Take Batman out of Batcave and place him in Chennai to get 19,65,887 views in a week or put out a hilarious three-minute video titled ‘Indian Table Etiquette’ to produce unlimited LOLs on YouTube. Culture Machine, a startup with a network of channels on the Internet, has been creating content for the virtual space since 2013. Sameer Pitalwalla, CEO and co-founder of the company, which recently raised $18 million in a second round of funding, shares with t2 the whats and hows of making a video popular on YouTube. The only thing he holds back? The kind of stories that works. “If we shared our secret sauce then it wouldn’t be that secret anymore. Would it be?” Burp!

The best time and day to post videos?

We need to study the analytics to decide on day and time. Based on past trends in demographic and geographical data we derive the upload day and time. It also depends on content: If it’s movies then Monday to Wednesday early morning is good; if it’s how-to or DIY then Friday/Saturday is a great day. Videos should be uploaded before 5pm or 6pm IST.

Ideal length of a YouTube video?

This is dependent on the content vertical. The best credo to use is “as long as it needs to be”.

How to keep a video on top of the heap?

Through engagement metrics, subscriber feed activity and cross-promotions on latest videos.

How long does a video need to be watched to make it count as a view?

A view is counted whenever someone watches a video on YouTube. After 301 (videos are viewed), the system does an internal review to check if the views are genuine or rigged.

Importance of titles?

Titles help audiences and YouTube’s discovery systems make sense of your content. Title should include relevant keywords that help describe your content. Title is the first place where the searched keyword gets picked by the platform.

Qualities of a good YT video?

Videos should captivate your audience through various strategies. Ask a question, pre-tease the entire video in the first few seconds, build a community, and address the audience and the topic in the initial few seconds of the video.

Is it better to tweet or Facebook a link to a new video?

It’s crucial to always share YouTube videos across various platforms. The idea should be to create as many back-links for the video as possible. This will only benefit the video’s discovery. Cross-pollination of content, in this case video, is more feasible an option on Facebook rather than Twitter. While Facebook is far superior in terms of content discovery and potential reach, Twitter can be a great conversation starter for the same. 

How to circulate news of a new video?

When content is great, the world is your playground. Recognising platforms that are robust power players when it comes to online content discovery is essential. A perfect amalgamation of PR and social signals for your latest video via Facebook, Twitter and other social media platforms... should sum up for a successful video launch.   

Mathures Paul
I love YouTube because.... Tell t2@abp.in