using vidIQ Premium? Use this link to Install the vidIQ app for HootSuite now!

Not a vidIQ Premium user? Request a Demo and find out what all the buzz is about.

Here’s the scoop: If you’re a vidIQ Premium user you’ll now be able to access our best of breed YouTube management suite directly in the HootSuite dashboard. You’ll be able to:

Monitor every mention of your YouTube videos on Twitter!

90% of Tweets that contains URLs to your YouTube videos don’t mention your brand name or Twitter handle. These are valuable conversations about your brand that you’re missing out on. We find them all!

Increase your volume of tags 10x across your entire YouTube library in less than 10 minutes

YouTube is the 2nd largest search engine in the world, and 58% of YouTube viewers watch your video because of Search and Related Videos, making SEO very important. We deliver high quality tags in bulk on a weekly basis. Respond to YouTube comments from any of your YouTube channels

Engaging with your viewers via YouTube comments is proven to increase engagement and views by 4x. We take the tedium out of YouTube comment moderation and response with powerful moderation tools. Upload YouTube videos at the best time of day

Don’t treat YouTube like dropbox – just like Twitter and Facebook, there is a best time to upload your videos. We find it. Gain actionable insights into your YouTube campaigns and see how your videos are being shared across Facebook and Twitter.

Views and Subscribers are only part of the story. We show you how your videos are performing across Twitter and Facebook so you can optimize for success. With vidIQ for HootSuite, vidIQ Premium users now have a powerful YouTube tool to add to your social media management arsenal – 

vidIQ and Hootsuite logos on blue background with upward trending graph arrows

As a global brand, managing your YouTube presence along with your Facebook and Twitter endeavors is no easy task – especially with a fragmented array of tools and a large social media team.

Introducing the vidIQ App for HootSuite

At last month’s Streaming Media East show in New York City, our CEO Rob Sandie was on an expert panel.

Rob critiqued YouTube’s cost benefits, built-in audience, established marketing channels, native device compliance, technical features, and discussed YouTube’s platform as a destination for engagement.

If you weren’t able to attend, watch the video below to learn the pros and cons of using YouTube as a video platform and hear which content and distribution strategies YouTube is best suited for.

In addition to the panel, Rob was interviewed by Blip.tv on how vidIQ is helping brands leverage YouTube as a primary home for their audience with our YouTube optimization tools. Watch the video below for the full details.

There has never been a better time to be a brand on YouTube – 

get started with vidIQ and start growing your audience

Person holding smartphone capturing a live concert with purple stage lighting effects

As viewers continue to flock to YouTube, brands are re-evaluating it as a practical alternative to costly online video platforms.

Using YouTube As An Online Video Platform

In a short time, YouTube grew from relative obscurity to beast

And becamea a video platform with over 1 billion monthly active users, and the 3rd largest social network and 2nd largest search engine in the world. To celebrate we decided to take a trip down memory lane and highlight how the seen-but-rarely-acknowledged YouTube Embeddable Player has changed over the years. So break out your corn cob pipe and monocle, and join us on our trip down memory lane!

Screenshot of old YouTube homepage featuring video thumbnails and member login section

"It’s hard to believe, but this week marks YouTube’s 8 year anniversary.

Then & Now | A Brief History of the YouTube Player

Replying to comments is absolutely critical for growing your subscribers

Contains Positive Words (positive sentiment)

Contain Negative Words (negative sentiment)

For instance, you can find all positive questions being asked and make sure those questions get answered, oh so nicely. 🙂

This is all available right now with our chrome extension.

Screenshot of comment moderation interface showing spam filters and search options

What happens when you are overwhelmed with too many comments? We’ve created filters that help you find the comments that matter.

YouTube Comment Filters with vidIQ

A large part of creating high quality content involves passion and dedication, but when you look a little deeper, there’s a science to engaging audiences too.

Here are 8 tips to help you reach the right audiences on YouTube and keep them coming back.

Match your expertise to the type of content you want to produce. Be consistent too.

Before you start thinking about the audience you want to reach, ask yourself what you’re good at. Are you a total movie buff? Experienced make-up guru? Comedian at heart? Choosing to focus your channel on an area that you’re well-versed in sets you up to succeed. When you speak to your passions, your knowledge and personality shine through. Bonus: you’ll come across as genuine and authentic (we’ll speak more on that later).

Do your research on the audience you wish to reach, and start speaking their language.

Once you’ve figured out the type of content you want to produce, it’s time to consider your audience. When it comes to targeting the right one and getting them to engage with your content, you need to do your research. Find out the names of relevant fan communities, learn their lingo, and incorporate their official names and vocabulary into your speak. From Tumblr to Reddit, communities congregate in specific places and you want to help shape those discussions.

