These YouTube tips follow on from our two-part Video Tips series, which included Video tips for NPOs, social impact campaigns & fundraising, highlighting some key things to consider when creating video for campaigns, as well as 5 Fundraising Video tips for NPOs, social impact campaigns & fundraising, which offer some practical ideas that have proven effective in raising funds.
In terms of users and traffic, YouTube is the largest streaming channel on the internet and not only for video, for music too!
This well-known statistic, however, is a double-edged sword because, although YouTube is massive, it can also be a bottomless hole where your amazing content can quite easily disappear amidst the millions of other videos online.
It is therefore advisable to adhere to these YouTube tips to give your content a chance of visibility and your brand or cause a good fist at being seen.
Once again, we’ve chosen to split this blog into two sections as there is quite a lot to cover.
In Part 1 below we cover the basic YouTube tips for setting up your channel.
In Part 2 we will look at some best practices as well as examples of well-run non-profit YouTube channels.
YouTube Tips – Getting Started
- Design and layout
Just like your website or Facebook page, your YouTube channel needs to be both aesthetically appealing and strong on branding.
Make your company avatar/logo your profile picture and use these colours to design your channel. Go to “My Channel > Themes and Colors > Show Advanced Options” to select the colour scheme.
- Description / bio
Include a description for your channel BUT limit this to no more than a single sentence of two. Opt instead to link users to your website rather than include a long bio. In short, keep your profile section simple.
- YouTube Search Engine Optimisation
Use channel tags and think carefully about your video titles.
Go to “My Channel >Settings > Channel Tags” and enter a wide variety of tags that you think potential supporters of your work will search for in YouTube. These should relate to your non-profit and/or social impact campaign, but also be sure not to be too broad. Location, i.e. country, city, region etc. are important to narrow your target market to the most relevant audience.
The same practice should be followed when uploading videos; add as many tags as possible to each video, give a strong but brief description, and, it is vital that the video is well thought out to optimise your YouTube search engine optimisation (SEO).
- Enable channel and video comments
YouTube is as much a platform to view videos (or stream music) as it is a social space with a massive online community.
By enabling comments, you invite viewers to participate and offer feedback. While there are always those trolls that thrive on negative commentary, unless your cause or social impact campaign is highly contentious, you should enjoy some positive interaction which both boosts your cause and improves visibility of your channel.
- Feature your best videos in sidebar
Once you have a collection of video content create a playlist at the top of the left-hand sidebar of your top-viewed videos. When people visit your channel, these videos will get even more views!
- Join YouTube’s Nonprofit Program
YouTube’s Non-profit Program provides any qualified organisation with free premium services, including donate buttons, call-to-action overlays, live-streaming, and goal tracking.
You can check eligibility requirements here.
