Is it getting hard to increase video engagement on your content on YouTube? Regardless of the genre or length of your uploads, this video-centric social platform is full of users struggling to get themselves noticed. After all, once you are on the network, you are never alone, and you are always surrounded by a host of competitors who are vying to get the notice of the same target audience. It makes gaining popularity a tough nut to crack. However, it is not impossible to break the charts on YouTube with the right kind of marketing strategy. Let’s look at what can help us go viral on YouTube.
The YouTube Algorithm and Making Viral Uploads
First things first. Let us understand what makes specific videos turn into trending posts while many others of a similar nature fail to get any engagement. Every social media platform and search engine runs a complex series of back-end calculations using algorithms. These algorithms consider many measured data like user engagement, online activity duration, posting frequency, and so on to generate a list of content for suggested viewing. This list is what you see on your individualized home feed when you log into any social media platform or when you run a search for anything. The better your understanding of a platform’s algorithms, the better your chances of gaining a wider reach and visibility, increasing your audience traffic and conversions. The Key Parameters you must work on to get the YouTube Algorithms working in your favor and turn your post viral include the following:
A consistent rise in all three of them is required for a phenomenal leap in reach and visibility for your content, and this further enables you to trend and go viral. Your aim, therefore, has to be to keep these numbers moving in the upward direction when you create YouTube content. You can easily keep track of these metrics using the Analytics feature of YouTube to assess how your videos are faring time and again.
Please note that although it is easier to trend on the platform because of the predictable nature of the online behavior of adults around you, something random may grow into a viral sensation within minutes of upload. Not all investments bring the same type of results. Nonetheless, the following are some tried and tested methods to move your content in the right direction.
8 Ways to Get Your Video Viral on YouTube
Now that you know which metrics to watch out for and grow for creating a viral video, you might already be deliberating over a few ideas in your head. Here is a list of 8 tried and tested ways you can incorporate into your YouTube strategy to reach your intended goal.
Know what clicks with your target audience
Often what is trending sets the bar for other content. To go viral, you must do extensive research on:
Based on all of these factors, you can now zero in on:
Have a powerful delivery for your chosen Story
It would help if you had a storytelling tactic that would grab attention. Storytelling here refers to how you unfold your video scene by scene and at what pace. Whether you are creating a dance video, a web fiction series, an interview, or a how-to instruction video, your presentation of the chosen content does matter. Here’s what you should do to achieve this:
Shoot with clarity
Many YouTubers use very sophisticated and high-end recording devices to shoot their content. While it certainly helps to have quality recording tools, several YouTubers have done equally well using a hand-held cell phone camera. No matter what you use to shoot the content of your video, you need to ensure certain technical must-haves in your upload. These include:
Keep in mind that a well-made video is pleasing to the eye and makes the audience watch the screen for hours without realizing it. Regardless of the content subject, a great video is one that people can watch, rewatch, share, and come back to repeatedly.
Take editing seriously
It is not enough to pay attention to the technicalities of shooting the video. And you must also carry the same zeal onto the editing process. A smart social media strategy will pay utmost importance to this part to ensure minimal expenditure in the effort to make the post viral. You do not need expensive equipment to do this, but you must have a careful and detailed editing process. Here are some things you must make professional decisions about:
Set aside a budget for editing if you cannot do it yourself. You can use software or AI assistance to help you seamlessly edit your video. Or, you can hire a professional to do the work for you.
Pick the right thumbnails
Thumbnails are the perfect teasers that can bring new viewers to your posts. On a visual platform like YouTube, you will get more views and clicks if you have an eye-catching thumbnail. Here are a few things you can do to create the right thumbnail for your video:
Subtitle your video and add alternative texts
A lot of viewers nowadays watch videos with the sound off. Many watch videos during travel or at night, and they mute the volume to not disturb others around them. Adding subtitles makes it easier for such an audience to watch and interact with your video. Posts with enabled alt text also tend to get featured more prominently by the YouTube algorithm. You can hire professionals for the job, use software that will generate the necessary text for you, or use a transcription device. Nowadays, an inbuilt feature in YouTube allows you to add particular text and auto-generated subtitles to your content. So:
Pay attention to SEO
Your content uploads with a lot of text that can feed favorably into major search engines’ algorithms besides the internal YouTube search engine. Not only this, the algorithms pick and choose posts to recommend to new viewers based on the use of high-performance SEO words. Ensure that the following are keyword-enriched, to the point, crisp and clear besides being curiosity-rousing:
It should be less than 50 characters, so it doesn’t get cut short in quick displays on searches. Be strategic about how you name your post. Do some research to check what type of keywords relevant to your video bring the most clicks and views. Try using that in your title.
Use several tags that will bring the right audience to your video. However, keep them as close to your content as possible. Whether the labels are long or short, using too many broad /vague tags can cause your video to become “lost.” On the other hand, fewer tags that are most relevant help viewers accurately categorize your content.
YouTube allows you to use up to 5000 characters here. Put the most important and relevant information in the first line or two, as this gets displayed along with your title in search results. Use this space to its full potential.
Cross-post your content strategically
Several content creators run the rookie mistake of putting up the same video on different social media platforms. While this may get you popularity if your content is liked, your YouTube post will still not have much traffic. It happens because you did not post a link to the video on YouTube. When you post a link to YouTube, you encourage curious audience members to click on it and discover what it is all about by themselves. It is a great way to generate traffic to your main page. While posting links across other social networks, on mailing lists, and other social-sharing spaces is a good idea, consider posting teasers and snippets that will allow your viewer to access the full video on YouTube. It is likely to have a higher audience traction rate. In other words, keep the content exclusive to YouTube and direct traffic to it. When cross-posting, keep in mind:
Wrap Up
Regardless of what theme or topic your video is on, it can turn viral if you strategically plan your creation process and marketing. Keep in mind what turns the algorithms in your post’s favor while you are going through this entire process of publishing your content, and you will have a better shot at going viral! No matter what you do, do not give up on your spirit of competition. Many videos go viral because of the randomness in which the platforms pick them up for recommendations to new viewers. So, if you do not quite hit the mark with your existing post, do not lose heart. Your next one may top the charts overnight!