YouTube may be the hub for television, movies, music, and entertainment in general, but it’s still a social media platform at the core. Like any other social media platform, you want to get involved in conversations and, well, socialize. Like and comment on videos that catch your attention, give shout-outs to other influencers and content creators, ask interesting questions, and engage with your subscribers. The YouTube community values authenticity above all, and being genuine in your videos is what keeps viewers involved. Don’t treat your channel simply as a means to self-promote. If you’re going to engage in some self-promotion though, be transparent and have fun with it!

Use the YouTube tools available to help measure and build audience engagement. Try other tools too.

YouTube’s attention score measures the length of time and attention viewers give to your videos. This insight is great for identifying what excites your audience and what you can do to improve. If your score reveals that viewer attention is high during the latter half of the video, but low during the first, then perhaps you should work on your hook. Viewers will generally decide within the first 5 seconds of a video whether they want to continue watching. With that in mind, make sure your opening gives enough context to keep viewers intrigued.

Video annotations are another way to engage your audiences, prompting them to take action. Use clickable annotations to link to other relevant videos or blog posts. You can even encourage viewers to subscribe to your channel here. The key here is do this smartly and sparingly.

With YouTube popularity growing every day, new tools and services are available too. Take for example vidIQ’s Chrome Extension that displays detailed metrics allowing you to look more deeply into keywords, historical data, and more. By leveraging what’s out there, you’re just upping your odds of succeeding.

Get comfortable looking into your channel’s analytics to find out what works. This is important as it can help you replicate success. Tools are helpful, but what’s better is staying on top of all the information in general and setting aside time to do so. vidIQ’s web app is the go-to place to do this as you can monitor your videos, your competitor’s channels, and find key insights to help when producing future content. Setting aside time to capitalize on research will payoff in the long run.

Optimize your videos for search (for YouTube and the web in general).

Optimizing your videos for search will help build traffic, much like how SEO is a critical component of ensuring written content succeeds across the web. Craft your video headlines and descriptions carefully, incorporating any trending topics and keywords that are relevant to it. Avoid the urge to overuse video tags though, and only use those that actually apply to your video. vidIQ Pro’s proprietary Keyword Research Tool makes it super easy to discover powerful tags to help improve your videos’ search ranking.

As search engines crawl text when processing search queries, adding an audio transcript (where you describe, in writing, the contents of your video) can help them index higher in search. Not only does the audio transcript add additional context to your video, it also gives you an opportunity to throw in some more keywords to help people discover your content when searching.

Partner with other content creators and share the YouTube love.

Collaborating with other content creators is an effective way to grow your audience. Whether you’re partnering with YouTubers that focus on similar topics, or just users that interest you, both will act as an introduction to new audiences.

Don’t be afraid to mention other YouTubers your fans should check out! Unsurprisingly, YouTubers know other YouTubers, and earning your way into the ranks of this influential network will help drive your traffic through cross-channel promotion.

Share your videos on other social media platforms and content discovery engines.

Other social channels are great places to share YouTube videos. They provide an opportunity to tag/mention friends, brands, and other content creators too. Not only will this attract more viewers, it’s also a great way to generate and keep a conversation going outside of YouTube. Pick the channel where your desired audience is the most active. Then, make sure the content you’re adding contributes to the conversation. Seeding your content into discovery engines like StumbleUpon can also be a good way to drive additional traffic to your videos.

Silhouettes of concert crowd with raised hands and bright stage lights in background

Building a loyal YouTube audience doesn’t happen overnight.

8 Ways to Reach the Right Audience on YouTube

Let’s get straight to our latest on our extension of Top Holiday Keywords and Videos with our New Years YouTube research.

This time we are taking are research to the next level and breaking down the trending types of videos.

First, Top New Years Keywords Used (to find this content and keywords you might want to consider):

happy new years, happy new years eve, fireworks, holidays, happy new years 2015, makeup, beauty, holiday makeup, new year’s eve( holiday), new year (holiday), happy new year songs

If you’re video touches on these subjects, think about including them in the title, description and tags!

For researching these keywords yourself..

Best Performing Types of New Years Videos:

Fashion and Makeup videos are crushing it with 90+% of search results & trending videos are returning videos of this nature. It appear women are searching for New Years preparation makeup videos.

If you’d like a specific video added to these playlists don’t hesitate to leave a comment below!

New Year Happy Holiday Eve fireworks makeup beauty holiday songs years words

Just need to get that next video out so you can sip back some champagne and celebrate with friends?

