Tag Archives: earthquake magnitude indonesia

Topicality: The Killer Driver of Video Views

Want lots of views on your video? Timing and topicality is important. The reason sxephil and whatthebuck are two of the most-subscribed YouTube amateurs is partially because they vlog about what’s hot. That means the next day, their videos are found when people search YouTube (and even Google, which is rather kind to videos).

The implication to marketers? Be ready to approve a campaign quickly. And for video creators? Stay current, create quickly, and tag your videos with the keywords that are hot. My Superbowl “top 10 commercials of 2009” video is among my most-viewed videos now (2.7 million) in part because I posted it just as the game was starting. That placed it above other videos when people searched, and the result was primarily because of topicality and search. The booby thumbnail didn’t hurt. 

By linking that video to this blog for information about seeing full commercials on various sites, I also helped this blog get a jolt of visitors (even temporarily). That will help WVFF on search engines and Alexa placement. 

So now… how do you keep current? Well you can watch the news, but you’re probably too late by then. So here are two other options. An oldie and a new one:

    • Go to Yahoo Buzz. Yahoo, unlike Google, shows what’s hot. Here are a few hot items, and you can see there’s a delay in this reporting:
      • Chris Brown 
      • California Octuplets 
      • Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue
      • Westminster Dog Show 2009 
      • Jennifer Aniston 
      • Jeremy Lusk 
      • Katherine Heigl 
      • American Idol 
      • Economic Stimulus Package 
      • Biggest Loser
    • Check out Twitscoop for the top searches “real time” on Twitter (a microblogging site for short messages). For instance, as I type, the hot searches are Gmail (apparently it’s buggin’ out, and people hope it’s a sign that a better version will come out). Also at the top: earthquake magnitude indonesia and brett favre retires. 

    Now if you have a big subscriber base on YouTube, your video about any of these will get an immediate lift, and then place highly on the search results. But if you do a smart parody about these topics, it will be found on search results, and also shared among blogs and even media (who are always looking for b-roll to use for these stories).