OK let’s start this week’s roundup with a little kvetch.
One of the problems in dealing with YouTube in any way is that they have a history of “shoot first ask questions later” actions against videos they believe have violated their terms of service.
The real problem with this policy is that they never actually get to the “ask questions later” part of the equation and seems perfectly happy to simply go for the “shoot first” bit!
The case outlined below is a perfect example of a video doing what it is supposed to do on YouTube because of its awesomeness and YouTube being somehow shocked by that and just pulling the trigger… kinda dumb really.
I understand that most of these actions taken by YouTube are not in fact initiated by humans but are as a result algorithms written to detect spam and other nasty stuff that violate their terms of service. I also understand that the sheer volume of content already uploaded to YouTube and being uploaded every minute makes a human response impossible.
BUT! The real stupidity here is that users who ARE using techniques to spam the service or to falsely inflate their viewership and clickthrough statistics KNOW they are doing it!
Because they know they are doing it and are seeking to do it totally under the radar, they are NOT going to seek further attention by questioning YouTube’s decision!
Awesome Video on a Phone
With the announcement this week that the imaging division of Sony Corp had (again) posted a huge loss due to lack of interest in the sector I thought it would be easier to show why rather than explain it.
The article and video below are about an ad done for the iconic Bentley brand of motor vehicles.
That the ad itself is just a gorgeous piece of video is not surprising.
There is no way Bentley would commission any old piece of fluff for their brand!
The real story is that the entire ad was shot on an iPhone 5 and edited on an iPad.
So the next time your are telling yourself that the reason your results aren’t what they should be is because of your equipment… watch this again.
And the next time you are trying to get your wife, husband or significant other to agree to you buying that new top of the line video camera, editing computer and expensive software… make sure they DON’T see this ad!
Bentley Ad – Intelligent Details
TED for Editing?
The TED website is literally and endless parade of inspiring and exceptional people.
Really, if you look at the news and it is all starting to get your a little down my advice is to go over to their site and re-learn that it’s not all bad in the world.
Also while you are there you can pick up some great tips on how to shoot and editing videos with maximum impact on ther audience to really get your message across.
Optimizing Old YouTube Videos
After you have perhaps had a YouTube channel running for a while it is pretty easy to begin to build up a body of work that can help your rankings in Youtube.
It’s a kind of snowball effect in that as a channel adds more and more unique content it increases in importance in the eyes of YouTube.
This is partly due to YouTube’s internal search and ranking algorithms being based on the “Google” model.
The downside to this is that over time the older content can become dated not just by it’s contents but also in terms of being optimised correctly according to the current YouTube guidelines.
Best practices for uploading and optimising YouTube videos has never been set in stone and has evolved as the service has grown and matured.
One way to fully makes use of your existing content is to spend some time going back over some of the older stuff and bringing it up to current standards.
It doesn’t mean you have to re-shoot and editing everything but a little tidying up can go a long way.
Check out this article below for some excellent tips on getting the most out of your existing content and using the YouTube Video Enhancements Tool.
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