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Google+ may be the company’s newest hope for an increased social media presence, but YouTube, a Google subsidiary, remains a solid platform which is now becoming more social.

The recent updates to YouTube include streamlined channel design and improved back-end analytics. Many social media experts, including Mashable, also talk of the updates making the platform more “Google-like.” Another major feature of the updates is an emphasis on interacting with channel viewers and subscribers.

Outlined below are the most important updates, showing how they can both improve your channel’s views and improve interaction within the YouTube community.

What do YOU think of the new updates? Comment below!

Channel Design Updates

When switching to the new channel design, one of the first things you will notice is the tab design. The Featured tab now allows for greater customization. Whether you have one channel for your small business or you are trying to link multiple channels and dozens of videos, you can pick the right Featured tab template:

The Blogger Perfect for a channel which regularly updates its channel with fresh, focused content.

The Creator A good choice if your company has high-quality videos, but only a small number to display.

The Network If your company has a multiple channels, this template seamlessly ties them together.

The Everything The best choice if you need it all. The template allows for a featured video, featured playlists, and featured Channels.

It is good to note that you can test out the different templates before choosing which one is right for you. Also, the background and other design assets have had only minimal changes, so most assets will only need to be adjusted slightly, rather than completely re-designed.

The new design also has Feed and Videos tabs. The Feed tab is where comments now live, along with recent activity and other featured channels. The Video tab provides an ability to have all of a channel’s videos displayed in an organized way.

Want to learn more? YouTube’s online support documents will guide you through updating your channel.

Analytics and Optimization

YouTube “Insights” already provided a wealth of information for those looking for in-depth analytics on their videos. The recent updates have continued this trend and improved both their ease of use and analytic insight. In particular, engagement reports allow you to learn more about how people are interacting with your channel’s video content.

YouTube video optimization has also improved. While YouTube is rather straightforward when it comes to search optimization, adding description tags is a new feature which can boost the visibility of your content.

Interactivity

Finally, YouTube should not just be viewed as a static library for promotional videos or other content. While your channel can be a great way to store videos that are uploaded to your blog or website, it is also a perfect place to interact with fans. Fan comments will now be housed on separate tab and new features allow for channel owners to communicate more directly with subscribers. By increasing your subscriber count, you can boost the reach of your content and achieve greater virality for videos.

The new design also moves the “Subscribe” button above-the-fold, allowing for greater conversions from visitors to your channel.

Conclusion

These updates show that YouTube seems to be headed in the right direction. While many social media campaigns focus solely on Facebook and Twitter, incorporating an optimized YouTube channel is a wise choice. The platform has the ability to both enhance your existing social media platforms as well as create another avenue to grow, engage, and interact with your community.

Videos can quickly grab a customer’s attention and stay in their mind longer than a photo or even the written word. But how can you make your videos more interactive? Allow users to not only view your videos, but become immersed with them.

Annotations are a trusted, but under-utilized YouTube tool that can boost both page views and subscribers for a channel. A video’s power can be enhanced by using this simple (and free) tool.

Two examples of annotation creativity:

Interactive Promotions/Games

Annotations can be a fun way to promote products. Instead of a video showcasing a new line of toys, Hot Wheels used annotations and turned their YouTube videos into an online game. Users can choose both the type of car and add-ons to race. While it takes a lot of planning and video production, the end product is a seamless use of YouTube Annotations.

‘Choose Your Own Adventure’

Many adults remember growing up with ‘choose your own adventure’ stories. The digital versions of these use YouTube annotations to create a fun story. Fun and interactive, they can be a nice way to promote products or services in story-form.  And, unlike their hard-copy predecessor, you can’t skip ahead and change your mind!

More Practical Uses
While creativity is key to utilizing annotations, this tool can also be used to increase the number of subscribers.

• Subscribers: By using the Subscribe link type, your video can have a great call-out for viewers to subscribe to your channel, allowing for more video views and greater channel reach.
• Linking : If your channel has a lot of content, annotations can link these videos together. It not only keeps viewers on your channel longer, but also allows for a deeper understanding of your services, products or mission.
• Promoting Other Channels: Does your company have more than one YouTube channel? Annotations can help link these by promoting another channel in a relevant video. This can help to promote smaller channels from a large, central channel.

Where to begin?
Start by mapping out your annotations. Whether they are simple links to other videos, words of wisdom, or interactive elements, planning is key. Try to create a virtual path where users will be compelled to spend more time on your channel.

The actual creation of new annotations is relatively easy. Be sure to keep in mind both the placement and type of annotation.

Like anything, however, annotations can get out of hand. It is important to remember what makes videos great is the actual viewing experience. Annotations should be used to enhance and not detract from the experience. By having timely call-outs it can help increase the amount of time users both spend on your channel as well as the amount they share your content with others.

