YouTube recently launched a brand new tool, YouTube Trends, to help users find videos they enjoy. YouTube Trends goes a step further than the “most viewed” section of YouTube.com by showing users content that is more relevant to them. But I think there is also great value for marketers to use the tool to research what content is popular by location and people.
YouTube Trends has two sections: a blog and an interactive dashboard. While the blog, with its trending videos and topics, may not pick up loyal followers, the dashboard, complete with two tabs – “browse” and “compare” – provides real value to market researchers.
Through the dashboard, a marketer can use the “Browse” tab to see videos that are trending to a target based on age and location. I only see this as value to the marketer as I am not convinced users care to filter out what other locations or demographics are watching.
The “Compare” tab allows marketers to compare and contrast popular videos based on gender and location. Researching what content is popular can also help marketers come up with ideas for new videos concepts .
A feature on The YouTube Trends Blog, called [email protected], entices users to return by reporting four trending videos, twice daily, at 4 a.m. and at 4 p.m.
The blog also includes:
- Trending topics
- Trending videos
- Recent entries
- Categories
- Links to other helpful YouTube areas.
Through the blog categories, YouTube can dominate an area of natural search where they are currently falling behind. For example, the keyword phrase “music videos” (which was searched more than three million times in the U.S. in November 2010) returns results for sites such as MTV.com, Yahoo.com, and Vodpod.com before YouTube.
YouTube’s motivations seem simple: allow users to find better, more relevant videos in order to increase overall video views and, in turn, increase ad revenue. Users’ activities also provide more demographic data for Google to own.
I plan to use this new YouTube capability for more intelligent research for social media strategy. What video statistics do you find useful?