10 Tips For Building a Loyal Online Video Audience

When you’re just starting out in the world of online video the thought of having to build your audience and attract fans and viewers can be overwhelming. In her latest episode of the New Media Minute, Daisy Whitney introduces ‘Five Best Practices to Building a Loyal Video Audience.’ I’ve paired these five best practices with five tips of my own to bring you a list of ten helpful tips for building your online video audience. In the video below, Daisy Whitney shares five tips from Jay Miletsky, CEO of online network MyPod Studios. Check out the video below then read on for a complete list of Jay’s tips, plus my own. #1: Keep it short Daisy says, "more than half of viewers drop off after the second minute so keep it short and punchy." Online viewers have short attention spans and if they get bored with your video they’ve got loads of other content they can watch so stay short, focused and to the point to keep your viewers around. #2: Episodes should stand alone In the video, Daisy explains that, "While some episodic web shows work well it’s generally best to make videos that don’t require viewers to have watched all the others." #3: Be interesting, educational or informative Provide something more than a quick laugh. When viewers feel like they are actually getting something out of the experience of watching your videos or learning something new and worthwhile, they’ll come back again for more. #4: Don’t neglect lighting and audio Lighting and audio can make or break the success of your video. Good lighting always makes your video look better and if your video is pleasing to the eye it will attract a lot more viewers than if it’s dark, un-white balanced and not that nice to look at. Audio is even more important. If the audio in your video is bad it’s going to be really hard for your viewers to sit through. Investing a little time in your lighting and audio can do wonders. #5: Watch your language Daisy says, "make it easy for networks and sites to promote your video—and that means keep it clean!" #6: Hook your viewers in the first 15 seconds This goes along with Jay Miletsky’s suggestion to keep it short. Just like viewers get bored and click away if your video is too long, they will stop watching if they aren’t interested within the first 15 seconds of so of your video. Hook them right off the bat by telling them what they can expect from sticking around to watch your video. You’ve gotta be compelling if you want to draw an audience. #7: Choose a niche If you want to build a loyal audience online one of the best ways is to focus on a specific niche. If all your content caters to this specific niche then people who are interested in this niche will subscribe and come back to see all of your new content. On the other hand, if one week you’re making a video about vegetarian cooking, the next week you’re doing something on video games and the week after you’re uploading videos of your cat you’re going to have a hard time building an audience that is interested in all your videos. #8: Engage Engage with your viewers—ask them questions and respond to their answers and comments. Doing this makes the viewers feel like they know you and it makes them feel more invested in your content, which will make them more loyal to you and your content. #9: Produce new content regularly It’s hard to build a loyal audience without producing content on a regular basis. Out of sight out of mind. If you are only producing content every few months it gives your audience the time to forget all about you in between. If you post regularly (say, every Thursday) then your fans will get into the habit of coming back to see your new content every week. #10: Promote yourself Finally, you can’t expect people to just discover your videos on their own. If you want to get the views you’ve got to promote yourself. Check out our post on 5 ways to promote your videos across the web. What have you found works for you when it comes to building an online video audience? We’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below. Image credit: Yunaco via Shutterstock Megan O’Neill is the resident web video enthusiast here at Social Times. Megan covers everything from the latest viral videos to online video news and tips, and has a passion for bizarre, original and revolutionary content and ideas.

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10 Tips For Building a Loyal Online Video Audience

In her latest episode of the New Media Minute, Daisy Whitney introduces ‘Five Best Practices to Building a Loyal Video Audience.’ We’ve paired these five best practices with five tips of our own to bring you a list of ten helpful tips for building your online video audience.

Megan O'Neill

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Megan O'Neill