Learn More

Here are a few great resources for getting started on a YouTube annotations project:

How To: Use Annotations to Promote Your Brand on YouTube – A great step-by-step guide on YouTube annotations.

YouTube Help Guide - A simplified guide that can be used as a resource when getting started.

Television shows are a natural match for interacting and engaging with their fan base via social media. Part of this effectiveness stems from shows being serial in nature and the fact that many shows have a branded mythology behind it. While these factors can aid the conversation when the show is not airing, how do you interact with a television while it airs? Proper social media planning can make fans not only feel engaged with the show, but also appreciated.

A recent TV Guide study found that over a third more users Twitter to discuss a show while it is happening than Facebook. This begs at the question: How are shows utilizing Twitter and what can they do to make it better?

I have outlined a few examples below of how shows from different genres are using Twitter to ramp up real-time interaction with a show on-air, what they are doing right, and how (in my modest opinion), they can make it that much better.

Trueblood

True Blood does a wonderful job of creating an interactive Twitter environment. Beyond the usual show hashtags, they have created Bloodcopy.com which is the official place to follow all things related to True Blood on Twitter.  By compiling both the official profile and the character profiles, fans can interact and follow everything in an efficient, streamlined manner.

Glee

Glee is an interesting case. The show does an amazing job in general with social media. By acknowledging a Gleek of the Week each episode, they are fostering an engaged audience who feels valued and  appreciated. However, the various Twitter profiles from the main official profile to the various cast and characters seem to have a disjointed feel.

NCIS

Even though it was named one of the Top 10 most tweeted about shows by TV Guide, their official Twitter profile leaves a little to be desired. Despite having a handy branded hashtag (#NCSI), the profile does little to interact with the community, instead relying on mainly just promoting the show.

Top Chef

Finally, there is Top Chef, everyone’s favorite cooking competition show. Their Twitter profile (and the Bravo network in general) are leaders in real-time fan interaction. Both during the show and afterwards, the official Twitter profile acknowledges fans and answers their questions. A simple RT of fan feedback can go a long in making an audience member feel appreciated.

Summing It Up

How to make it better: Official profiles should not shy away from interacting with fans. By simply thanking fans or answering their questions directly, fans feel like their comments are being heard. While a fanbase may be interacting during an episode, engaging them can go even further.

Centralization: Part of the fun when interaction with TV shows is the blurring between reality and fiction. A tweet from Sue Sylvester can be a whole lot more entertaining than an official tweet. The key, however, is creating a central location where cast, characters, and fans can all tweet together (see the True Blood example above).

Fun Hash Tags: Branded hash tags are great for everyday use, but to keep fans engaged in real-time discussion, why not choose a catch-phrase from the current episode? This helps not only to increase interaction, but spur further conversation.

As both a Portland Timbers season ticket holder and a social media professional, I thought it would be a great idea to celebrate the Portland Timbers’ social media success.

As the Portland Timbers made the move up to Major League Soccer this season, the club faced a situation of how to market itself to not just soccer supporters, but Oregonian sports fans as a whole. Unlike the Trail Blazers, soccer (or football) is still considered by most mainstream sports fans as a niche competition. By integrating their large grass roots following with an innovative social media campaign, the team has been able to win over new fans while keeping their loyal fanbase engaged when they’re not chanting during the games.

Almost half-way into its inaugural MLS campaign, the team finds itself having won over many hometown supporters in terms of both their play and social media marketing activities. Out of the 18 MLS teams, the Timbers Facebook Fan Page currently rank 7th in terms of Facebook ‘likers’ which shows the support of the Rose City!

Integrating Traditional Media
Driving around the Rose City prior to the new season, Portlanders could see a number of Portland Timbers billboards. Portraying a wide variety of Timbers fans, the billboards were a huge success. The Timbers were able to make the billboards ‘social’ by creating a contest in which every fan could get their photo taken with the famous Timbers axe. These were then posted online and the online community voted for their favorite. This type of promotion shows how social media and traditional forms of marketing can be integrated for optimum results. continue

Company: Judith Arnell
Social Media Marketing Team: Danielle Hoole, William Crane
Campaign Length: 9 months

Results:

• Increased Facebook likers by 1605%
• Facebook was top overall referring site of web traffic
• Increased Monthly Facebook page interactions by 439%

The Challenge
Judith Arnell is a local jeweler in the Portland Pearl District offering high-end, custom jewelry. Their marketing efforts had centered around print advertising and billboards and were yielding no measurable results. At the start of the social media campaign, Judith Arnell had a flaccid Facebook page that wasn’t  recruiting or engaging the community.  The challenge was to create and foster an engaged Facebook community while showing a positive ROI.

The Solution
Bonfire developed Judith Arnell’s Facebook community by focusing on three different areas: fan engagement,  advertising and promotions. continue