YouTube’s Search feature
Posted on | January 3, 2009 |
As a marketer, I’ve enjoyed using YouTube for not only getting videos out and up fast, but also embedding on brand websites. But, there is always a fly in the ointment when you use free services. One of the newest things bugging me is Google addition of a search bar to embedded videos.
Before the video is played and when it is paused, any mouse hover over the video embed brings up this search function. In the interest of people, this is awesome, allowing them to look for any video on the 2nd-most searched website on the internet, but as a marketer I like to help funnel choices when possible… this makes unlimited choice possible when using YouTube.
What’s the big deal, you might say? Well, I do believe in free choice, especially on the internet. People should follow their natural urges. But a well-designed marketing piece guides people to an option to make a yes/no choice about the offer. Now this puts me in a quandary… Do I use the wonderful and free YouTube, which has keyword and related videos power to also embed my videos? Perhaps lead people to my channel for other related content? AND give them a get-out search bar all the time? Or, do I post on YouTube and NOT embed and go the extra step of posting my own flash video on the brand site?
Now I split it down the middle. Sometimes you are so busy you have to take the path of least resistance. Other times, it is imperative to keep the funnel clean to see how well your content and offer performs.
Additionally, it they leave, it’s a sign of a mismatched audience/visitor, unclear offer or even (gasp!) and unattractive or unappealing offer. Determining which of these it is something that only experience, intimate knowledge of your audience and product and testing will reveal.
Changing gears: One thing I am delighted to see is an upgrade on the YouTube Embed options (click on the little gear icon near embed on the righthand side of any YouTube page):
You can now uncheck “Related Videos” - a major gripe of mine since I started using YouTube to deliver video content on brand sites.
This is what it looks like when it is turned on - when the video is done playing, they come up along the bottom in an Apple-esque side-scroller with reflections along the bottom:
Time to go back and re-embed! Been so busy that I don’t know when they changed this feature, I’ll admit.
You can also choose your embed size from a common list, instead of tweaking the source code. Nifty!
So… as a wrapup, please consider when you are marketing that each tool has its nuances. If it’s free, it may come with strings that give your potential fans/customers a place to get distracted from your message.
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