YouTube to Add Offline Viewing for Videos on Mobile Devices

YouTube has announced that it will launch a new feature on its mobile apps enabling viewers to watch videos even when they are offline. This feature will be available from November for mobile users – do you think it is a good move for the video sharing site?

Image - www.theguardian.com

Currently YouTube does not allow users to download videos from its site, even though there are a number of third-party apps and browser extensions which are designed to let people do this. The new feature will let viewers add videos temporarily to their devices to store and watch, but only for a short period of time when they are not connected to the Internet.

The Official YouTube Partners & Creators Blog commented that this new feature came because “we’re always exploring ways to bring more viewers to your content. As part of this effort, later this year we’ll launch a new feature on YouTube’s mobile apps that will help reach fans – even when they’re not connected to the Internet”. This will allow fans to continue to listening to music when they previously wouldn't have been able to, for instance when they are on the morning commute. This suggests a move to increase engagement on its mobile devices and follows other developments introduced earlier in the year. For instance, in August it made it possible for people to browse and explore video recommendations while another video is already streaming on YouTube’s mobile apps.

In June 2012, YouTube began experimenting with offline viewing by allowing users to watch pre-cached videos in an update to its Android app. YouTube distinguished between the new feature allowing users to watch pre-cached videos and total downloading of videos because they required viewers to watch at least the first second of the video while they are online. There is also a distinction because with the new feature you will be able to watch videos without an Internet connection but you will not be able to keep them indefinitely. This seems to reflect the growing use of mobile devices to access social media, and the increase in new features specifically designed to complement smart phone use.

For now we will have to wait and see until the feature is released in November and further announcements are posted on the official YouTube Blog.

What do you think?

Would you use this new feature on YouTube? Do you already use a YouTube app on your mobile device?

YouTube Launches Its First Music Awards

Last week YouTube announced that it will be running its own Music Video Awards show to be held on 3rdNovember in New York. They have declared that the Video Awards show will be a way to celebrate music fans and the music that you love. The 90-minute show will be live-streamed onto the site, as a way of honouring artists and songs that YouTube audience have turned into massive hits over the past year and will be powered by the audience who will vote for the winners of the Awards.

According to the site’s blog announcement, the Awards will feature performances from Lady Gaga, Eminem, Arcade Fire, other top artists and a selection of YouTube’s biggest stars, which include Lindsey Stirling and CDZA. The site has asked for its audience’s involvement and participation in the event, as in mid-October, the YouTube Music Awards Nominations will be announced based on the videos that you watched and shared over the past year. The audience will then be required to determine the songs and artists honoured by sharing the nominees across social media platforms. This means that they will be judged by everyone, creating great audience involvement for the upcoming event.

The YouTube awards have been limited to only seven categories, which will be announced on October 17th along with the nominees. They will also feature music mashups which will combine YouTube stars with more high-profile celebrities, creating new and original content. There will additionally be performances from Seoul, Moscow, London and Rio which will be streamed during the show. YouTube hopes that this will help to celebrate the music that you love and that you have helped to become so popular over the last year.

The Awards will not just feature music on the day of the event but there should be a lot more music to enjoy on YouTube around the Music Awards. In the days leading up to the event, nominees will share official music videos, covers, parodies, concerts, interviews and fan videos on YouTube – this will help fans to stay in touch with the latest developments of their favourite artists and also help to discover new music that you had never heard of before.

This new award show recognises how YouTube has quickly become one of the major criteria for measuring a song’s success these days, as so many people choose to stream music from the site instead of buying the songs – therefore it can be a more accurate reflection of popularity for particular songs.

What do you think?

Do you think that the YouTube Awards show is a good idea? Will you watch it?

YouTube Comments - A New Google+ Comment Feature

Last week YouTube announced a new commenting system for its videos that is powered by the popular social network site Google+. The new trial launched on the channel discussions tabs and, over the next few weeks and months, it will become available on all videos. This feature will automatically rank comments and feature threaded and private conversations which are personalised for each individual user – this hopes to eliminate the rude, spam comments which have so often taken over the YouTube comment feature on videos.

Image – www.clubcardwebsites.com

Last year, YouTube started to encourage this initiative by asking its users to connect their YouTube and Google+ accounts so that more users would use their real names on the site. They hoped that this might persuade people to write comments which were more insightful and less abusive, as people could not hide behind anonymity, spamming the site with irrelevant and sometimes hurtful comments. Google+ also hopes that the new comment feature on YouTube will enable you to connect with familiar faces.