YouTube SEO For The Holidays

We built vidIQ Pro for content creators and video marketers of all shapes and sizes with one purpose in mind.

To provide an industry-leading toolset that makes it easy for anyone to get the most out of Youtube. In addition to all the tools in vidIQ Basic, vidIQ Pro adds the following features across our chrome extension and web suite:

Best Time of Day- vidIQ crunches the numbers and provides you the most optimum time to post your videos to ensure they get the most views and engagements. Historical Statistics for popular videos – Go back in time and see exactly when a video took off. Embedded Sources – Ever wonder the actual URLs that are generating embed views on your video? vidIQ provides a list of embed locations for any video. More Metrics On Your Uploaded Videos- See trending countries, what devices are driving views, and demographic information right from the chrome extension. YouTube Keyword Tool

The most notable new feature in vidIQ Pro is the new vidIQ Search Companion. The vidIQ search companion appears on the YouTube search results page via the vidIQ chrome extension and provides high level metrics along with trending videos and related search words.

We wanted to make sure the product was affordable for everyone too, so we focused on a price point that wouldn’t break the bank. vidIQ Pro starts at less than $9 a month for a yearly subscription.

YouTube search results for "youtube marketing" showing video titles and vidIQ keyword insights

It’s been just a few weeks since we soft-launched the new vidIQ Pro platform and I’m happy that today we make it official–vidIQ Pro is now available for everyone!

vidIQ Pro and YouTube Keyword Tool

Resisting the brute efficacy of “listicles,” True Facts, and relatable gifs is – as I’m sure you realize – futile.

Between mobile and desktop users, the Buzzfeed website enjoys about 10 million unique visitors daily…and that’s on a bad day.

For the non-Mathletes in the audience, that’s 30% of YouTube’s total unique user traffic over the course of a month (which is 1 billion) – on a website that is younger, less prolific, and does not rely on user-generated content.

That share-of-voice takeover escalated quickly, am I right?

Obviously, BuzzFeed is not in competition with YouTube – instead, these two monolithic content platforms function as partners on this epic, shared journey of Social Media domination. And while their business models share little in common, the media giants are both swaddled and secure in the knowledge that they have perfected – together and independently – the Internet-reinforced concept of “content as communication.”

Pictured: YouTube and BuzzFeed’s concurrent sense of self-satisfaction.

Both in Ze Frank’s 2013 Vidcon presentation and during Jonathan Perelman’s REEL Video Summit speech last week, the BuzzFeeders tip their hand by declaring that content should be made for how it is consumed – as a shareable form of communication. They’ve cleverly discerned that share-worthy content – taken holistically – keys almost exclusively into 3 drivers of human communication:

Identity (“this article/video communicates something about me or my life experiences better than my just telling you would.”)

Emotional gift (“this content made me feel X, I want you to feel X too.”)

Information (“HEY GUYS – this stuff is factual and cool.”)

By playing to these 3 share-driving principles, BuzzFeed has exploded in popularity over the last 24 months and has, perhaps more notably, rendered Google Search secondary to content discovery. In its place, Facebook – the gold standard of Social Media referral – now leads the bulk of users to BuzzFeed’s content watering hole.

The implications for SEO, by the way, are semi-staggering. (Source.)

Ahh, yes. Share-worthy content is indeed successful content. But, why? Is it because of the complex network of overlapping human needs resulting from our schizophrenic relationship with empathy? Is it because LOL cats have driven us to over-identify with memes? Is it because Ze Frank has perfected mass hypnosis from high up in his ivory, BuzzFeedian tower and we are all victims?

Nay, my friend – it is so much simpler than that.

“Sup, bros. I’m basically the neurological foundation of human society and community sentiment. No biggie.”

Oxytocin is a fun little mammalian neuromodulator that most of you will more readily recognize as the “bonding hormone.” This is the stuff that gets mothers (naturally) high after childbirth, the stuff that gets you (naturally) high after sex, and that makes menial tasks like grocery shopping – when shared with someone you like – (naturally) less terrible.

Interestingly, oxytocin is released in small amounts into the human brain during 3 common, share-worthy experiences:

Now, let’s play a game called, “Find the Synonyms.”

“Identity” = “Social belonging” (we reinforce our sense of self by seeking out external reinforcement and relationships.)

“Emotional gift” = “Intimacy” (shared feelings/experiences are the root of actual and perceived intimacy.)

“Information” = “Information discovery” (not really a synonym so much as exactly the same word.)

Wait a minute. Does that mean that BuzzFeed is just exploiting your fiendish biological addiction to oxytocin?!

