How To Make Successful YouTube Videos
Sep0411:18 AM
Filed in: Indie Advice
I had a conversation with someone this morning about how to create successful viral vidoes for your band, so I figured I might as well share my thougths with everyone on The Bleeder Blog since it's something that most artists can improve upon.
In a world of expensive marketing and promotion campaigns, creating online video content for your band is a no brainer. It's inexpensive, quick and easy, and more often than not it leads to a source of discovery for new fans.
YouTube videos work best when they're really short and sweet, like around the two minute mark. Anything longer than that and your typical YouTube viewer will lose attention and click away to something else. Yup, studies prove that attention spans online are very, very short. Don't risk losing your audience. Short videos have far more impact for viewers and fans will be more inclined to subscribe to your site and keep coming back for more.
So what do you do if you have a whole bunch of great video content and you're tempted to post an eight minute video? Don't. Cut it up into four seperate pieces and post each clip once a week. This way you'll have a constant stream of new content being posted for four solid weeks, an entire month without having any extra work on your plate!
Make the video funny. Viewers are much more likely to share a video with their friends if it cracks them up and they think their friends will get a chuckle out of it too.
Make the video thought provoking or awe-inspiring. Have you seen the recent viral video of the big aquarium in Japan, featuring music by Barcelona? It's been viewed by almost two million people all over the world because of the emotions and sense of wonderment it stirs in people (watch the video at the bottom of this post). Anything that puts a smile on someone's face is share-worthy, which is exactly what you're after.
Post new content on a regular basis. A lot of videos might only get a few hundred views, but you never know which one will catch on spread virally. If you don't keep posting new content and trying out new things, you lose the chance of discovering what works best for you and what your fans dig.
Online viral videos are essential for any developing artist. Fans get a glimpse of the differnet personalities in the band and they provide a necessary music teaser for people who have never heard the band before.
Let's face it, pretty much everyone has video recording capabilities of some kind whether it's from your iPhone, your tiny digital camera, or a video camera. Quality doesn't matter that much in the world of online videos, but the content does.
Record new video content constantly, give it a quick little edit, and throw it against the YouTube wall to see if it sticks. If it does, you'll see your "views" grow quickly...as will the demand in your music.
--Brian Thompson
