Last updated on June 14th, 2024
What psychological influence do you have on fans? How do you prevent autoplay when browsing multiple YouTube videos? What’s the optimal length for YouTube tutorial videos?
HOSTS:
- Dane Golden: VidAction.tv | LinkedIn
- Tim Schmoyer: VideoCreators
- Matt Ballek: VidiSEO
This podcast is brought to you by the 2014 ReelVideo Summit, where marketers, storytellers, brands, and retailers gather to get serious about online video. The ReelVideo Summit takes place July 24-25 in San Francisco at the Hotel Nikko near Union Square.
THIS WEEK’S TIPS:
Tip #1: What psychological influence do you have on fans?
Tim Schmoyer talks about the parasocial relationships that are common on YouTube, where fans know much more about YouTube creators than vice versa. This is a fundamental part of the YouTube experience.
Tim says that research points to three interesting points:
- Wishful identification: Fans can feel that the YouTube star can accept them fully.
- Self-perception: YouTube stars have a big impact on how fans see themselves.
- Behavior: YouTube creators can influence their fans to act like them.
This is a major circumstance within the YouTube community. We encourage you share your thoughts on this topic in the video comments or the comment section at the bottom of this blog post.
Tip #2: How do you prevent autoplay when browsing multiple YouTube videos?
Dane Golden says that as a YouTube channel manager, he’s frequently opening dozens of YouTube video tabs in his browser at the same time. But of course these videos autoplay by default, creating confusing audio and bandwidth issues.
On Firefox, Dane solves this problem by using the FlashBlock extension. This makes the video (and any in-stream ads), play when he is ready, not when the browser is ready.
Dane used to use FlashBlock on Chrome, but now blocking Flash in Chrome on YouTube only makes the HTML5 version play. So instead Dane uses Magic Actions for YouTube, and only uses the “Stop Autoplay” option.
Dane doesn’t use a YouTube stop autoplay extension on Safari. He uses that browser as the “control” to test user experiences without any YouTube blocking.
Tip #3: What’s the optimal length for YouTube tutorial videos?
Matt Ballek talks about the recent article on ReelSEO.com by Yoav Hornung, “What’s the Optimal Length for Your Tutorial Video? Shorter Than You Think”. Matt says the optimal length is 45 to 90 seconds, but of course, it depends on the type of content.