YouTube: How to get internet famous

Last week, I heard a lecture given by Dr. Stephen Daniel on the social media site, YouTube. Dr. Daniel has been studying YouTube and it’s use for many years and gave a short talk about how it got started and how it is used today.

He started by going over YouTube’s history. YouTube was launched in 2005 by several PayPal employees. The very first video to ever be uploaded was called Me at the zoo, and was uploaded by one of the site’s cofounders in April of 2005. The site grew extremely rapidly, averaging over 100 million views per day by July of 2006 and eventually being purchased by Google for $1.65 billion later that same year.

YouTube has evolved substantially over the years, so Dr. Daniel showed a video created by YouTube showcasing some of their most popular videos during their first 10 years online. He also shared with us YouTube’s ‘new’ algorithm for rating a video’s impact, which they began using in 2012. The algorithm goes beyond just measuring views and takes length of the view into account.

After history, Dr. Daniel gave a general outline for how to achieve successful YouTube content. He recommends using what is called ‘niche-related content’, or sticking to a specific theme for your channel. Getting high quality video is very important, as well as the length of the video. ‘Sign-offs’ are another aspect, when a host might say, “Like, Comment and Subscribe”, in an effort to increase their channels impact.

When posting, it is best to keep the description of the video simple, but to use as many keyword tags as possible so that it is easier for viewers to find your content. Perhaps the most important tip is to post frequently, so that viewers won’t get bored and let your channel be forgotten.