The official YouTube blog reported that the new comment feature will feature:

- Comments that you care about at the top of the list:

• Comments that are from the video’s creator, popular personalities and people in your Google+ Circles will feature at the top of the list –leading to more engaged discussions about the video.
• YouTube already offered a “top comments” section for the most upvoted comments on a video, but this did not guarantee that they were relevant to the video or the viewer. Reverse chronological comments fall away entirely with the new feature, and comments deemed ‘important’ to the individual user will rise to the top.

- Join the conversation in public or in private:

• You can choose to join a conversation so that it is publicly viewable on YouTube and Google, or you can make it so that only people in your Circles or a selection of your good friends can see what you post. In a similar way to Gmail, replies are listed in threads so that conversations are easy to follow.
• This allows you and your friends to have your own personal discussions on the YouTube comments section, depending on what you want to discuss – this hopes to engage users into a conversation similar to those which happen on Facebook, Reddit, Twitter and other social networks, where users share videos with each other and comment on them between friends.

- Better moderation of comments:

• There are new tools available to review comments before they’re posted, with the ability to block certain words or phrases that the site does not wish to see on their comments under their videos. This moderation system can also save time by auto-approving comments from certain fans. These can help you spend less time moderating, and more time sharing videos and connecting with your fans.
• YouTube is also allowing video owners to create a blacklist with words that automatically push comments into review and can block users. In addition, YouTube is making a significant change by not telling users that they have been blocked and will continue to show them their own comments when they are logged in. This will hopefully trick offending individuals into believing that their posts are still online and will prevent them from trying to open up other accounts once they’ve been blocked.

This new comment feature on YouTube has great potential for marketers hoping to get in contact with their audience and create discussion. According to Compete PRO data 162.5 million American adults visited youtube.com in August 2013 alone, therefore brands should capitalise on this huge audience and utilise the new ability to build relevant discussions from videos. Companies should take time to reply to comments left by viewers, as it will help to keep members engaged and, with the new system, comments from top contributors will feature at the top of the list – advertising how well that the company is responding to the views of its fans. It is also good to engage fans by referring to them by name or acknowledging that you have read their comments and possibly responding with other videos on YouTube.

What do you think?

Do you post comments on YouTube? Do you think that the use of Google+ will be a significant benefit for YouTube comments and will help to stop spam and rude comments from appearing on videos?

How Retailers Are Using Vine to Master Social Media

If social media marketing was split into tiers, the base would consist of networks like Twitter and Facebook. The second level involves managing a Google Plus account and posting pictures to Instagram and Pinterest. But at the top sits the niche networks which only the savviest marketers truly utilize. Enter Vine.

Vine is a mobile video platform that records six seconds of footage and publishes the final product to a social sharing feed similar to Twitter or Instagram. The videos repeat in a loop, which can add a flavor of humor to the mix, and retailers are jumping on this bandwagon to create new ways to reach consumers.

Urban Outfitters

Because Vine can record a number of short segments within the six-second limit, quick-shot product demos are a great way to use such a short amount of time to show off new items online. Urban Outfitters was one of the first major retailers to use Vine when it launched in early 2013 and is still active on the social network. Along with product demos, it also uploads videos showing its fun and cool company culture and events.

Lowe's

Another early player in the game, Lowe's Hardware made its mark with the "fix in six" series. A compilation of videos giving handy tips around the house using stop-motion animation on Vine. The genius behind "fix in six" is that it doesn't advertise Lowe's directly, but essentially hands out free advice on products the company sells. The clip above shows how to remove a screw that won't budge by using a wrench for extra torque. Viewers who see this might hop over to Lowe's for the right tools.

Gap

Gap uses Vine like a sort of video Pinterest board. It puts new products on display and throws in a twist of creativity and artistic style to add some flair in that six-second window. While videos from Lowe's require a little more production effort, Gap shows that any retailer, no matter what its marketing budget, can make the same quality product videos and a multi-million dollar clothing retailer.

Clothing and "mall" retailers also have the opportunity to use Vine to promote seasonal shopping periods. Department stores could advertise for Black Friday at JC Penny or Macy's with a quick, six-second shot of some of those early morning deals.

Puma

Not every Vine has to be a product video. This post from Puma gives a behind-the-scenes look at a commercial shoot for the shoe company and sporting retailer. Consumers love to see what their favorite companies are doing behind closed doors and these videos are the perfect way to show sneak peaks of company culture (similar to Urban Outfitters' videos).