Not at all, my dear reader – everything good on the internet is just exploiting your fiendish biological addiction to oxytocin. Whether it’s a Wikipedia loop or social media FOMO or LOL cats, your sustained interest is no more mysterious than is a mild heroin habit (for even less mystery, check out the structural parallels between oxytocin and heroin molecules).

Ain’t neurochemical stimulation neat? Evolution certainly thinks so – that’s, like, its entire community-building strategy.

In short, the secret sauce of successful content is also the secret sauce of all human endeavor – a high dependency liability.

Thanks for reading. I got you some oxytocin. (Source.)

More info means more oxytocin. Got a craving? 

 to see YouTube video analytics and a whole mess of metrics right in your browser.

BuzzFeed logo with red background and upward trending arrow symbol for media brand

It is the professional opinion of this blogger that Buzzfeed has won the content marketing war and that, shortly, they will rule the world.

Successful Content’s Secret Sauce, Explained by Science (and Exploited by BuzzFeed)

And this is the highlight reel for the 2014 REEL Video Marketing Summit, carefully optimized with cat gifs.

Highlight #1: 8AM Advanced YouTube SEO & Audience Development for Marketers Workshop with Mark Robertson, Tim Schmoyer, Mark Ballek, and Derral Eves…Or, Everybody Just Wants to Talk to Tim Schmoyer

“That’s a fascinating insight, other panelists; but, I was mostly curious what Tim had for breakfast and if he thinks I’m pretty. #Reel Summit”

Highlight #2: REEL Summit Intro Video – Evolution of Video Marketing…Or, Everyone Briefly Remembers that Weird/Awesome Poo-Pourri Viral Video from Last Year

“LOL – ‘you won’t believe the mother-load I just dropped’…wait, wasn’t that actually an ad for poop perfume? Yeah, 2013 was weird. #ReelSummit”

Highlight #3: Googler Jon Klaff Addresses, “The Next Big Leap in Video Advertising”…AKA Envisioning a Dystopian Future Where All Consumers are Chronically Attention-Divided, Under-Slept, and Device Co-Dependent to the Point It Destroys All Traditional Marketing Paradigms

“Welcome to the new normal, populated largely by Millenials – a mutant race of Buzzfeed-addicted, Social Media drip-fed, 3-hours-of-sleep-a-night-getting, seamless-experience-demanding super-humans whose data we’ve been mining since they went through puberty. Also, that Brand Relationship Arc graphic is SO COOL. #ReelSummit”

Highlight #4: BuzzFeed Presents, “Creating Content for How It’s Consumed”…Or, We All Erupt in Applause Over a Friskies Ad

“We don’t care if this video is inauthentic – our love for zefrank1 voiceovers is real. All hail Friskies! #ReelSummit”

Highlight #5: JW Presents, “New Innovations in Video Technology”…Or, I Can’t Even with Your Industry Advancements Right Now

“Jesus, we’re talking adaptive streaming, interactive & searchable transcripts, a friggin’ in-video table of contents…just stop – it is literally too much. #ReelSummit”

Highlight #6: YouTube Strategies for Brands with Jonathan Hunt, Christine Ngo, Brendan Gahan, and Ross Everett…Also Known As the REEL Summit Drinking Game

“Shhhhhhhh – just take a shot any time I say ‘authenticity’, ‘community’, or ‘storytelling’… #ReelSummit”

Highlight #7: Closing Keynote – Is Your Company’s Culture Killing Your Video Marketing Potential?…Or, Sourabh Kothari & Peter Agnus Medlock are a Hyper-Natural Comedy Duo that Need to Start a YouTube Channel Immediately

“10/10 would hit ‘Like’ & ‘Subscribe’ so hard. #ReelSummit”

Highlight #8: Closing Reception & Party…Or, Everybody is Now Drunk

“So, I literally don’t even know how everybody got drunk. There were only 2 drink tickets included with summit registration. Wait – what’s in my hand? Is it Uber? #reeldrunk @ #ReelSummit”

And that’s the skinny from the Visionaries here @vidIQ. The REEL Video Summit was an unqualified success, with cat gifs.

Be sure to join us next year, where they may or may not be providing more drink coupons with summit registration.

What about you, fellow REEL Video Summit attendees – do you have other favorite highlights? Feel free to write them in the comment section.

REEL Video Summit 2014 logo in bold red text with an underline beneath the title

Last week, industry insiders and industry newcomers mingled, saleswomen and salesmen schmoozed, a veritable lovefest erupted on Twitter under the never-quite-trending #ReelSummit – this was the 2014 REEL Video Marketing Summit.

