5 Tips For Increasing Fan Engagement On YouTube

Being able to engage with their fans on YouTube is a significant concern for any artist, and some new analytical data about user's viewing habits has allowed us to offer these five tips on how musicians can use the video sharing platform to better capture their fan's attention.___________________________Guest Post by Bobby Owsinski on Music 3.0Even though Facebook is catching up, YouTube engagement is still a primary concern for every artist. Information is power, and some brand new data about viewership on YouTube help to maximize its usefulness as a promotional tool.For instance, video length is one of the biggest deciding factors for engagement. Videos under one minute are watched to completion 80 percent of the time, while 2 to 3 minute clips have 60 percent retention and 5 to 10 minute videos are only completed 50 percent of the time. That said, the average time a user spends on YouTube has increased, as it’s now up to 39 minutes.Subrat Kar, the founder of the video analytics service Vidooly, has 5 tips for increasing YouTube engagement.1. Focus promotion on mobile viewers. 98% of millennials watch video on their smartphones, and 92% of mobile viewers share videos. 2. Post and share at an appropriate time. The peak time for viewing on the smartphone, tablet or computer is between noon and 5PM.3. Create videos that appeal to audience passions and align with your channel’s brand. 67% of shoppers played a video with the idea of making a purchase and watched it at least 80% through. That means that a video introducing your latest merch or release can be very effective.4. Increase shares and shelf life by embedding videos in emails. There’s a 96% increase in click through rate, 26% fewer people unsubscribe, and 19% more people open when the title contains the word “video.”5. Collaborate with viewers and cultivate community. YouTube provides the option for crowdsources subtitles and closed captions in 60 different languages.Remember that the average watch time for a video is 2.7 minutes. The longer a video drags on, the lower its retention, which is no surprise since the human attention span in 2015 was a mere 8.25 seconds (and 9 seconds for a goldfish).YouTube is still the king of the mountain when it comes to video, so its best to pay attention to the latest statistics.