YouTube has added time-watched reporting to YouTube Analytics to increase channel views. On October 11, 2012, YouTube introduced a new report queue sourcing additional tools to improve the viral potency of video content. The changes may prove a possible social discovery bounty for content creators, when Web content is popularized, by marketing to audiences and social communities.
“Audience engagement” may trend upward in spirals of video content viewed on YouTube.com. In 2012, YouTube began to pinpoint the length of time and the manner that videos were watched, plotting a strategy of ‘suggested video’ content to foster further viewer engagement within its platform. YouTube spiffed-up its “Views” report data to impress with greater emphasize video time that is watched.
YouTube says its member community can observe, not only the “Estimated minutes watched” under the “Views” report, but they can also select additional data information by clicking a drop-down “Compare metric” menu.
An “Annotations report” in Beta is available to enhance how YouTube content creators’ video annotations perform. “Annotations are one of the most used features to drive audience engagement,” YouTube impresses. The video annotations feature “insights” on content click rates and content close rates.
Sourcing day-by-day video content creation is easier, YouTube says. According to its Analytics up-scales, YouTube has primed its “Date Slider” function for further information retrieval. The function allows YouTube content creators to locate their video content and view data detailing how their videos fared across an extended period or a specific period of time.
A “Metrics” feature shows analyzed data to help content creators sort how their content provision models stack up among other data trends. Data trends guide content creators with information that may be utilized to track spikes in viral themes or lulls in video content views. The Metrics section “provides you with more ways to compare trends and patterns across two different metrics,” YouTube has stated.
The “Metadata section” included in the analytics platform includes video data for immediate access. YouTube channel and YouTube video information may be perused through the metadata “lifetime views” and “video duration” to expand the YouTube data experience.
YouTube members may discover a major perk in the ‘hovercard’ YouTube’s Analytics platform. A “video hovercard” function gives users a thumbnail view of video content. Users can see a basic synopsis of their video by allowing their cursor to ‘hover’ over their video link(s).
By August 2012, YouTube surpassed a benchmark of more than 4 billion hours of video content that was viewed across its social channels. Improvements to the suggested videos section were implemented to complement YouTube’s “video discovery features.” The content viewers watch YouTube sourced with Web searches queued from users’ regular Web activity. “These changes better surface the videos that viewers actually watch,” YouTube remarked, “over those that they click on and then abandon.”
YouTube’s previous content discovery model was utilized to “drive views,” the social network channel stated publicly. Videos that attracted clicks were rewarded in lieu of video content that engaged viewers for greater sections of time. “Cleavage thumbnails, anyone?” YouTube has mused.
Video content that is created to improve viewer interests may not source as thoughtfully designed content, YouTube has realized complementarily. “While high retention on your videos is a good indication of engagement, we are actually optimizing for how a video contributes to a longer viewing session on YouTube. So your video isn’t more likely to be seen just because it’s shorter,” YouTube noted.
YouTube maintains prescient interest in content creators’ vantage points about video discovery and content provision. Creators of quality content are encouraged to visit YouTube and make their requests known about the additional features they would like to see at the official YouTube Partners & Creators Blog.