8 REEL Video Summit Highlights Cheekily Articulated via Cat Gif

It was a major televised sporting event with almost no commercial-breaks for advertisers to showcase their message,” making it “incumbent upon marketers to think beyond TV.

With 45 brands spending more than $400 million to promote 97 campaigns, the 2014 World Cup in Brazil represents one of the largest marketing events in history. It also marks the moment that online advertising claimed a definitive victory over television.

Commentators are quick to evaluate the success or failure of these video marketing efforts in terms of “total views”, but at vidIQ we know video virality is more than views-deep.

To get to the heart of the matter, we’ve decided to pit the top branded YouTube campaign videos head-to-head and see who won the 2014 World Cup Battle of the Brands (in our humble opinion).

How, you may ask? We’re taking the most telling engagement metrics from our Chrome extension’s YouTube video report card and evaluating the real, hard-won, organically-viral winners of this momentous marketing match. We’ll assess…

Share date – time since the video was uploaded, for context and to assure all metrics are evaluated equitably.

Total views – the reported number of times a video has been viewed on YouTube. Be wary, however, since this number can be manipulated and views can be bought.

Minutes watched – total, aggregated number of video minutes watched by YouTube users, regardless of whether or when the video was abandoned. Be wary here too, because creators can withhold this data – sometimes to protect proprietary information and sometimes to obscure a paid viewing campaign.

vidIQ score – this is an optimization score applied to every YouTube video according to our proprietary, cross-platform algorithm that predicts the video’s likelihood of promotion in Related Videos, Search, Recommended Videos, and more.

Creator suggested – this metric monitors the relative number of videos that YouTube is linking back to a publisher’s own channel, and is a fair indicator of a channel’s level of management or sophistication. Read a more detailed explanation of “Creator suggested” here (if you’d like).

True engagement – the Gold Standard of video marketing metrics, this key YouTube performance indicator crunches the numbers on every social media share and linked referral to a specific YouTube video, relative to its number of views. In a nutshell, “true engagement” shows us what portion of the audience found a video share-worthy.

Tags – these keywords are intended to make videos more searchable or “related” on YouTube and, in the best of cases, are part of a more targeted SEO strategy.

Battle Athletica | adidas vs. Nike The contenders.

adidas YouTube campaign video | Messi's Dream adidas YouTube campaign video | Messi’s Dream

Nike YouTube campaign video | ""Winner Stays"" Nike YouTube campaign video | “Winner Stays”

YouTube stats | adidas vs. Nike YouTube stats | adidas vs. Nike

Nike wins by the power of true audience engagement, which is undiluted despite its high number of views.

Battle Auto | Hyundai vs. Kia The contenders.

Hyundai YouTube campaign video | ""Avoidance"" Hyundai YouTube campaign video | “Avoidance”

Kia YouTube campaign video | ""Football vs. Futbol"" Kia YouTube campaign video | “Football vs. Futbol”

YouTube stats | Hyundai vs. Kia YouTube stats | Hyundai vs. Kia

Despite significantly lower total views, Hyundai wins for its unprecedented true engagement numbers – 1 in 10 viewers shared this video.

Battle Royale | Coca-Cola vs. McDonalds The contenders.

Coca-Cola YouTube campaign video | ""One World, One Game"" Coca-Cola YouTube campaign video | “One World, One Game”

McDonald's YouTube campaign video | ""Trick Shot"" McDonald’s YouTube campaign video | “Trick Shot”

YouTube stats | Coca-Cola vs. McDonald's YouTube stats | Coca-Cola vs. McDonald’s

McDonald’s wins handily, in a competition so lopsided that it might trigger some PTSD from the Germany vs. Brazil semifinal.

FIFA logo with two soccer balls designed as Earth globes representing global football.

As Forbes contributor Rob Schwartz pointed out yesterday, this year’s World Cup was a global phenomenon rife with challenges for traditional marketing.

Rob Sandie

Posts Written By Rob Sandie

Introducing the vidIQ App for HootSuite

Using YouTube As An Online Video Platform

Then & Now | A Brief History of the YouTube Player

YouTube Comment Filters with vidIQ

8 Ways to Reach the Right Audience on YouTube

Top 4 Type of Videos Being Created for New Years

Top Trending Holiday Videos 2014

YouTube SEO For The Holidays

vidIQ Pro and YouTube Keyword Tool

Successful Content’s Secret Sauce, Explained by Science (and Exploited by Buz...

8 REEL Video Summit Highlights Cheekily Articulated via Cat Gif

FIFA’s Battle of the Brands: A Competitive YouTube Analysis of the 2014 World...